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Name: Dante's Inferno

It's not often that you'll come across a video game based upon a poem, but that's just what you've got here. Dante's Inferno hits the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 courtesy of Visceral Games and Electronic Arts. They've taken it upon themselves to base their latest romp on the Italian 1308 poem, The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, it's a poem that consists of over 14,000 lines, so it's quite an epic poem and one that tells a tale. The poem itself it steeped in medieval Christian mythology and details the story of Dante as he travels through the afterlife, while the game takes its cue and title from the first part of this classic masterpiece it does re-imagine certain aspects of it to fit, but, the core of the idea remains the same.

In the title Dante is now based upon a Templar Knight, his beloved wife, Beatrice, has been taken from him by Lucifer, to reclaim her Dante has to travel through nine circles of hell, each of which is themed around a certain sin such as Gluttony, Greed and Anger to name but a few. We join Dante in a battle during the Third Crusade at the city of Acre on a mission to retrieve a holy relic. Before he can complete his mission an Assassin makes his move on Dante and stabs him in the back. The spectre of Death soon appears and damn's Dante's soul for the atrocities he has committed. An enraged Dante attacks Death and ultimately wins, he takes Death's Scythe as a trophy and leaves the Crusades to begin a life of atonement. As a sign of his penance he sows a cross shaped tapestry to his chest (not unlike his Templar Knight uniform) depicting every sin he has committed in the name of his God. After he returns home and finds Beatrice and his father murdered, the ground below him opens and Dante descends into Hell. At the gates he is met by Virgil who agrees to help him journey through the Circles of Hell in order to save Beatrice from Lucifer.

You take control of Dante from a third person perspective; it's a good old fashioned hack and slasher. Dante uses Death's Scythe as his main weapon to mow down the demons and the undead, it's the usual affair of one button producing a light attack and another to produce a heavier attack, Beatrice's cross also comes in handy for long range attacks as it has the power to send Holy Light towards your attackers. As your attackers fall foul of your Scythe they will release souls for you to collect, these souls can be used to upgrade your powers and weapons when you've collected enough of them. The upgrades give you access to more powerful attacks and more combination's, although you must upgrade your overall level before you can use them, many a time you'll upgrade the attacks before you can use them which is a little odd.

To aid in the collection of souls you'll be able to Punish or Absolve your attackers if you grab them; Punishing them sees them die in a horrific manner and Absolving them of their sins sees them rise to heaven, doing either will raise a power bar giving you access to higher levels of upgrades which are aligned to good and evil. Your enemies aren't the only denizens that must be Punished or Absolved either, you'll come across tormented souls of historical figures such as Pontius Pilate, these must be dealt with as you see fit. Punishing them sends them straight to the depths of hell, but, should you choose to absolve them then you'll get the chance to earn extra souls in the form of a mini-game. The mini-game is straight forward enough, you must collect the souls as they cross a path, a button press is all it takes as the souls come in from the four sides of the screen, once they pass over a certain point you have to press the corresponding button and you'll collect the soul. It's not as easy as it sounds because for each soul you collect the speed of the others will increase, still, it's not a hard system to get to grips with.

As you progress through Hell you'll come across Relics which are again both aligned with Holy and Unholy magical properties, you'll get these given if you talk to Virgil enough or you'll find souls hanging onto them. These Relics will enhance your abilities, some will enable you to launch more devastating attacks while some will protect you, others allow you to harvest more souls. Like the attack system you'll often come across these relics before you can actually use them, one of the very first you get requires you to absolve enough souls to reach Holy Level 3 before you can use it, again, it's an odd choice but it's not something it suffers for.

Dante can also use magic, this is granted to him by various characters whom he meets on his journey through hell and also adds an additional versatility to the armoury against the damned. However, the magic isn't unlimited and regular top-up's of his mana bar must be collected from the various chests that are scattered around Hell. Likewise, Dante must replenish his health from similar chests should it become low. Other chests can be found that contain bonus souls or even other collectable items such as the Judas Coins and Beatrice Stones which can come in handy throughout the game.