Billy_Chowder
Bio
I like my women the way I like my Chowder.
Cold and slimy.
I like my women the way I like my Chowder.
Cold and slimy.
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1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
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Total Games Played
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Played in 2024
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Really great game.
My only negatives are really just that some of the Run'N'Gun stages are a bit basic and don't have much to them. I guess I could complain about how many times I had to fight some of these bosses, but that's kinda the point.
The controls are tight, the animation and art-direction are phenomenal, music is really good. The loop is satisfying as you are continually rewarded with new abilities as you progress which gives you chances to experiment with what abilities will work best for you.
This game deserves the praise it gets.
10/10
My only negatives are really just that some of the Run'N'Gun stages are a bit basic and don't have much to them. I guess I could complain about how many times I had to fight some of these bosses, but that's kinda the point.
The controls are tight, the animation and art-direction are phenomenal, music is really good. The loop is satisfying as you are continually rewarded with new abilities as you progress which gives you chances to experiment with what abilities will work best for you.
This game deserves the praise it gets.
10/10
This review contains spoilers
This is a very influential game and I can see how this would have been nuts to play back in the day. Unfortunately, some of its design decisions are pretty dated and makes parts of the game pretty annoying to play.
The controls are a little awkward. You can acclimate to them, but there is a learning curve. The camera is a pretty big issue; you just can't see that much around you from the default position. I think they realized this, which is why they have the radar which helps you identify enemy locations and sight-lines easily. While this does work, that just means you are spending most of your time looking at the radar instead of the rest of the screen which I don't think was the intended outcome from the devs.
The shooting and combat is pretty clunky. I died multiple times when you and Meryl have to hold off the waves of soldiers at the beginning of the game. If you've been playing stealthy like the game intends you to, this is your first real heavy combat sequence and you are likely not going to be used to lining up your shots. You aren't given much time and it's very easy to just get blown away by the troops that run in while you try to get your aim right.
The final boss fights were pretty frustrating. The Rex fight in particular was annoying due to how the homing missiles reacted to you. The ideal strategy (that I'm aware of) was to use chaffs to scramble the missiles so you could try to get shots in on Rex. The issue is in the timing; you would assume that so long as chaff was active when the missiles launched, you would be safe from their homing. This is not the case; the homing effect will become active mid-flight if the chaff affect ends. So you can have chaff active, missiles launch, you start lining up your shot, chaff affect ends, missiles will now begin locking-on to you. This was a real pain considering the way you change weapons is pretty slow and it just made the fight a pain to get through.
All that said, there was still fun had throughout. The game is kinda like a metroidvania in that you unlock new gear and gadgets which creates new areas and pathways from previous parts of the game open to you. You also get that satisfying feeling of slowly getting a mental map of the entire base as you progress; by the end, you know where everything is like the back of your hand.
The story and themes are interesting and the VA performances are still pretty good even by modern standards. Some of the deliveries and dialogue is clunky or over-the-top, but the actors were nailing the performances more often than not.
A worthwhile game to play if you are interested in game-history, but be prepared for some growing pains.
7/10
The controls are a little awkward. You can acclimate to them, but there is a learning curve. The camera is a pretty big issue; you just can't see that much around you from the default position. I think they realized this, which is why they have the radar which helps you identify enemy locations and sight-lines easily. While this does work, that just means you are spending most of your time looking at the radar instead of the rest of the screen which I don't think was the intended outcome from the devs.
The shooting and combat is pretty clunky. I died multiple times when you and Meryl have to hold off the waves of soldiers at the beginning of the game. If you've been playing stealthy like the game intends you to, this is your first real heavy combat sequence and you are likely not going to be used to lining up your shots. You aren't given much time and it's very easy to just get blown away by the troops that run in while you try to get your aim right.
The final boss fights were pretty frustrating. The Rex fight in particular was annoying due to how the homing missiles reacted to you. The ideal strategy (that I'm aware of) was to use chaffs to scramble the missiles so you could try to get shots in on Rex. The issue is in the timing; you would assume that so long as chaff was active when the missiles launched, you would be safe from their homing. This is not the case; the homing effect will become active mid-flight if the chaff affect ends. So you can have chaff active, missiles launch, you start lining up your shot, chaff affect ends, missiles will now begin locking-on to you. This was a real pain considering the way you change weapons is pretty slow and it just made the fight a pain to get through.
All that said, there was still fun had throughout. The game is kinda like a metroidvania in that you unlock new gear and gadgets which creates new areas and pathways from previous parts of the game open to you. You also get that satisfying feeling of slowly getting a mental map of the entire base as you progress; by the end, you know where everything is like the back of your hand.
The story and themes are interesting and the VA performances are still pretty good even by modern standards. Some of the deliveries and dialogue is clunky or over-the-top, but the actors were nailing the performances more often than not.
A worthwhile game to play if you are interested in game-history, but be prepared for some growing pains.
7/10
I know some people will try to say this isn't a God of War clone . . . but c'mon. So much of this game's controls and overall combat is aping from classic GoW; even the double-jump Dante can do is exactly the same as the one Kratos does (like the animation looks identical).
Honestly, I don't even care that much that it does copy God of War's combat so much because I don't have any steadfast loyalty to that franchise. And hey, I get it; at that time God of War was King Swingin' Dick in the AAA videogame world. It's only natural that the large publishers would want to tap into that game's DNA to make a hit game of their own. My problem is they took the 'warts and all' approach to copying.
I've never been head-over-heels for God of War's combat because it puts so much priority on Kratos' animations and the 'look' of the combat rather than the 'feel'. Dante's Inferno suffers from the exact same problems; the combat is by no means bad, but it’s full of frustrating issues that shouldn't really exist in a character-action game like this. Long unskippable animations even for basic attacks that you can't dodge or break out of combined with enemies that will regularly just tank your hits when they wind-up their attacks and hit you while you are mid-combo. The dodge is slow and a bit clunky. It's easy for you to get stun-locked. There are just so many issues with the combat and control that directly mirror issues that God of War has in its first 3 entries and rather than innovating on those ideas and fixing the issues to make something better, they just copy-pasted.
The things they try to do to separate Dante's Inferno aren't fleshed out enough to be that worthwhile. The Holy or Sinful paths are interesting ideas, but a lot of the upgrades on either side do the same things and neither side has a wealth of depth that can really elevate the combat above being just average.
All that said though, the presentation is top-notch. I wish their focus was more on the gameplay, but they clearly put ALL of the effort into the look and aesthetics of the game. All of that stuff is excellent and makes the game appealing to play despite the many drawbacks it has.
If the combat was refined and tightened up some, this would really be something.
5.5/10
Honestly, I don't even care that much that it does copy God of War's combat so much because I don't have any steadfast loyalty to that franchise. And hey, I get it; at that time God of War was King Swingin' Dick in the AAA videogame world. It's only natural that the large publishers would want to tap into that game's DNA to make a hit game of their own. My problem is they took the 'warts and all' approach to copying.
I've never been head-over-heels for God of War's combat because it puts so much priority on Kratos' animations and the 'look' of the combat rather than the 'feel'. Dante's Inferno suffers from the exact same problems; the combat is by no means bad, but it’s full of frustrating issues that shouldn't really exist in a character-action game like this. Long unskippable animations even for basic attacks that you can't dodge or break out of combined with enemies that will regularly just tank your hits when they wind-up their attacks and hit you while you are mid-combo. The dodge is slow and a bit clunky. It's easy for you to get stun-locked. There are just so many issues with the combat and control that directly mirror issues that God of War has in its first 3 entries and rather than innovating on those ideas and fixing the issues to make something better, they just copy-pasted.
The things they try to do to separate Dante's Inferno aren't fleshed out enough to be that worthwhile. The Holy or Sinful paths are interesting ideas, but a lot of the upgrades on either side do the same things and neither side has a wealth of depth that can really elevate the combat above being just average.
All that said though, the presentation is top-notch. I wish their focus was more on the gameplay, but they clearly put ALL of the effort into the look and aesthetics of the game. All of that stuff is excellent and makes the game appealing to play despite the many drawbacks it has.
If the combat was refined and tightened up some, this would really be something.
5.5/10