Dante's Inferno

February 4, 2010

Visceral Games

Electronic Arts

Visceral Engine

User226 ratings

Critic6 ratings

Total232 ratings

Hack and slash/Beat 'em upAdventure

PS3PSPX360

Single player, Multiplayer

Third person

ActionFantasyHorror

Summary

Dante's Inferno is an epic single player, third-person action adventure game inspired by "Inferno", part one of Dante Alighieri's classic Italian poem, "The Divine Comedy." Featuring nonstop action rendered at 60 frames-per-second, signature and upgradable weapons, attack combos and mana-fueled spells and the choice of punishing or absolving the souls of defeated enemies, it is a classic Medieval tale of the eternal conflict with sin and the resulting horrors of hell, adapted for a new generation and a new medium.

Storyline

The story follows Dante Alighieri, a Crusader knight who returns home after years of brutal warfare only to discover that his beloved Beatrice has been murdered, and before he can even process the loss, her soul appears and begins to ascend toward Heaven, but is suddenly seized and dragged into Hell by Lucifer, forcing Dante into a desperate pursuit fueled not only by love but by overwhelming guilt over the sins he committed during the war, including betrayal, cruelty, and moral corruption; armed with a holy cross given by Beatrice and a scythe taken from Death itself, Dante descends into Hell, where he travels through its nine circles, each representing different forms of sin, and along the way he encounters tortured souls, grotesque monsters, and manifestations of human vice that reflect both the world’s corruption and his own past actions, while repeatedly being confronted with visions that expose the truth about his behavior and the extent of his guilt, making it increasingly clear that his journey is not purely about rescuing Beatrice but about facing the consequences of his own choices, as Lucifer continuously manipulates him psychologically by revealing hidden truths, including the fact that Dante had betrayed Beatrice’s trust even before her death, which reframes the entire mission from a heroic rescue into a deeply personal confrontation with self-deception and responsibility, and as Dante reaches the deepest layer of Hell he ultimately confronts Lucifer in a final battle where the real conflict is not just physical but moral, forcing Dante to acknowledge his sins rather than deny them, and after overcoming Lucifer he is able to free Beatrice’s soul, allowing her to ascend, while Dante himself begins to rise from Hell, not as a redeemed hero in the traditional sense but as a man who has finally accepted his flaws and the weight of his past, leaving the ending intentionally unresolved as his path toward redemption is only just beginning rather than fully achieved.