Dante's Inferno [Xbox 360]

Lord Rigor
1 hour ago
10 min read

Xbox 360 Dante's Inferno - Hellish Difficulty

The Holy Wars of early Human Christendom was a time of unparalleled carnage. By the 11th century, inter-European wars were fundamentally petty and medieval society was hungry for a change. Looking east, a fresh common enemy was identified and the united Crusades began. After a few hundred years of mutual destruction, a wondrous tale of religious absurdity emerged as a literary reflection upon such an incredible loss of life. The Divine Comedy was written in the 14th century and provides a fictional account to the God of Rome's domains.

Nearly half-a-millenia later, the video game Dante's Inferno adapts this story into a hack-and-slash journey through nine circles of ultimate Hell. The protagonist wields incredible powers to absolve or punish the abandoned souls encountered along the way. It is time to delve into the infernal pits of immorality and attempt to impose biased judgement upon the weak.

The Challenge? Complete Hellish Difficulty on Dante's Inferno.

Is this a worthy Challenge? Let's find out.

Gameplay

The hack-and-slash video game genre surged during the first decade of the 21st century, and developers made every attempt to inject this basic style of gameplay into a variety of settings. As a shameless example, button smashing can indeed be experienced in many forms such as those within The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest on King Difficulty.

Much more thoughtfully, Dante's Inferno on the Xbox 360 mobilizes the ancient literature of The Divine Comedy into pure digital action. Dante, of the non-fictional Knights Templar Catholic military order, raises Hell in Hell. The souls of the damned are slain by the thousandfold.

Throughout the perilous journey, Dante regularly encounters foul demigods shepherding the masses of wailing souls. For example, Minōs, the Greek son of Zeus is witnessed as follows according to the ancient Divine Comedy text:

The damned keep crowding in front of him: they pass along to judgement one by one; they speak, they hear, and then are hurled below. "O you who come to the place where pain is host," Minōs spoke out when he caught sight of me, putting aside the duties of his office. The Divine Comedy - Volume I: Inferno Canto V: Lines 12-18 (Dante p. 110)

Transforming literature such as this into a playable video game is an impressive human accomplishment. In Dante's Inferno, these encounters are engaging especially when squaring off in one-on-one combat with the likes of Minōs. Boss battles are fairly linear yet keeps Dante on red alert. For, when the moment presents itself, swift button sequences appear on the screen in order to execute superb counterattacks. A select few of Hell's unholy leaders cannot withstand the might of an overzealous Knights Templar.

The common Guardian Demons, which are considered lowest on Hell's leadership roster, can obliterate Dante in a single strike on Hellish Difficulty. Straightforward to avoid, until the flood gates of Hell fully open ajar. The introduction of multiple enemies immediately escalates the Difficulty of Dante's Inferno because multitasking and spacial awareness become critical to survive. Add a few minor Minions or Pests to the battle scene, and an unforeseen haymaker from a Guardian Demon will bring any momentum to a halt.

Often, clearing out the killing grounds is tougher than actual boss fights. The actual hacking-and-slashing of Dante's massive scythe is naturally reserved for these repetitive occasions. The most common combatants generally include sword-wielding human creatures that have been scorched beyond identification. Nameless, grotesque, and acceptably angry, these hordes of Minions must be cleaved through en masse. Damned souls like these are subsequently collected and directly utilized to improve Dante's skills progression.

Dante's Inferno on the Xbox 360 uniquely incorporated a binary experience system to manage the intake of countless recently departed souls. According to the manual:

Upgrades are broken into two sections, one Holy and the other Unholy. The number of upgrades that Dante can purchase is dependent on his Unholy or Unholy level. Gaining Holy Righteousness unlocks more Holy upgrades, whereas Unholy Righteousness unlocks more Unholy upgrades. (Visceral Games p. 8)

As soon as Dante enters Hell, judgmental moral choices are presented: absolve or punish the sinner? Upgrades to Dante's magical abilities are based on this important question. Although it is tempting to spend ones collected souls on a singular moral path, it is wise to consider both. This design approach is genuinely creative considering the innate limitations of only a few opposable thumbs and a half-dozen buttons. Careful balancing is necessary when allocating souls of the damned.

As is His nature, the heathen warrior within Lord Rigor demands simplicity. Much like His approach to Arx Fatalis on Normal Difficulty, complex and forgettable button combinations aren't utilized. Instead, baseline character improvements such as increased strength or health are instead prioritized. Because, with stalwart baseline attributes, survival is more likely than if an intricate button attack pattern isn't executed correctly.

Alas, as Hell is descended, Difficulty ascends. The developer, Visceral Games, succeeded in making Hellish Difficulty tough enough that effective soul upgrades are required. Or else, one is shamefully presented with a bleak offering to lower the Difficulty after enough Game Overs...

Hellish Difficulty

Whether Hell sends forth a peon sword-wielder or a stout horned-demon, each pose equal threat on Hellish Difficulty. From the outset of Dante's Inferno on the Xbox 360, it becomes understood that thinking ahead of imminent waves of enemies is fundamental to battle success. Plan accordingly.

Whilst slaying many enemies, Dante's health whittles away from sporadic sword jabs or fireballs during the chaos. Health is absorbed from fallen enemies yet is too meager. There aren't potions in Dante's Inferno and green health fountains offer brief reprieve. Fountains however must be opportunely timed since Dante is vulnerable while attempting to refresh; the epitome button smashing at the risk of death.

Death is frequent on Hellish Difficulty and Visceral Games graciously offers an outlet to fatigued: after three Game Overs in a row at the same checkpoint, health is fully restored. An acceptable alternative to switching the Difficulty entirely. Go forth and try again at full strength!

The more explorative aspects of Dante's Inferno are nevertheless Challenging yet remain enjoyable. For example, clearing a blazing corridor of fierce demons in order to solve a puzzle or obtain a useful item is a rewarding trial of events. There is a direct correlative balance that is necessary between the amount of dying, the time since the last checkpoint, and the reward obtained. The feeling of progress is critical and obtaining new relics of weapons or armor is one method to do so.

Of all digital Challenges to test one's mettle against, attempting to conquer Hell itself should of course rank high in its pain. Yet, in Dante's Inferno, the Trial-and-Error demanded of the player is unbalanced due to prolonged periods of inconsistent checkpoints. Few Game Overs are more disappointing than those experienced after overcoming a recent obstacle on a Hard Mode.

The unsuspecting battle upon the River Acheron is particularly demotivating on Dante's Inferno. Only a few scenes prior at this early point of the game, the player is still learning certain mechanics of such as object manipulation to access special items or fountains. Charon's desolate boat may very well already be many a player's resting place on Hellish Difficulty. Followers of the True Cross will find no solace on these flaming shores.

The [Hellish] River Acheron

Dante the Pilgrim is on a voyage from the blessed land of the living to the decrepit land of the dead. Remaining in the liminality of the dark forest near the base of Mount Purgatory would have been wise!

He scales a writhing wall of festering human souls and emerges upon the slick foredeck of a massive seafaring vessel. The hatch locks behind him and the ferryman's infernal office is witnessed:

Then all together, weeping bitterly, they packed themselves along the wicked shore that waits for every man who fears not God. The devil, Charon, with eyes of glowing coals, summons them all together with a signal, and with an oar he strikes the laggard sinner. The Divine Comedy - Volume I: Inferno Canto V: Lines 12-18 (Dante p. 92)

Charon diverts his wicked attention and Challenges Dante against Hell's hoards. A menacing set of three Guardian Demons and an additional three Minions immediately charge forth.

Like the wax and wane of the black waters lapping on Charon's boat, Dante's enemies continually rally forth in waves. The humanesque Minions spawn repeatedly despite Dante's merciless executions. He no longer reflects upon how best to inherit their feeble souls. He instead Absolves or Punishes the Minions based on precisely timed collateral damage to the ravenous Guardian Demons; his primary targets. Yet, each unholy wave also contains three flying Pests to keep Dante's attention away from those horned abominations. He swiftly destroys the Minions and Pests to strike out at any Guardian Demon within reach.

Uncoincidentally, Hell's armies emerge in sets of three on the River Acheron. Numerically half of six, the Mark of the Beast, these groups figuratively and literally embody hellfire in every manner.

Dante epitomizes endurance, crushing a dozen Minions and Pests to finally get His bloodstained hands upon the back of the weakest of the three juggernauts. Two of the Guardian Demons learn the concept of fear as their comrade is decapitated by Dante's scythe pulled upward through the jugular. A diabolical team that's eventually eliminated systematically.

A brief moment to breath and then, the Asterian Beast... a colossal creature that needs no unholy numerical empowerment.

"Tamed long ago by the Fallen," a final Guardian Demon is stationed atop the monstrosity much like the dreaded Mûmakil that are Challenged on Hard Difficulty in the Lord of the Rings: the Third Age.

From the deeps, the abomination joins this bleak voyage. The Asterian Beast straightens upright upon its hindlegs and releases an infernal roar! Dante swiftly dashes to the side of the ship as the beast's pelted forelegs smash down upon the deck in a mighty overhead swings. Minions are flattened like fodder while Dante finds his scythe's first opening move. The rumbling of the deck briefly subsides and he regains his footing enough to slice at the ankles of the recovering demigod.

Immense globules of black blood spatters, yet are mere flesh wounds. The relentless pummeling continues unhindered. Dante weaves between yet more spawning Minions to get behind the Asterian Beast and hack-and-slash with the holiest energy of a noble Knight Templar. The boss's battle pattern is taking form and there will soon be a moment to fully strike out once it is weaker and off balanced. Dante clears the field once again and dives past another seismic pounding to reach the Asterian Beast's backside.

Bellowing in defiance to the dozen scythe slices through its bleeding calves, the instinctive Asterian Beast suddenly rotates its massive form around and down upon Dante. In a single strike, crushed beyond dust...

Game Over. The term second death is defined as "the death of the soul, when the soul is damned," (Dante p. 76), of which Dante has now succumbed. Here, upon Charon's blood soaked ship, Dante shall remain. Never to return to the forest nor reach Mount Purgatory, this is his own personal Hellish Difficulty banishment. Instead, he will continue to fight upon this very deck. He may slay hundreds or even thousands of Minions, Pests, and Guardian Demons.

But, the infamous Asterian Beast of the River Acheron shall keep "ensuring everlasting pain and suffering throughout the Inferno," and Dante will continue his pitiful march towards his third, fourth, and eternal death in Hell.

Alas, it is perhaps for the best that Lord Rigor's failure ends here. Even if the River Acheron is somehow conquered on Hellish Difficulty, Cleopatra's tower would merely be the next location to painstakingly and repeatedly die within. Any remaining Rigorous willpower would surely be extinguished there in Hell's second circle of the lustful. Those female temptresses are far too perverse to endlessly participate death cycles through. Simply unworthy, and highlights the lack of replayability of Dante's Inferno.

Infernal Difficulty

Unlocking additional Difficulties is a disappointing logistic that is surprisingly prevalent in hack-and-slash games. Due to the nature of this action genre, default Hard Modes like Hellish Difficulty in Dante's Inferno is already extremely Challenging. Attempting to unlock Infernal Difficulty is a secret best kept forgotten, primarily due to consistently unfair checkpoints. This hidden Difficulty is actually unmentioned across any of the game's media including the manual, and is only known by players that utilize the global computer network.

In direct contrast, consider the fourth most Difficulty of God Mode in God of War that must be unlocked. The third most Difficult, Spartan Mode, must be completed first and players are directly informed so:

Moreover, on page thirty seven of the game's manual, there's dedicated overviews on the three secret treasures to gain for beating God Mode. Highly noteworthy, the God of War manual on the PS2 also features an extraordinary amount of information about the multifaceted mythos of the game. From maps, to beasts, to people, to gods, the forty nine page manual is intentional immersion at its finest:

Works of art such as this are reflective of pre-internet video games from the first decade of the 21st century. Because, when similar games like Dante's Inferno were released on the Xbox 360 a mere five years later, physical media appears to be more of a developer's begrudging duty. It is self-explanatory that the manual for Dante's Inferno is only thirteen pages in length. Despite being cut from the same mythological cloth as God of War.

A weak outline of seemingly random "lost souls" is the only somewhat thoughtful creative output. From a technical computing standpoint, the manual for Dante's Inferno on the Xbox 360 is of low resolution quality, due to its minimal imagery and simple black and white coloring. As a final comparison, God of War's manual is quadruple in hard drive disk space under three hundred dots per inch scanned resolution. Again, a weak offering by Visceral Games without any mentioning of Difficulties let alone Infernal Difficulty.

Conclusion

Is this a worthy Challenge? No.

Video games are for immersion and, perhaps, escapism. For milleniums before the digitization of adventures though, literature provided provided such an outlet. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri has withstood the test of time and has managed to captivate believers and pagans alike for a many hundreds of years. This grand tale addresses the innate roots of sinful human nature whilst encompassing a vast array of classical antiquities.

The ambitions of Visceral Studios are admirable. Of course, fighting through the intricate layers of Hell should absolutely not be an easy task. The stakes were thus high to meet the glorious grandeur of the Divine Comedy literature in a Difficult setting. Unfortunately, even a relatively brief foray into Hellish Difficulty will result in failure due to fundamental checkpoint design.

Even in Hell, where death is wholly eternal, the Challenge to persevere is unworthy and the subsequent failure unjust. Now, one may look back on the introductory stages of Dante's Inferno Hellish Difficulty and reflect upon its profound similarity to the start of the Divine Comedy itself. For, the long route through Hell was indeed the only alternative for the Pilgrim, because the standard path to salvation was blocked. Only through a Difficult Crusade such as this may the player perhaps empathize from those relevant lines from the very first Canto of the Divine Comedy:

Just as a swimmer, still with panting breath, now safe upon the shore, out of the deep, might turn for one last look at the dangerous waters, so, I, although my mind was turned to flee turned round to gaze once more upon the pass that never let a living soul escape. The Divine Comedy - Volume I: Inferno Canto I: Lines 22-27 (Dante p. 68)