God of War rip-off? Yes, but it's an awesome one.
First off, for those of you that don't know, Dante's Inferno is loosely based off the first part (Inferno) of Dante Alighieri's poem, La Divina Commedia or The Divine Comedy. It was written in the 14th century and narrates Dante's journey through the Nine Circles of Hell, guided by Roman poet Vergilius (Virgil). However, that wouldn't make much of a game, so the developers took some liberties to make it a little more playable.
The story starts off with Dante, a crusader, sewing a cross on his chest. We then cut to the recent attack on the city of Akko, where Dante is stabbed in the back, but manages to kill Death itself and take its scythe. So Dante travels back to his house where his beloved wife, Beatrice, is patiently waiting for his ret- Oh bugger, she's dead. And Dante gets to see how Lucifer's shadow takes her away, since she made a deal: Should Dante remain faithful to his wife during the Crusade, Lucifer would keep him save, if not, Beatrice's soul would be taken to hell. So Dante follows him into the Gates of Inferno, and so... his journey begins.
To be sincere, there's not much of a story after this first part, it's just "I got to go save Beatrice", you'll meet with some people Dante knew when they were alive, and the many sins Dante committed during the Crusade, though. I really felt that characters could be developed a lot more, and to be fair... I can't simpathize for a naked woman who's constantly whining about how I betrayed her, I just don't feel like rescuing her.
What can be said about the gameplay? Have you played God of War? Then you know how to play Dante's Inferno, exact same control scheme. Except that O is not for grabbing, it's for using the cross, Dante uses Beatrice's holy cross to shoot holy beams or something at enemies. As I said, Dante's primary weapon is Death's Scythe, which has a pretty nice arrange moves and combos (so does the cross). Combat is actually fluid, fun, and at times even inspiring in my opinion. Dante also has magic attack at his disposal, the most useful ones being a Holy aura which protects you from attacks, and another one which causes damage to nearby enemies, amongst others. There's also a sort of "Devil Trigger" as I like to call it, basically after the meter fills up, you can use it to become more powerful and faster for as long as the meter lasts.
Graffics, while not breath-taking, are nice and smooth, not to mention the game runs at a glorious 60 fps. However, Hell is actually brought to life by Dante's Inferno. Each of the 9 Circles of Hell look amazing and are completely different from one another, you will see fire and lava in the Circle of Heresy, intestines and feces all over the Circle of Gluttony, and rivers of boiling blood in the Circle of Violence. They all perfectly represent what the people in there did in life, and what their punishments are... speaking of which, the only complain I have, is that there's not enough people suffering in there, you know, this is where many dead people go and you don't really get to see that many of them.
While not wholy original, Dante's Inferno is a great game, which I must admit could have been even better, but does not mean it's bad. Try not to look at it as a GoW clone, but as a fun game in which you're slaying demons and punishing damned souls. If you like hack and slash games, then I really recommend Dante's Inferno.