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