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Dante’s Inferno Review: I Went To Hell And It Was Fun
The creative minds behind arguably one of the best horror games of this console generation have decided to escape the black void of deep space in favor of a trip to Hell. Dante’s Inferno follows Dante on a mission to save his wife from the confines of Hell as described by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem, Inferno.
This is a man who truly defines being fearless as he traverses the nine rings of Hell filled with the multitudes of wicked creatures and diabolical traps. The game is loosely based off the fourteenth century epic poem, the inspirations from which can be seen everywhere. Is this a game worth going to Hell and back for? You’ll have to continue reading to find out; or you could just scroll down to the score but every time you do that an unbaptized baby gets decapitated, and you don’t want that, do you? Let me get something out there right away, because this bothered me a lot. The most surprising thing about this game is just how uninspired and repetitive the gameplay is. These are the guys that did Dead Space? Seriously? The minds behind Strategic Dismemberment and Zero-G Combat? Then why is the combat in this game so shallow and, more importantly, why is this game essentially arena after arena?
You get one main weapon that tends to all your up close and personal needs, a cross that’s great for giving you some breathing room, and an assortment of spells. That’s it. Other games in this genre load you up with a usually impressive arsenal of unique weaponry and gadgets but here you will use the same two weapons over the entire course of the game. I would’ve liked to see a little more variety in the actual gameplay, which boils down to puzzle, platforming, arena, and repeat while sprinkling in a few boss fights. That’s just not enough to sustain a player’s attention over the course of the game.
Now, that’s not to say the weapons you do have at your disposal aren’t satisfying, because they are, immensely. The scythe is quick and deadly and is surprisingly versatile whether you’re looking for light or strong attacks. The cross is a much better weapon than I thought it’d be, and came in handy when I needed some enemies to back the fuck off. Both of these can be upgraded by punishing or absolving enemies, which nets you good or bad points that upgrade either the scythe or the cross. You can also invest souls (the currency of the genre it seems as God of War, Darksiders, and now this game all use the same thing) into upgrading your maximum health and mana, unlocking new moves, and make you more of a complete badass. When those two weapons get boring, the spells you acquire as you progress through Hell are exceptionally fun to use.
To break up the puzzle, platforming, arena, boss fight formula they threw in some sections where you control a giant demon and wreak havoc on Hell and its minions. These moments were quite fun and I would’ve liked to see more of them. You could also say they broke up the repetition by giving you a very interesting world to explore, a world filled with hidden items and people to either punish or absolve. This definitely helps keep the game from getting annoyingly repetitious and it also gives you another reason to return to the game for another play through.
Now I’m going to say something that a large majority of you will disagree with me on. In my opinion (as is everything in this review), Dante’s Inferno has way too many boobs. It actually has an excess of boobage. I know by saying this I probably just helped EA sell a few more copies, but I’m pretty sure by the end of the game I had actually overdosed on breasts. I understand the need to break the mold and prove your game has balls (and the final boss fight with the well endowed Lucifer proves this) but playing through the game felt like I was in some 13 year-old boy’s wet dream.
In case you weren’t aware, Dante’s Inferno looks great. Hell is both frightening and wondrous to behold as I observed walls of corpses, giant statues of heads vomiting rivers of even more corpses, corpses on pikes, flaming corpses falling from the sky, and most of that can be found in the first level. If this game does anything right it would be boobs and corpses (oh, look at that, I just sold a few more copies).
The cinematics in particular, are stunning, and look like they came from a top tier animation studio. At first I wasn’t sure if the cartoony animation style (‘cartoony’ probably isn’t the best way to describe them but I can’t think of a better word) worked with the gruesome personality of the game. But by the time I had finished I didn’t care whether they worked with the game’s look and feel because they’re just so well done and fun to watch that it really doesn’t matter.
Dante manages to separate itself from other games in its genre an admittedly smaller but no less welcome way of handing out achievements fairly regularly. You can play through similar games like Bayonetta and Devil May Cry twice and still not have even half of the achievements, so it was nice to be rewarded more often.
While you’re playing this game you will undoubtedly notice that Dante’s Inferno suffers from a ton of poor design decisions that most games this generation just shouldn’t have. I don’t think, in 2010, that I should still have to talk about the inability to skip cinematics, because that’s Game Design 101. If you die after a cut scene you have to watch it over again, if you want to play through the game another time you have to watch all of them again, it’s ridiculous.
There’s also the problem that I completed the game, on Normal, in under six hours, placing it below the average game’s single player campaign length and well below the expected length for a single player only game (until the St. Lucia DLC comes out).
The next two problems go hand in hand: the static camera and tons of instant deaths as one tends to fuel the other. There are a myriad ways to die quickly and, most of the time, unexpectedly. I don’t think an actual enemy ever killed me; instead all my deaths can be tallied up to environmental traps and the damn frustrating camera. One of this game’s strongest features is its world, a world that’s been beautifully and lovingly crafted by some seriously tormented individuals. Unfortunately, I can’t see any of it because I have absolutely no control over the camera. This begs the question: why would you spend so much time in creating such an amazing world and not let me look around and enjoy it?
Visceral Games has once again proved themselves the masters of all things grotesque and disturbing but the final product is a disappointment when compared to their past work. The world they’ve created it truly frightening and every minute of the game will introduce to you more unsettling insights into the creative minds behind the game. It’s obvious Visceral Games played it a little safer after the lower than expected sales of Dead Space, otherwise we probably would’ve seen more innovation in this game. My problems with Dante’s Inferno are mostly made up of poor design decisions because everything else is very well done, so if you’re looking for a game that is sometimes unforgiving, always interesting, and more than a little disturbing, Dante’s Inferno is all that and more.
Final Score: 4/5 Skulls
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Terrifier 3’: Filming Has Wrapped on Damien Leone’s Christmas Slasher Sequel!
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