The DLC add-on is made up of three new features: online co-op, user generated trials, and St. Lucia, a new playable character inspired by Christianity's Saint Lucy. Like Dante, Visceral's reimagining of her character is rather far-off from biblical canon. The playable martyr looks like an angel, and dons a move set that's completely unique from Dante's. (The differences between the two characters are comparable to those between Dante and Nero from Devil May Cry 4.)
The basics of her offensive powers are familiar: light and heavy attacks, and grabs. However, St. Lucia also has the ability to fly. Flight enables a brand new move set for players. I was able to quickly fly to the other side of a comabt arena, sweep multiple enemies, and then slam one of the larger enemies with a quick combo. The new flight dynamic is a lot of fun and, because St. Lucia's controls are so similar to those of Dante, it's easy to pick up and play.
Online co-op is a terrific addition to the genre; having two warriors rip apart enemies is simply more fun than just one. Unfortunately, this mode isn't as fully fleshed out as I would have liked. For example, there are no co-op specific attacks, a huge missed opportunity. Why not have Dante grab an enemy while St. Lucia performs a finishing move?
Still, co-op introduces new strategic possibilities. Players can fight on completely different parts of the map, or work in tandem. If on player is surrounded by enemies, the other can pick them off. Cooperation is key: if one player dies, both partners fail.
Unfortunately, both St. Lucia, the character, and online co-op are strictly relegated to user-generated challenge maps. There's no way to go through the campaign as St. Lucia, nor is there a way to replay the game with a friend. The challenge rooms are rather uninspired, merely serving as thoughtless battle chambers. There are no platforms to jump or puzzles to solve. The goal is very clear: kill everything in the room without dying.
While the idea of creating your own challenge rooms may sound alluring, the level editor (if it can be called one) is incredibly rudimentary. Don't expect to recreate your phallic masterpiece from LittleBigPlanet. The Dante's Inferno DLC lets you select templates, but doesn't let you create a specific level design. You won't be adding any platforms; you can't challenge the terrain in any way. Instead, you will be able to determine the kinds of enemies that will spawn and how much health they'll have. You'll be able to limit the skill trees of Dante and St. Lucia, and you'll be able to impose time limits and reduce player health. The simplicity of the editor makes it approachable, but we're doubtful the player community will be able to provide much variety to the catalog of shared levels.
The Trials of St. Lucia adds the kind of originality we wanted to see in the retail release of Dante's Inferno. The second playable character and co-op play make the add-on a rather significant addition to the original game. However, both these features are restricted to a mediocre level editor, making it difficult to gauge how much fans will want to play with the DLC. It's an interesting experiment, to be sure, one we hope to see return in a possible Dante's Inferno 2.
The Trials of St. Lucia will be available on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace on Thursday, April 29 for $9.99.
