Dante's Inferno for PSP Reviews by Gamers

On consoles, Dante's Inferno separated itself somewhat from the God of War series with a robust upgrade system, a wide variety of power-up items that could introduce some fairly important changes to combat strategy, and visual performance that aided in blessing Dante's with some of the most fluid combat in the character action sub-genre.



EA entrusted WET developer A2M with the portable version of its loose interpretation of the Divine Comedy, and at first glance, it seemed like it survived the journey mostly intact; it covers the same story of Dante's quest to save his love's soul from the Inferno by hitting things and features the same levels and basic gameplay. In the end though, in cramming Dante's Inferno into the limited space and resources available on the PSP, A2M has, in many respects, broken the game.



Combat looks the same as the console version, but feels much different. Some of this can be written off to the compromises in control dictated by the PSP. The dodge move formerly assigned to the right stick on consoles now depends on tapping both shoulder buttons simultaneously along with a direction on the analog nub. This kind of change doesn't guarantee disaster; a change in controls (in this case, a change that makes the character less versatile in combat and less responsive) should dictate some changes to level and encounter design. Unfortunately, there are no especially discernible changes to enemy patterns, spawn sequences, or abilities. Combat scenarios that were designed for a hero who could easily break out of any combo and rapidly move around the killing floor have become frustrating trips through a mountain range of difficulty and frustration spikes.



There are other examples of these ill-conceived edits littered throughout the game. The grab-and-judge move has become so powerful as to make other tactics useless, as enemies can no longer interrupt a punishment or absolution sequence on low-level fodder enemies. More skilled players might have chosen to ignore this issue in lieu of more satisfying combo based combat, assuming it could be found. However, you'll likely find your irritation mounting as your attacks seem to pass through enemies without registering hits as often as not, and again, you'll be hard-pressed not to exploit the now-overpowered heavy attacks that will virtually always successfully launch enemies into the air.



Of course, you'll need every trick you can think of against faster enemies, as Dante's compromised mobility and the general wonkiness of the game's hit detection will find your life bar gone faster than you thought possible. One of the game's most important spells, a holy dash that knocks enemies down (effective for crowd control) is now useless, requiring you to aim yourself using the analog nub while pressing a direction on the d-pad. My review copy was missing the third arm one would assume the game would ship with to make effective use of this spell - and the controls in general. Bosses are especially arthritis inducing, unless they decide to let you destroy them from a distance with Dante's cross.



The game works to maintain the same epic scope of its console counterpart, and does an admirable job for the most part. Barring any age-induced lapses in memory on my part, the full host of levels and encounters are present, with the notable exception of certain event sequences that are now represented by a cut-scene taken directly from gameplay of those sections on the console iteration. The sense of scale is well-preserved, and the graphics are quite good given the platform. The use of color seems ramped up to compensate for the lack of detail and in some ways complements the game better here than on the 360 or PS3. The game performs quite well generally, though the Cerberus battle in particular suffered from some fairly significant issues.



Many of the "punish-or-absolve" moves from the console version of the game have been eliminated, but what remains works. Unless, of course, you're pushed outside of the game's geometry during one of these scripted kills, causing a cheap death which often forces you to replay extended sequences again. This wouldn't bear mentioning, save that it happened several times during my time with the game.



The rest of the presentation is severely compromised. The soundtrack frequently skips and cuts out altogether, which is a shame, given how well Garry Schyman's score fits the proceedings. Worse, there are load times for virtually everything: pausing, switching between the holy and unholy upgrade menus, saving, each is met with a pronounced freeze of the screen and disconcerting whirl of the UMD. It wouldn't be as much of an issue save that you do all of these things all the time.



Finally, compounding all of these issues, the primary flaws of the console version of Dante's remain: the platforming is poorly thought out, the pacing drags in spots, and the puzzles that weren't cut remain punitive and plain not fun.

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