From the Butlerniverse

I’ve reviewed the great Dante’s Inferno game, the asinine Soul Packs, and two new costumes for Dante: the awful Poet Dante and the decent (but not very different) Animated Dante. Now, it’s the DLC that Playstation 3 fans have been waiting for (because it’s, well, free) and another oddball.

Game Title: Dante’s Inferno

DLC: Dark Forest and Relics Triple Pack

The Relics Triple Pack is somewhat lackluster. Paolo’s Heart (upgradable to Level 3) allows the souls you earn to be converted into Mana to refill your Mana when you defeat enemies. Wing of Furie adds to your hit count multiplier, helping earn combos (and some trophies, I’d imagine) more easily. Brain of Rudggieri lets Dante evade during a focus attack animation.

You could argue that the hit counter affect is akin to the Soul Packs, an institutionalized way of cheating your way to the top. The ability to evade during focus attacks is decent, but I have not found much use for it yet. The ability to gain Mana from defeated enemies instead of souls when you are out of Mana is useful, but if you have reached Unholy Level 6 (or 7), then you already have an ability (probably) that lets you gain Mana from any enemy destroyed with Dante’s (Death’s) Scythe.

The Dark Forest DLC is what many fans of the game have been waiting for. PS3 owners were able to purchase the PS3 Divine Edition of the game (the only one available for PS3), instead of the standard version that Xbox 360 received. In that Divine Edition was a voucher (code) for a free download of a mysterious bit of DLC in March. It was said to include “a new costume, relic, and a prequel level featuring two new enemies, an expanded storyline, and more than 30 minutes of new gameplay.”

That DLC turned out to be Dark Forest, which is basically set during the earliest portion of the game, wherein Dante finds himself in the Dark Forest and must make his way to his father’s home, where Beatrice awaits. Basically, it inserts some action between parts of that opening cutscene, making it the promised “prequel level.”

It does indeed include two new enemies: a new variant on the big guardian demons and a new variant of the lust temptresses (a siren of sorts this time). Frankly, these feel like new skins over old enemies. The new enemies just feel like the same kind of swapped out looks for similar foes from the regular game, just like we see with variants of the enemies in the different circles of Hell.

Speaking of skins, I did not believe we could end up with a worse costume than that idiotic looking poet costume. I was wrong. The costume found here has nothing to do with the storyline, the time period, or anything else other than a pun. The game is Dante’s Inferno . . . so we get . . . and I shit you not . . . Disco Inferno Dante. Yes, the new costume is Dante in a white suit ready for disco dancing. (See, I told you it was more idiotic than that awful poet costume.)

The new relic is the Stone of Wrath, which reduces the amount of Mana your magic attacks use. That’s useful enough, but if you have already finished the game, your Dante is probably pretty badass by now anyway.

(Speaking of which, you start the DLC level through a separate menu but you retain all of Dante’s abilities from your saved game. LucasArts should take a lesson for this when making The Force Unleashed II rather than giving us the pre-created version of Starkiller in future DLC like they did with the original The Force Unleashed game.)

The new level plays out with some minor puzzles and some heavy enemy waves (mostly guardian variants, the new lust variants, a few heretics, and some furies). The gameplay is solid enough and feels like the rest of the overall game. Now, I have heard complaints about continuity with the DLC. For example, people are complaining that…

• Dante has Death’s Scythe in this level before he should
• The enemy Dante is pursuing reveals a major plot point spoiler (in terms of the flashbacks, not the “present” gameplay)
• Dante should not have powerful abilities at this point
• Dante should not be able to absolve or punish enemies yet because he does not have
• These enemies should not be present because Dante is not yet in Hell
• Dante sees Beatrice’s “ghost / soul” when he doesn’t know she’s dead yet.

I would argue that some of those are valid, but not all. For example, the claim that the Scythe comes later is just not true. Those making that argument don’t seem to understand the way the game plays out chronologically. Yes, the plot point is revealed. No, Dante should not have powers yet, not should hae have the ability to absolve or punish (given that he does not yet have Beatrice’s cross). As for the enemies . . . I would probably argue that since Lucifer is already at work here (seen in the cutscene and in his creatures attacking you before you go down into Hell in the original game), it makes some sense for him to have set loose others against you during the prequel level. As for Beatrice, perhaps he thinks it is a vision, not her ghost / soul?

The Verdict: The costumes have been $1.99, and they have been awful or “meh,” so I suppose I should consider the prices here. The Relics Triple Pack might be useful and nifty to have, so, for some, it will feel like it is worth the $2.99 price tag (if you’re willing to pay about a dollar per relic). For me, it felt like a wash.

As for the Dark Forest DLC, I have mixed feelings. If you purchased the game while the download code was available, then you picked up this for free. It is hard to argue with an extra level of Dante’s Inferno when it is free, just like it is  hard to argue against picking up Heavy Rain Chronicles: The Taxidermist when it was also free to preorder customers.

Without the free DLC voucher, however, this DLC costs $4.99. That is probably worth it, since you get a new level (albeit a short one) that (mostly) fits into the story. The relic is useful but not anything particularly interesting, and the two new enemies feel far too familiar to really feel “new.” The new costume, however, is outright crap. Travolta, Dante is not.

Would I pick up Dark Forest if I were paying for it? Yeah, probably. And then I would gripe even more about the idiotic costume, while saying that the new level was “meh.” If you’re a diehard Dante’s Inferno fan, pick it up. Others, consider whether there’s something else to spend your $4.99 on this week.

Grade: B (for the Dark Forest DLC free); B- (for Dark Forest DLC if paying for it); C (for the Relics Triple Pack)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 1:23 am and is filed under Downloadable Content, Non-SW Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.