The E3 demo starts off with a truncated bit of what we've seen before, up through the fight with King Minos, but that only makes up the first half of the E3 demo as it then skips down to the fifth circle of hell, Anger.
The bit that EA is showing off from this circle starts with you on the bank of the River Styx. Filippo Argento sits on his knees near the shore and begs for your help. You can either punish or absolve him, though for now, we're only able to see the punishment option. When you punish someone, you "kill" them (even though they're technically already dead) and absorb their soul, giving you more points to increase your skills. Punishment automatically works and gives you a flat set of points, whereas absolving a soul will work differently. We're told that it'll work as more of a risk/reward situation, though again, EA is holding that mechanic until later.
Things don't get happier as you descend to the fifth circle.
After dealing with Filippo, you jump onto a circular boat and begin drifting across the river, fighting off a handful of flying creatures that pester you along the way. The river is littered with bodies and statues (or are they real?) of people bound down by chains, or worse, sometimes on fire. It's a very well detailed scene that could make the squeamish a little uncomfortable. Although, if you've gotten this far, you've probably already seen worse...
Anyway, once you make your way over to the other side of the river, you find out that the "boat" that you've been riding on is not actually a boat but is instead the top of the crown of Phlegyas, a giant who stands a good 100 feet tall or so (based on my own guesstimates). After performing a short quick-time event mini-game to get off of him and into the bulk of the level, you find that he's constantly swatting or breathing fire at you as you fight.
Most of the rest of what I saw involved getting into an area (all of which took place on elevated walkways, giving Phlegyas plenty of standing room around you) and having to kill a handful of baddies while dodging Phlegyas' attacks before moving to the next section. One new enemy that I got a chance to face off against was called a Gluttony minion, a naked (and disgusting) woman who must weigh in at about 500 pounds. She has two main attacks, depending on where you're standing. If you're in front of her, she'll try to vomit on you, and even walking into its remains on the ground will poison you. If you're standing behind her, she'll expel a different kind of waste from the other end of her body. You know what I mean, and no, it isn't pretty. At least those scent-emitting devices everyone was talking about in the late '90s never came to fruition.
Phlegyas is not happy to see you.
Aside from vomiting on you or covering you with explosive diarrhea, she can also attempt to swallow you whole if you get too close. Getting away from her jaws is just a matter of tapping a face button as quickly as you can, but the thought of winding up in the same intestinal tract as the stuff she expels your way is disheartening to say the least.
Once you've gotten through a few sections you'll eventually climb on top of Phlegyas and ride/control him as you storm the city of Dis, which houses the latter four circle of hell. The segment that you'll see or play to scale him isn't finished yet so I wasn't able to see that bit, and once you're on top of Phlegyas you simply walk over to the gate of the city before the demo ends. However, as it closes out you do get a good and very distant look at Dis, which appears to be immense in scale. The bit of the city that you can see is circular and burning from most every crevice, a sign that what's to come won't get any easier.
Dante's Inferno plays really well at this point, and anyone who has played the likes of God of War should be able to jump right in and start ripping hell's best right away. The scale of the environments is immense, and the attention to detail in the art is great. The game is slated to hit the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PSP sometime during 2010, so stay on the lookout for more info on the game soon.
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