Well I played 3 times in row just to sink into the combat.

I will say this first, if you played GOW and enjoyed it, you are gonna like this one for sure.
It is easy to pick up and play, doesnt need to learn crazy combo sequence, such as Ninja Gaiden.

From what I saw, there is a pretty alot of upgrades, from Unholy powers and Holy powers, each "line" has a a few slots you can purchase with white souls, they count as credits and you can upgrade a few new moves in the demo to get a sense how it works. There are also collectables, but nothing in the demo. You also get one magic ability near the end of the demo and as the video showed, it is basically a rush towards the enemy with the cross.

The game runs extremely smooth and fast, I hate long weapons but these guys makes you love staffs and whatnot which is nice, but I do wish they would have given you various weapons, or a nice cool sword that is pretty powerful because using the Scythe will get tiresome after a while I am sure, even if you can switch "modes". But who knows, maybe the other modes will be good but we will see.

The game doesnt have a combo list, not what I saw anyways. It seems it has a freeform combat like say GOW but with special moves that can be made any given time once you purchase them.

Controls feels very nice and responsive, visuals, well I have never been a graphics whore so for me its good enough, especially when you got 60fps greatness going on.

And as usual, hit detection and animation is something important in such games as well as weight to the attacks, weapons and characters. Everything was great except for one that bothered me, and it was the hit detection on that big enemy in the end which you get to control later on. No matter what moves you do the enemy wont react to one single hit, while the enemies that is a bit bigger than usual minions do which is nice.

But non the less, I knew how it would play, exactly like GOW, even the camera angles is the same, though I freaking HATE QTEs in any shape and form with a passion!
Why can't they learn from Ninja Gaiden 2/S2 that when a enemy is down or "limping" you just go close and press the grab button and just watch the show without worrying about buttons showing up, very annoying.

Outside of Hell, I love the time era of the crusades, what surprised me was the timeline was the same (i think) as AC1, 1191.

One last thing I want to mention is the very beginning, Dante's has such an awesome typical crusaders outfit. What really made me like is the lower part of his body with all the clothing hanging by his waist was moving, very great animated, I hope we get to unlock the outfit in the full game.

But yeah, I liked it quite alot. I knew from the videos what to expect and how it would play, but playing it, it is just like GOW but with heavy make over and I am not complaining considering I love the whole concept of the game, definitely a purchase for me (Death Edition).

PS. I LOVED the CG parts, amazingly done, cant wait to see more of it in the full game.

Oh nice but that thing about not having a combo list I hope its just for the demo as I find it kinda like a downer there,so its safe to say that the combat its nothing like DMC,Bayonetta,NG right?

Well Im not surprised to be honest but at the same time I cant help but feel a little disappointed because in some videos the combat seemed that you could make some awesome combos and stuff like that.

Oh well Im glad you liked though and 60 Fps its always nice.

Thansk for the impressions sath.

Each new special move get shows the buttons and instructions and even a video on how to do it.
But these special moves can be combined and interfered with typical moves by pressing various light and heavy attacks at anytime, so it is a good thing that you can use special moves after any regular or even special moves as long as it is not end of a combo special.

Kind of hard to explain, but like I said, if you played GOW games then it is easy to understand how it works.

Well its not like DMC considering there is a light and heavy attacks, that is like NG (dont know for Bayonetta) but it is also definitely not like NG because the combat isnt as static.
I would say it is exactly like GOW, if you want to compare between those three, Bayonetta would seem to be closest.

And believe me when I say that the videos arent wrong, you can do awesome combos in various ways, maybe not in the demo considering that well, its a demo and barely gives you maxed out weapons and Dante but it gives a taste of what to come.

Well I loved it, and even if it is like GOW, I dont care, as long as its good and polished and fun in the end, then I am a GO with the game, besides, I am buying GOW3 and DI so I cant go wrong :)

LOL exactly but as for me I only have a 360 so if I want somthing like GoW my only chance its this but it seems like would be a good game.

Cant wait to try the demo whenever it gets released.

Yea, those QTE should die in hell, or at least should be moved to L/R buttons/trigges, which are imho less reflex oriented than buttons, especially when one has X360/PS3 with different buttons layout :)

Just wanted to say I love the combat!

How to combine whatever special move within a normal move at any time and how fluid and fast it is awesome!
I kept going 20+ combo with counter moves and was on the flow.
What I like most is when combining the cross and the scythe so smooth, nice to chaining long combos on the hordes!

What I do is when the big demon shows up I let it kill me so I can let the smaller enemies before it shows up again so I can do nice combos because that is when the demo lets you max out the combos.

Anyways I really like it :)

20 minutes video of the entire demo
http://www.vg247.com/2009/12/11/dantes-inferno-the...

EDIT: Forgot to say HOLY DISGUSTING crap at the opening cinematic

Great to hear that the game offers New Game+ like Dead Space.

In this video near the end of the preview (12:15) for the game http://www.gamespot.com/shows/today-on-the-spot/?t... the guy says that anything you unlock can be carried over to the second playthrough which is great because this type of stuff should come like a second nature for these type of games.

If Dead Space is any hint then my guess is that we can pick any of the other outfits once we complete the game because I really want the templar outfit in the beginning.

Now I just hope that Darksiders have new game+ so I can add say I will buy it with confident right now.

Graphics are lackluster to say the least, the story seems pretty much stupid and the combat is pretty...well...i don't know. I basically killed death with an infinite combo due to being able to cancel ALL moves with a tap on the block buttons :P

Even so i think it was kind of fun, i might actually get it.

I just read that the demo has custom music that was a nice surprise, I tried it and yeah I can confirm it supports it...on PS3, crazy stuff :P

Anyways it is good that it supports custom music considering I will probably use it after my first playthrough with some nice dark orchestra tracks, but though the music already included in the game is as good as it is.

Ah well, very nice Visceral Games, very nice!

So many years of my fanboysm for 3rd person action hack and slash games I have never hated a cheap way to cancel combos because it just leads to more combos.

These guys made Dead Space that was going for RE4 style but with their own twist, and its the same thing here with DI (maybe too much of a GOW). The thing is, if a company wants to rip off a game it is okay to do so, but it has to be a damn good one and I have no doubt that Dante's Inferno will deliver one way or the other.

I am sure the epicness wont be as grand as GOW but as a seperate title, it will do just fine, I hope.

They got the combat, animation, fluidness, 60fps, music, theme and story going on very well, but how the game is in general is something I have yet to see but so far so good.

I took the Dante's Inferno demo for a spin on 360, and it is outside of my genre, for games... but I had fun with it.

Will consider adding it to my gamefly que. I haven't played any of these types of games... but what I saw/played I enjoyed.

Well I played the 360 demo yesterday and I must say I find it fun,the combat feels right and the graphics are nice too.

One thing though and I font like to say it but the first thing my nephew said when he played it was "This feels exactly like GoW" keep in mind he is not reading forums at all,well he said too that its a good thing and because of that and the factthe he liked it he will buy it day 1.

As for me I really like it honestly but I will have a lot in Bayonetta to sink in but I will borrow it from him in the future.

I played the demo (360 version) a few days ago, and my feelings are mixed. In a game like this the combat has to be spot on and, from what I witnessed, it was certainly up to the standard. The fluidity was nice, response times were decent and there was enough variety in there to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, the graphics pose a problem for me.

Now I'm not usually a graphics whore by any means, but when the game's going for a really atmospheric and cinematic experience, I find it difficult to be enthralled when the visuals are of such a low standard. It's particularly difficult to engage when the beautifully crafted cutscenes are followed by the sub-standard visuals I'm referring to.

So, it's a fun game - and a good addition to the hack 'n' slash genre - but it doesn't do much else for me.

It is really smooth though and that was very nice,I guess they had to compromise something in order to get that smoothness.

I did like the graphics though but there is one thing I didnt like and that was there was almost no special effects for the weapons strkes I guess after playing Bayonetta I want every attack to have a super effect or something.

I actually liked the demo very much MINUS everyting that comes before the boss fight. At first I was thinking "oh my god this is HORRIBLE" but then once u get the weapon, it's a whole different story.

Most japanese hack and slash games have visual effects on almost all attacks, they exagerate enough to make it look flashy and powerful, and that is one important thing japanese devs knows how to make the player feel.
This is something western devs dont do, they dont exagerate the visual effects for the weapons, attacks, hits...etc. so it doesnt give that "umph" feel.

I personally decided not to get Dante's inferno.
As much as I like the settings and concept, the one primary weapon throughout the whole game is just unacceptable for such a genre, especially when its not a sword (what I prefer when it comes to weapons).
I will just watch the walkthrough on youtube when its up :)

However Darksiders is still on my list and can't wait to buy it on friday.

Sath,

Not everything has to look all flashy to get noticed or make you feel the impact. They have a SOLID combat system in there. Chaining magic attacks, Cross attacks and Weapon attacks looked very well done and quite smooth.

I personally was scared of getting the game but the demo has made it a definite purchase now.

Well that's the opposite for me; all these flashy effects that exist within most games belonging to the genre make them look cheap and awful, in my opinion. It's largely why I think Bayonetta looks horrible.

Looks great, guna go look for the demo now.. :)

My problem isnt the flashy effects you usually see in japanese hack and slash (even though thats a big plus, not like Bayonetta though its like watching fireworks go off) but its the fact that the only weapon you have through out the whole game is the scythe and for such a genre its unacceptable IMO and I know I will be bored of that quite quickly.
The cross is a stun weapon, kind of like shurikens in NG so that doesnt count.

What do you mean?

That makes it expectacular to non comprehensive levels,pure insanity of awesomeness being put in frony of your eyes.

Oh man those purples,dark glowing reds and blues looks so amazing you feel hypnotized by them,a dance of poetic moves being made by perfection in body form only possible thanks to Kamiya.

You should let Bayonetta greatness penetrates into your soul and feel revigorated with life and joy............

Bayonetta its perfection in action game form!!!!

I have to agree with Sath. Both GoW and Dante lacks the impact that games like DMC and Bayonetta has. And while Baynoetta takes it over the top in some areas (ie flash and crude sexual jokes) Gow/Dante does it in others (gratuitous amounts of ridiculous violence and supposed badassery). Then again none of that should matter as long as the gameplay is satisfactory, i didn't play DMC3 a billion times because it had such a tasteful distribution of special effects or because there were tons of gore and tits all over the screen constantly, i played it because they nailed the combat and i think that's how you kind of need to view the entire genre in order to et the most out of it; insanely gameplay centric.