➤ One does not live only in torments 🎮

Version testata: PlayStation 3

Electronic Arts continues to support its flagship titles through the more or less constant release of additional extra content downloadable from the internet or present in special editions of its products. After the first disappointing DLC of Dante's Inferno entitled Selva Oscura, whose full review is available at this address, Visceral Games returns to the public with a second add-on called The Torments of Santa Lucia.

This extra content adds a new option directly to the main menu of the base game and also features the patron saint of Syracuse, or rather, her (much) revised, corrected and reinterpreted representation. The DLC includes online co-operation game for two players and a level editor to create and share your battles with other gamers and is available for download at the unfriendly price of Euro 9,99 on Playstation Network or 800 MP on Xbox. Live, as well as being contained in a special edition of Dante's Inferno, the so-called Santa Lucia Edition which will be available from May 14 in all stores, including ours, and which will include the base game, a new package complete with exclusive artwork as well as to the appropriate codes to download the two expansions mentioned above.

The way to sanctification

With virtually no storyline and an arcade fighting game setting, The Torments of Saint Lucia on balance it is a frenetic hack & slash in which battles take place in limited spaces and where the primary objective is to resist and defeat the hordes of enemies who parry with some insistence in front of the protagonists. In short, we could almost define it as a collection of small challenges that from many points of view offers little to those looking for a stimulating, more articulated and well-structured experience.

From a list of quests prepared by Electronic Arts (about forty) or by the players themselves, the user selects which one to play and in an instant he finds himself in an arena massacring, horde after horde, dozens of opponents. Each "trial" is composed of a series of consecutive challenges located in arenas that are structurally quite similar to each other. The rules that determine each series of clashes and therefore the player's actions make the game experience a little varied. In the various arenas it is possible to encounter timed fights or battles with specific objectives to be hit to be completed, such as killing a Boss or using only particular types of attacks to defeat opponents, free battles in which you just need to hit everything that moves on the screen or others in which the vital energy of the protagonists gradually decreases without the possibility of recovery in order to force the gamer to speed up the times, etc. However, it must be said that despite this unfortunately in the long run all the challenges end up looking alike and therefore gradually boring users. In this sense, the possibility of playing as a couple with a friend by taking control of the sensual winged female co-star, Santa Lucia, to fight on the game servers in one of the many online cooperative challenges, or to share their creations made via editor with other gamers around the globe they add a little more, but not enough.

PlayStation 3 Trophies

There are ten trophies available in Dante's Inferno: The Torments of Saint Lucia: three in silver and seven in bronze. As usual, these prizes will be won in various ways such as earning 50 gold medals and 25 platinum medals in online trials or by completing 25 EA challenges in single player and 15 in co-op, just to name a couple of examples.

Saint Lucia?

The character of Saint Lucia is very similar to an angel and as such can fly, move fast and be devastating in aerial and ranged attacks. An excellent shoulder for Dante. Too bad, however, that it is not possible to make combos or moves in common, and that even when one of the two characters dies, you have to start the level again even if the other element of the team is in perfect health. Which makes two-person mode frustrating at times. The editor, on the other hand, allows the player to make several free choices, in order to better customize the natural "ring" where the fights he wants to create will take place. The latter will therefore be able to establish its rules applied to the context, such as determining the number of stages that will make up their trial, the general difficulty level, the number of human players as well as objects in the area, how many and which traps will be scattered on the terrain, quantity, type and combat capacity of the enemies among which we note some new entries. Everything, as we mentioned in the introduction of the article, can then be shared online with other gamers around the world.
Regarding the aesthetic aspect of Dante's Inferno: The Torments of Saint Lucia there is little relevant to report compared to what is already known about the original game: the graphic engine of this DLC is clearly the same as Dante's Inferno with all the pros and cons of the case. The frame rate remains at a good level even in the most chaotic situations, the enemies appear effectively detailed and made with excellent characterization. The scenarios, although not stylistically perfect, are nevertheless fascinating, as mentioned in other articles not so much for the aesthetics themselves, but rather for the settings and views in general. Very beautiful the character of Lucia, sexy and lethal at the right point. Finally, as far as the sound aspect is concerned, nothing new: the audio does its "duty" in full with surrounding noises and music that make up the soundtrack as a whole of good workmanship.

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Although it deserves a higher rating than its predecessor, this second mini expansion of Dante's Inferno also turns out to be too light. Apart from the level editor, in fact, the product seems devoid of all those key elements that push the enthusiast to play and continue to do so, starting from the lack of that adventure structure and variety that are among the indispensable foundations of a video game. Therefore, at the cost of seeming repetitive, we reiterate what is expressed in the review of the Dark Forest: if you loved Dante and you want to enter his world again, this time alongside a friend and a new playable character, then this DLC is for you. . If not, you can also look elsewhere.