Metascore
73 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 71 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 71
  2. Negative: 1 out of 71
  1. It's about eight to ten hours of pure, fast-paced action no one should look down on, unless you're just not a fan of the genre. With such an appealing story and addictive gameplay, Dante's Inferno's only sin seems to be its shameless similarity to Sony's celebrated franchise.
  2. You're not going to find a wholly original gameplay experience with Dante's Inferno, but that doesn't mean it's not a hell of an entertaining package -- it's one that fans of action shouldn't miss.
  3. Dante's Inferno is not an innovator of the action genre, but a game that can entertain until the end credits. The gameplay is solid and the great design is an added value, able alone to raise the level of the production. Ultimately a title not brilliant as Bayonetta, but perfect to be played waiting for the upcoming king Kratos.
  4. Dante's Inferno is a captivating fight through Hell that any action gamer should partake in. Highly recommended.
  5. If you are looking for a mature title that features some of the best action-adventure gameplay on Microsoft's system look no further than Dante's Inferno.
  6. Dante's Inferno has taken a bit of flak from the gaming community for borrowing a lot (and I do mean a lot) of gameplay elements from God of War. But when it's all said and done, Dante's Inferno is a fun experience.
  7. Playstation gamers will probably turn their noses up at this whilst Xbox followers finally get a chance to play a game like God of War.
  8. Dante's Inferno is entertaining and a good variant to the usual Xbox 360 line-up. Great storytelling, very solid graphics and an atmospheric soundtrack make it worth the purchase: only its low longevity and the too repetitive combat system keep down our rating of the game.
  9. 84
    Dante's Inferno borrows quite some gameplay from other successful franchises, but that doesn't mean that this game knows exactly how to weave them into a fun and interesting game. The fights are fun and bloody, the enemies and surroundings offer enough variety and its gruesome atmosphere fits the game perfectly. Whoever is looking for a fun action game and doesn't care about a pint of blood more or less, will want to take a look at Dante's Inferno.
  10. We've gone to Hell and returned, and although we couldn't help having the feeling of being constantly watched by Kratos lurking somewhere in the shadows, we think that Dante's Inferno is a game to play… from top to bottom.
  11. 82
    Dante's Inferno offers an unique experience with an excellent story. It's too bad the gameplay and graphics can't reach that level. But it remains a game you should definitely consider.
  12. Dante's Inferno has a unique style, is a cracking journey and you're likely to feel slightly rocked by the end. It's not quite divine, but it's an experience you're sure to enjoy.
  13. With some impressive combat mechanics, an excellent game world, some of the most disturbing enemies ever seen and tight production values, Dante's Inferno delivers the goods.
  14. Starts off brilliantly but, like a loose thread, it begins to slowly unravel until you're left with just another God Of War clone. [Issue #56, p.78]
  15. Obviously, critics will obsessively compare Dante's Inferno to other games, or complain about the quick time events, but don't let those nitpicky issues prevent you from experiencing this imaginative and fun adventure. It's one Hell of a good time.
  16. Dante's Inferno mimics the formula established by the God of War series, and for the most part it works great. The first half of the game is a bit underwhelming and the plot is weak in delivery and execution, but the overall experience is salvaged by the fact that Visceral has implemented a great system for character development that offers a great variety in combat strategy.
  17. Decent clone of God of War but barely any innovations.
  18. Dante's Inferno is a well refined game with all the credentials to keep the fans of this genre stuck in front of the television until the final confrontation with Lucifer. The not always perfect positioning of the camera and the poor length of the experience prevent the final mark to go higher than this.
  19. A brutally entertaining interpretation of the classic poem with some really inspired backdrops. We don't care who they stole the basic concept from.
  20. All in all, I would definitely recommend Dante's Inferno to anyone that is a fan of hack and slash type games.
  21. In basics Dante's Inferno might only be a standard run, but it has its own unique challenges and dynamic atmosphere to keep you interested until the final confrontation at Lake Coeytus.
  22. Takes Dante's Divine Comedy and turns it into a bloody God of War -wannabe action romp with ridiculously overdone "adult" themes. Despite its unintentional humour value, the game itself is smooth and entertaining enough, if a bit on the short side. [Mar 2010]
  23. There is no doubting that Dante's Inferno owes a lot of what it does right to a certain other franchise, but honestly who cares? The game is an action thrill-ride that will entertain anyone who enjoys action games at all.
  24. Fans of the genre should absolutely experience Dante's Inferno, at least through the first seven circles of Hell.
  25. The accomplished combat and surprisingly decent adaptation of the story make Dante's Inferno a fine diversion while you wait for the next button-masher... One based in a different set of mythology.
  26. Dante's Inferno feels a lot like God of War, but in the end it is a great game to play!
  27. If you like this type of games you won't be disappointed, but the genre is crowded enough and you should consider it depending on your budget.
  28. Dante's Inferno is undoubtedly just another action game that doesn't stand out among its peers. While short, every minute of it is enjoyable and challenging, and it succeeds in being a quality addition to the long list of western style action games.
  29. 78
    It's clear this is Visceral's first jab at the genre, though, and with a bit more confidence (or time and money, perhaps) they could have definitely made more of their excellent core mechanics and the well-implemented license. It might be an unashamed God of War clone, but there are certainly worse games to try and imitate.
  30. While the level designs deserve plenty of praise for creatively exhibiting the Nine Circles of Hell, Dante's Inferno really has nothing else to offer itself other than its obvious comparison to God of War.
  31. This is a good game, make no mistake about it, but it suffers from being far too short and easy. After one playthrough you will have seen everything the game has to offer barring the arena mode, which itself, only lasts about an hour once you are leveled up to the max.
  32. 75
    Dante's Inferno takes a bold, visually impressive take on a literary classic and adds in an intriguing action focus to create a different kind of action title. Unfortunately, some derivative combat sequences and a shallow combo system prevent the title from becoming a truly great experience.
  33. Packs each and every turn with extreme imagery and wickedly macabre imagination. [Apr 2010, p.82]
  34. If you can get this game on the cheap or rental you'd be damned not to check this game out - even if it is for stunning CGI sequences, epic bosses, the odd boob shot and the brainless bashing of the undead.
  35. Dante's Inferno doesn't play the same league as Visceral Games first gem, Dead Space, but it's a nice old school Hack and Slash. The game works like an interactive compilation of God of War mechanics, but at the same time Hack and Slash action fans should ignore its references and enjoy it for what it is: A good action game.
  36. All in all, it was a fun trip though hell, even with one circle being lackluster and the game feeling rather short, I still have no issues or moral objections to recommending Dante's Inferno for fans of this genre.
  37. It's not the poem in game form by any stretch – but it is a gorgeous action game – one of the best looking games you are likely to play and if you're a 360 gamer who has never experienced a God of War game then it's actually a fairly easy sell. However, those who know Kratos will quickly realize this is mere imitation.
  38. Much like how Saints Row is a damn good GTA clone, Dante's Inferno is the best God of War clone yet that should be enjoyed be all.
  39. A solid romp, but Dante's Inferno fails to live up to its promise as EA's Next Big Thing. [Apr 2010, p.87]
  40. If you can look past the fact that Dante's Inferno is a very loose adaptation of the classic poem, the game offers eight to ten hours of fun occasionally interrupted by unnecessary annoyances.
  41. As they demonstrated with Dead Space, Visceral Games is capable of more than what they have done with this game.
  42. Visceral Games has lavished Dante's Inferno with polish and atmosphere. [Issue#93, p.110]
  43. Dante's Inferno starts off big, consistently introducing new enemy types and grand environments, but by the end of the game that initial excitement turns to repetition as you fight through wave after wave of the same enemy type in increasingly familiar territory.
  44. Despite its refusal to innovate, its blatant copying from the God of War rulebook, and its missed opportunities, Dante's Inferno is nonetheless a solid title. At the very least, it's an engaging prospect for Xbox loyalists who've never played a God of War game. However, with the likes of Darksiders and Bayonetta on the market (as well as God of War III in our sights), Dante's Inferno is the weakest proposition of the bunch.
  45. The game starts out with a bang, with vision and a challenge, and then becomes more of the same, over and over. The bosses get tougher, the objectives are more defined, but aside from going back and trying again at a tougher difficulty level, once through the game, there is not much reason to go back.
  46. Dante's Inferno features some interesting aspects (like its combat), but early innovation loses out to repetition. The game's biggest strength – Visceral's recreation of hell – wanes during the second half. Some entertaining unlockable content adds to the replayability, but for most gamers, Inferno doesn't have enough new ideas to warrant a return trip through hell.
  47. Dante's Inferno is a decent action hack and slasher, that is ultimately let down by a lack of vision with its gameplay
  48. Dante's Inferno could have offered more. It's heavily influenced by God Of War, but never seeks to do anything to differentiate itself from its influence beyond a superficial weapon development tree that has ultimately no impact on the game or the story.
  49. Dante's Inferno would be a much better game if it had spent a bit more time in development. The last half of the game isn't very imaginative, the final two levels are just terrible, enemies are reused far too often and it really feels like there should have been two endings (one for each alignment).
  50. 70
    Ultimately, our issue is simple - if you're going to shamelessly riff on a formula popularised and pretty much perfected by another massive game title - yes, God of War in this instance - you better be damn sure you do it better. And, sadly, aside from its excellent combat system, Dante's Inferno misses the mark in almost every way.
  51. Overall Dante's Inferno is a pretty fun game. There is nothing really great about it, however, I enjoyed my time with the title.
  52. 70
    Despite its flaws, Dante's Inferno is definitely worth checking out, if only because it presents a unique visual take on one of literature's greatest works. It's occasionally shocking and often annoyingly repetitive, but the action is good enough to keep you engaged through what is a thought-provoking experiment in converting classic literature to a game.
  53. While it goes through many of the same motions perfected by the best games in its genre, Dante's Inferno never reaches their lofty heights.
  54. It locks you into a gameplay hell of sorts, giving you a devil of a time just to try and survive, though rarely making you feel like the reward is worth the incredible effort. Instead of bringing the poem to life, the gamemakers slammed the book on your fingers.
  55. I'd recommend renting the game, playing for a few hours until you compete the Gluttony circle, and then turning it in at that point since you'll have experience the best the game has to offer by then, Going any further should be left to masochists, gluttons for punishment, and game reviewers.
  56. Dante's epic quest loses momentum long before you reach the end.
  57. All in all Dante's Inferno slowly falls into dangerous territory – it goes from being an excellent hack and slash into a mediocre hack and slash far too quickly, and when it's not being repetitive it's being relatively annoying.
  58. As it is, we have a solid and very playable game which will no doubt entertain genre fans, but never dares to do much more than parrot good ideas that came before in a slightly grosser way. It's hard to dislike, but for the same reasons hard to love, too.
  59. Each of Hell's nine circles are realised with care and character, but without innovative gameplay and with some downright outmoded game mechanics, there's not quite enough here to distinguish Dante's Inferno from the raft of action adventure titles available to gamers today.
  60. From an entirely creative perspective, I'd recommend this just to see the interpretation of Hell, because the locations are often brilliant. Beyond that, there's not much else here to go on, or to provide any enjoyment after the seven hours of play it takes to get through it.
  61. The fatal flaws of Dante's Inferno are not even its dated graphics or depressing lack of originality. It's monotony and endless repetition that will drive you nuts.
  62. Dante's Inferno is worth considering if you're a diehard hack-and-slasher fan who loves blood, gore, fire, brimstone, layered but simplistic combat systems and tits. This is more than one big lava level and it's not a terrible game. It's just not an original one, and it's arrived a little too late.
  63. Dante's Inferno copies God of War in every way possible, except the part that makes God of War really good: the epic scale, the fantastic build-up and original puzzles. These elements are simply lacking in Dante's Inferno, and what remains is a brown version of the game that it was inspired by. EA could have done better with the source material.
  64. You can see glimpses of what could have been, but it is spoilt by some bad choices and a sloppy ending.
  65. Dante's Inferno is a game of contradictions. It's based on a literary epic but appeals to the most common denominator. It's rammed full of sex, violence and depravity but sets a record as being the one of the first video game I've played where this feels completely tacked on. It's just masking third-rate gameplay and a soulless experience.
  66. So while it's hard to fault the efficiency of Visceral's final product – all carping aside, the controversial license has at least been handled with a certain care given that this is a videogame and not an academic study – Dante's Inferno is too familiar, too regressive and too content to do the necessary minimum to recommend wholeheartedly
  67. The game's rivers of blood, corpse-piles, and wailing souls make for a morbid, depression-inducing milieu. It's a relief to be shut out of the place once the final credits roll.
  68. Another major annoyance is the save system. You can only save at designated statues, and there are only two or three per level.
  69. 58
    The game is filled with lots of good and well-executed ideas, but they all seem to exist independently of one another. It's a popcorn movie that clearly took a good deal of talent to pull together, but comes up short of creating the grand adventure that it seems to be trying for.
  70. The works of both Dante Alighieri and David Jaffe are defiled in this shallow and puerile actioner.
  71. Imitation is an open invitation for comparison, and while it's mostly competent from a technical perspective, it's all very rote.
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User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 134 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 30
  2. Negative: 2 out of 30
  1. AlJ
    9
    This is a beautifull game with fantastic controls and graphics. Lot's of people compare this to God of War, but I don't look at it like that (And unlike GOW 1&2, I actually will bother beating Dantes Inferno!) If you have any interest in the Divine Comedy (On which this game is loosely based) your gonna be in for a treat. One of the best $60 purchases I've made in awhile! Full Review »
  2. This game is a hell of a lot of fun (pun fully intended). Yes the combat and style is nearly identical to God of War, but if you're a God of War fan, how is that a bad thing? There are things that Dante's Inferno actually do better than GOW too, like provide some direction as to your next move. Perhaps it was because the old PS2 games didn't have the resolution to clearly make climbable walls obvious, maybe I just suck at GOW, but it used to be very frustrating being stuck on a part of the game, because the answer to the puzzle was a small detail that the game did not make very clear. This is solved in Dante's Inferno. It's not game of the year, but it is a ton of fun, and very loosely based on the fabulous poem by Dante. Strongly recommended rental, recommended buy. Full Review »
  3. Absolutely excellent game! Yes, it is very similar to God of War, so if you've had enough of it then avoid this. If you're looking for more GOW style fun or don't have a PS3 like me, then this is the GOW equivalent for the XBOX. Full Review »