Dante’s Inferno Remains an Underrated Game 15 Years Later, But It Shouldn't Stay That Way

15 years ago, on February 9, 2010, EA and Visceral Games ushered players around the world to journey into Hell like never before in the third-person action-adventure game Dante’s Inferno. Following the widespread success of Dead Space and being inspired by adaptive works such as the film 300, Visceral Games sought to develop a similar graphic novel-esque game based on a popular story. Based on this outline, director Jonathan Knight chose to base Visceral’s next big game on the first part of the 14th century poem The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. While Dante’s Inferno was moderately successful, it never reached widespread acclaim like its sci-fi horror counterpart. However, there’s still a chance for players to journey through 12th century Hell once more.

The Complex Adaptation of Dante’s Inferno

Compared to Dead Space, which was an original story, adapting Dante’s Inferno introduced some relief and challenges to turn its story into a video game. Since The Divine Comedy is a 700-year-old poem, Visceral was free to use its narrative in any way it desired. However, The Divine Comedy was not a particularly bombastic or character-driven story that naturally translates to a AAA video game. This led Visceral games to alter several sections of the poem and introduce many new elements to create a version of The Divine Comedy all of its own, such as gameplay inspired by God of War and a haunting art style by painter and concept artist Wayne Barlowe.

Instead of focusing on the relatively harmless journey of Alighieri being escorted by the Roman poet Virgil through the nine circles of Hell, Dante’s Inferno features a more horrifying and introspective narrative. During the Siege of Acre in the Third Crusade, a Templar Knight called Dante is nearly killed and meets with Death itself, who condemns Dante for his sins and his actions that led to the perdition of his loved ones. After killing Death itself and stealing his scythe, Dante sows a tapestry of his sins to himself before returning home and finding his wife Beatrice dead. Beatrice’s soul is taken by Lucifer due to Dante’s infidelity, forcing Dante to fight through demons and monsters of the nine circles of Hell for the chance to save Beatrice’s soul.

The Demons and Monsters Dante’s Inferno

While The Divine Comedy’s Dante and Virgil seldom interact with the demons, monsters, and caretakers of Hell directly, Dante’s Inferno turned the underworld’s inhabitants into titanic, grotesque foes. This is seen most famously with Inferno’s towering bosses, such as the judgmental squid-like King Minos, the worm-like gaping maws of Cerberus, and the lustful, minion-spawning Cleopatra. Beyond these bosses, players will primarily encounter common enemy types, including bat-like pests, dark horned Satyr-like demons, hulking asterian beasts, and skeletal minions. However, certain circles house more unique monstrous enemies, such as the siren-like temptresses, conjoined hoarders/wasters, and warlock-like heretics. Dante can even manipulate and briefly control some demons, such as the asterian beasts and Phlegyas, to fight others, solve puzzles, and traverse harsh landscapes.

Dante’s Inferno’s Gameplay and Criticism of The Divine Comedy

Much like Kratos’ Blades of Chaos, Dante’s scythe is a multipurpose weapon. It can be used to both slice and dice demons as a scythe, a spear, or as a short blade attached to Dante’s arm, but it can also be used as a hooked chain to swing over chasms or attach itself to demons. However, the scythe is not the only weapon at Dante’s disposal. Dante can use Beatrice’s cross to fire holy attacks at demons and restore health when demons are destroyed. Together, the two weapons can be upgraded to unlock stronger combo attacks using the energy and souls of demons and the tormented.

One aspect of The Divine Comedy that Dante’s Inferno directly confronts is Alighieri’s criticism of historical and biblical figures as well as his own contemporary writers. Throughout The Divine Comedy, Alleghari inserted figures and people into certain circles of Hell based on how he believed they should be condemned. Visceral Games gave the player the choice to absolve or condemn these figures themselves instead of simply obeying Alighieri’s biases towards these people. If players choose to punish these lost figures for their presumed sins, players will receive a good number of souls used to upgrade their abilities. Likewise, if players choose to absolve these figures of their sins, they’ll have to complete a rhythm mini-game to receive a large number of souls.

The Potential of a Dante’s Inferno Remake

Despite Dante’s Inferno receiving moderate praise and financial success through not just the game but an animated film and comic adaption, the game never received a sequel. At the end of Dante’s Inferno, Dante comes to terms with his sins, saves Beatrice’s soul, and defeats Lucifer before he can begin his plans to overthrow God and conquer all three kingdoms of the afterlife. Just as Dante begins to enter the island-mountain of Purgatory, he rips off his tapestry which turns into a snake; Lucifer laughs as “To Be Continued” appears on-screen. However, due largely to relatively poor sales, EA canceled a Purgatory-focused sequel to Dante’s Inferno.

While Visceral Games may be long gone, its wide catalog of games are still lovingly remembered by many years later, but none are as fondly remembered or closely associated with Visceral than Dead Space and Dante’s Inferno. With the 2023 remake of Dead Space considered to have done well both critically and financially, as well as the widespread revival of God of War with the Norse duology, EA could possibly remake Dante’s Inferno for modern platforms. Dante’s Inferno was the next major horror-adjacent game Visceral developed after the original Dead Space, so it would make sense for EA to develop an Inferno remake before a Dead Space 2 remake. This could additionally give Dante’s Inferno the attention it deserves.

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Released

February 9, 2010

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ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content

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Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

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