DANTE SCYTHES DOWN THE UNDEAD IN BIZARRE KILL-FEST

ABOVE: Dante's Inferno gets a whopping 87%

7th February 2010

By Paul Vale

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SANDWICHED between the release of twin titans Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2 is Dante’s Inferno, a bizarre hack ’n’ slash from EA that’s out now.

Did I say “hack ’n’ slash”?

Absolutely, and any purists thinking about e-mailing in to protest at the “limitations of that description” will find my Out Of Office firmly on. When a six-foot man is wielding a 12-foot scythe, it’s a hack ’n’ slash.

Usually this kind of fare can be very repetitive.

True to form, the structure of the game has nothing new as Dante, on a quest to recover his soul (or something), squares up to the legions of the undead.

But what is new is the style and brilliance of visuals, with the developers delivering a raft of strange, unexpected and unique interludes between and during the battles.

Within minutes of shoving the game into the console, I’d been killed, had a massive scrap with the grim reaper,

nicked his sword and seen the ghostly tits of a dead girlfriend.

Did I mention it was an 18? Stranger still, set against a medieval backdrop Dante started having sex flashbacks with

the aforementioned topless ghost.

Not that I had chance to dwell, as I was back into the action decapitating ghouls that crawled out of the ground before being attacked by what looked like three giant bees.

All this and the console had barely had a chance to warm up.

I don’t know too much about Visceral the developers, other than they bashed out a pretty naff Simpsons game in 2007, plus Godfather 2, which I can’t remember at all. Oh – they did do Dead Space, which was pretty good.

Still, there’s something far darker and more edgy about this jolly little kill-fest. Wikipedia says the storyline was written by Will Rokos, the chap who penned the film Monster’s Ball.

And anyone who sat through 90 minutes of that upbeat little movie will know to expect something a bit stronger than the usual chap-with-a-big-sword-style game.

Most impressive are the set pieces, with some genuinely stunning battles against some memorably weird foes.

At one point I was confronted by a buxom, 20ft tall virgin squeezing blade-handed babies out of her right knocker.

I’m glad my bird was out of the room or I’d have got a clip round the ear.

A lot of you will have played the demo on XBL so will know what to expect but for anyone who hasn’t I’m happy to recommend it.

The visuals alone are worth a look but, when allied with decent action, solid controls and a storyline so bizarre I couldn’t tell if it made sense, you’ve got a hack ’n’ slash, that truly is a cut above.

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