Dante's Inferno (2023 video game)

"Welcome to hell."

- Tagline Dante's Inferno is a 2023 action-adventure video game developed by Motive Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is a remake of the 2010 video game of the same name whose story is loosely based on Inferno, the first canticle of Divine Comedy by the real-life Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

It was simultaneously released with the live-action film of the same name by Fede Álvarez, and it was succeeded by Dante's Purgatorio which was simultaneously released with the live-action film of the same name.

Gameplay
Compared to the 2018 video game God of War, the remake of Dante's Inferno is a third-person shooter. It features an over-the-shoulder camera, unlike its original version which featured a fixed cinematic camera compared to most of the installments of God of War. The player controls the Crusader Dante Alighieri which was loosely based on the eponymous poet.

Dante used the scythe that was originally used by Death, and he briefly used the Crusader sword and shield at the beginning instead of the battle axe which was briefly used at the beginning of the 2010 game. The scythe was used not only as a weapon, but also as a grapple.

He also used a holy cross to perform Holy-based ranged attacks, as well as to absolve

Not only Dante can ride Asterian Beasts like he did in the 2010 game, but also he can ride his horse at the beginning, and Nessus, one of the centaurs that resided around the Phlegethon.

As with the 2010 game, the players can absorb white souls from defeated enemies to allow for Dante to purchase new abilities by expensing them. Dante can purchase the new abilities depending on his holy or unholy levels.

Dante can use the Statue of Beatrice to save points and change costumes once they are unlocked.

There are quick time events that occured, mostly by finishing enemies.

Fountains can be found through Hell. There are three types of fountains: green which is for health, purple which is for mana, and yellow which is for the granting specific items. When approached, the player is prompted to repeatedly press a button to break them open. With the Rage of Farinata relic, they can be broken automatically, skipping the quick time event.

Dante has the options to choose the fate of the creatures of Hell and the damned; absolution, which would grant his holy experience, or punishment, which would grant his unholy experience. While the enemies takes enough damage, this gives an opportunity to the players to finish them. While Dante has the options either to absolve or punish them, quick time events occured. Dante would encounter many tortured souls whom he would optionally absolve or punish. To absolve them, a sin-catching mini game would begin, prompting certain buttons to be pressed as they appeared on-screen. The player was granted bonus souls depending on how many sins are successfully captured. If no sins are captured, the absolution results in a failure and the shade would disintegrates. So he would not receive achievements. The damned souls are famous figures in history that appear in Dante Alighieri's original The Divine Comedy.

For the most, the enemies are the creatures of Hell. At the beginning, the enemies are the Kurdish prisoners whom Dante and Francesco kept during the siege of Acre.

Relics can be found throughout Hell and can be equipped to augment combat abilities.

Plot
Returning from the Third Crusade, the Crusader Dante Alighieri arrives home in Florence, Italy to find his father and servants slain, and his fiancee Beatrice Portinari dying from the stab wound. Her soul ascends to Heaven, but the shadowy manifestation of Lucifer takes her to Hell. Dante chases after him by riding a horse while fighting creatures.

While he is about to enter into the church, the horse is taken by the creatures from below, tearing it apart off-screen. Inside, serpent-like arms appear from below and sew the red cross-shaped tapestry depicting his sins onto his torso. Suddenly, the Gates of Hell open from the wall, and Dante goes down into Hell through it.

Virgil appears and asks him why Dante chases after his misfortune. Dante replies he "only chases after his beloved". Virgil reminds him his faith Dante lost in God, and explains that Beatrice made a bet with Lucifer: If Dante kept his innocence, Lucifer would return home safely. But if Dante broke his promise, the soul of Beatrice would be taken by Lucifer. Virgil offers to guide him through Hell. Dante, invoking his faith, tears open the gates and enters.

Dante and Virgil board Charon, a massive, demonic, living ferry that transports souls across the river Acheron. Charon commands demons to kill Dante as no living beings are allowed. After killing them, Dante kills Charon and steers him into the coasts of the first circle, Limbo.

While Dante finds a dead unbaptized baby, he learns Beatrice was pregnant with Dante's son who was stillborn while Dante was fighting during the Crusade.

They finds many damned philosophers, politicians and rulers, including Saladin which reminds Dante his past when he killed him during the Crusade.

Dante and Virgil meets King Minos whose task is to judge condemned souls by smelling their sins and send into their sin's corresponding circle by impaling them on the spiked wheel and spinning it. He smells Dante's sins which he recognizes as murder, gluttony and treachery. Dante challenge him by taunting him. Dante kills him by putting Minos' tongue into the spiked wheel, splitting his face in half. Meanwhile, Lucifer tortures Beatrice, tricking her into hoping to be rescued by Dante, and taunting her Dante has been unfaithful.

In the second circle, Lust, Dante and Virgil enters into the Carnal Tower by creating a hole of the Lust Storm covering it. Dante sees Beatrice in the succubus costume. She asks him why did he break her promise, and Dante recall the past when Beatrice told him to keep her brother Francesco and to not sleep with the other women as the pair have sex. When Dante joined the bishop's speech along with Francesco and the other Crusaders, the bishop promised them they would be forgiven while taking parts in the Crusade. During the Crusade, he slept with the slave girl who offered him comfort in exchange for the freedom of her and her brother.

At the top of the tower, he is confronted by Cleopatra, in her gigantic size, who informs him he has been unfaithful to his beloved by sleeping with the slave girl she refers to "whore". Her lover, Mark Antony, emerge from her mouth and fights Dante. After being defeated by him, the dying Antony states that he and Cleopatra in her normal size would be reunited together. Griefed by this, she attempts to seduce Dante, only to be stabbed by him.

In the third circle, Gluttony, Dante sees many damned souls being devoured by the demonic gluttons, which reminds him the past while he drank when surrounded by a pair of women and asked Francesco: "Who made you a priest?". He impersonated his father since while he was young, he saw Alighiero eating and drinking when surrounded by a pair of naked women, and Alighiero asked his son: "Who made you a priest?" The shadowy form of Lucifer appears and shows vision the past vision to Dante. Dante learns that while he was in the Crusade, Alighiero advised Beatrice to forget about Dante as he died long ago. He offered her a meal, but she declined when she was disgusted to see how Alighiero eat despite her being starved. He also learns the "brother" of the slave girl travelled to Florence to complete his vengeance. He killed anyone in his way, and assaulted the villa to slaughter Dante's servants. In a sword fight, the avenger sliced Alighiero's stomach and stabbed him in the eye with the cross he still wore. The assassin reveals he wasn't the brother of the slave girl, but rather her husband.

In the fourth circle, Greed, Dante encounters Alighiero, now a grotesque and obese demon. Alighiero admits he was promised by Lucifer to kill Dante in order to be rewarded with endless gold and a thousand years free of torture. Dante recall the past while he was young, his father missed the last gold, he yelled at his son if he knew where is it. Alighiero then yelled at his wife Bella if she has some gold. She replied she hasn't, but Alighiero believed she was lying, and he beat her. Dante tried to defend him from beating Bella, only to be overpowered by his father. Back to the circle, Dante berates him how many gold Alighiero stole from the poors to fund wild parties. Alighiero states After overcoming the puzzles of the fallen God of Wealth Plutus, Dante defeats Alighiero, and uses Beatrice's now-enchanted cross to absolve him.

In the fifth circle, Anger, Dante begins to float across the vile River Styx on what appears to be a floating platform. Upon reaching the other side, however, the platform is in fact the top of the head of the gigantic fiery demon Phlegyas who attacks Dante. Overcoming this, Lucifer appears before Dante with Beatrice. Beatrice, now broken-hearted by Dante's betrayals, willingly gives herself to Lucifer by eating the forbidden fruit, becoming a succubus under Lucifer's influence. Dante rides atop Phlegyas whom he controls to smash down the walls of the City of Dis and into the sixth circle, Heresy where the damned lives for rejecting religions. Beyond lies the seventh circle, Violence. At Phlegethon, Dante and Virgil rides on the centaur Nessus to escape the demons. Geryon takes Dante and Virgil to the Wood of Suicides. Within the woods, Dante encounters Bella. He becomes deeply saddened and enraged, having been told as a child that she died of an illness, but in fact, she hanged herself because of the cruelty of Alighiero. Absolving her mother of the sin, he continues beyond the woods to the Abominable Sands for those violent against God, where Dante also encounters his former comrade and future brother-in-law Francesco, who is now a horribly disfigured version of his former self and desires revenge against Dante for his state of being. Dante remembers that while arguing with Francesco of keeping the Muslim prisoners under the orders of King Richard so that King Richard could obtain a Holy relic, Dante slaughtered many prisoners. King Richard became terrified to see the aftermath of this carnage. He demanded who is responsible for this. Francesco stepped towards him and told he was responsible for this. Angered, the king ordered the other Crusaders to hang Francesco. As Dante is fighting the Saracens, the same assassin appeared behind Dante and stabbed him in the back, making him fall to the knees. Death appeared in front of Dante and informed him he will face the everlasting damnation for his sins. Dante was disillusioned by the fact he believed the bishop's words. He refused to accept his fate and vowed to redeem himself. Dante overpowered him and stole his scythe he later used for rest of the events to bisect Death with that. Upon defeating Francesco, Dante tells him the cause at the Crusader was not holy as the bishop said it was. He then absolves Francesco, and descends into the eighth circle, Fraud.

Dante confronts and criticizes the bishop for lying to him about the Crusade. The bishop, in a last-ditch effort to trick him, tells his superiors lied to him as well. Dante then cuts him in half with his scythe.

Before Dante can reach Lucifer, Beatrice puts him through the challenges of ten stages of the Malebolge, each depicting the fraudsters throughout history from simple thieves to the false popes. At the entrance of the ninth and last circle, Treachery, Dante insists to Beatrice he has faced all of his sins. Beatrice reminds him that he slaughtered the Saracen prisoners out of anger and that Francesco died taking the blame for it. Realizing that he has sinned beyond redemption, Dante admits that his place is in Hell and asks Beatrice to forgive him. This act of supreme sacrifice undoes Beatrice's transformation and restores her to her former self. The Archangel Gabriel descends and takes Beatrice to Heaven as he promises Dante will see her again and that his redemption is close at hand.

Venturing through the icy realm of Treachery and fighting his way to Lake Cocytus, Dante breaks the Chains of Judecca, unknowingly freeing Lucifer from his eternal imprisonment. At the Lake Cocytus, Lucifer, whose true form is a horned satyr-like monster, emerges from the giant monster to fight Dante. Dante manages to defeat him by stabbing him repeatedly in the back with his scythe. Lucifer shows him the vision of his life where the assassin stabbed Dante in back, making him collapse to the ground. Dante is horrified he died, thus his soul cannot leave Hell as forbidden by God. Lucifer gleefully declares that, now free, can leave Hell, rise from Hell, invade Earth and Heaven, and overthrow God. However, Dante manages to stop and imprison Lucifer again with the help of the souls he collected despite Lucifer claiming he can reunite him and Beatrice.

Dante is taken to the Purgatory, where he sees himself completely naked near Mount Purgatory with Beatrice's soul awaiting him in Paradise. He then rips off the tapestry. As the tapestry disintegrates to a snake that slithers, Lucifer's laugh is heard, implying he awaits his revenge.

Development
Motive Studios revealed the trailer as well as the gameplay footage for the remake of Dante's Inferno at E3 2022, and showcased the game there. It won at least two awards and the short demo was well received by critics.

In July 2018, realizing the sequel for the 2010 game of the same name was cancelled since the closure of Visceral Games in October 2017, Motive Studios decided to develop the remake of Dante's Inferno. During five years of working on the game, all the actors and actresses who were casted for the live-action film joined the cast for the remake of the game. In addition, the others were casted as most of the damned souls who didn't appear in the film.

Shortly before E3, Motive Studios tweeted on their Tweeter account showing the image of the remake. This sparked an interest at the EA community.

A playable demo was released on August 18, 2023. It received many good reviews as it was seen as a revived version of the 2010 game.

Downloadable content
Upon its release, a series of downloadable content (DLC) game packs were released, each containing a number of souls.

All the alternative costumes from the 2010 game were brought back to the remake. Those included Crusader that Dante wore at the beginning, Florentine Dante based on the real life poet Dante Alighieri, and Isaac Clarke Space Suit which was taken from Isaac Clarke, the protagonist of Dead Space series which was also published by Electronic Arts. Furthermore, the remake also featured the new costumes such as Gothic Dante and Ash Williams from Evil Dead series.

The first traditional piece of downloadable content was released on October 27, 2023, entitled Dark Forest, a prologue level loosely based on the opening of The Divine Comedy, that sees Dante in a dark forest before arriving at his villa. The content includes two new enemies known as "Forest Siren" and "Death Knight" and involves a series of puzzles to overcome.

The Trials of St. Lucia was released on November 24, 2023. It featured online Multiplayer gameplay of up two online players in Co-Op mode with Dante and a new playable character named St. Lucia, the Christian martyr and the guardian angel of Dante. It also featured a create/upload feature which the players could build and customize the sequences of the fighting arenas called trials and upload them to an online community for the other players to play, vote and rate.