Dismissed early on as a God of War clone in its gameplay style, Dante’s Inferno does heavily borrow the button-mashing combos and quick time events to take down large enemies, but also borrows certain elements from Devil May Cry 4 and Conquests of Camelot. As you fight your way deeper, swarms of enemies will surround you in arena style battles that you will need to clear before proceeding, increasing in difficulty as wave after wave is thrown at you.

There are plenty of save points throughout although the system is a little buggered. Once you pop open a fountain or find one of the many collectibles, and you happen to die, you will need to repeat the actions again as the game won’t recall that you had already picked them up. Not a major gripe but does tend to get a little annoying having to constantly repeat things. Another issue with the save system is that when you die and reload, you will reload with the health you had when you saved or passed a checkpoint. Not a big deal you say, until you realize that you are facing off against a boss with a sliver of health and there’s nothing you can do about it – until you die a few more times and then the game blesses you with some additional health.

Fountains are spread out sporadically in each level that contain health, mana, souls (the game’s currency), or relics that help give you a leg up on your journey by offering certain attributes such as allowing longer combos or increased damage. As you come across certain enemies, you are offered the choice to punish or absolve them for their sins. Each decision you make will net you either Holy or Unholy points. As you gain points, you will increase levels that open up special upgrades and attacks. While you won’t be able to max out both paths in one play through, the Unholy side of things will offer attack and scythe upgrades, while the Holy side offers upgrades to your cross and damage enhancements and protection.

While most of the gameplay is standard hack and slash fare, one standout control issue is the dodge technique that is controlled by the right stick, since there is no camera control. To quickly get out of harm’s way, a quick flick will send you jumping backwards or to the side, but more times than can be counted on one hand, resulted in Dante lunging off a cliff face to certain death. This becomes less of an issue the more you play it but the dodge leap is so pronounced that it can be hard to judge whether Dante will nearly side step an attack or zoom off into a pit of fire.

It’s not the poem in game form by any stretch – but it is a gorgeous action game – one of the best looking games you are likely to play and if you’re a 360 gamer who has never experienced a God of War game then it’s actually a fairly easy sell. However, those who know Kratos will quickly realize this is mere imitation.