The Beautiful Horror of Dante’s Inferno

Thanks to the brilliance of the X-Box One’s backwards compatibility service I’ve been able to experience some wonderful games that I missed on original release due to bowing out of the console gaming arena for a few years.

The most recent of these I’ve enjoyed is Dante’s Inferno, a graphic, brutal and incredibly fun interpretation of the first part of Italian poet Dante Alighieri‘s epic poem The Divine Comedy.

If you are not aware, Inferno tells the story of Dante’s journey through the Nine Circles of Hell. On his way he witnesses all kinds of demons, devils and torments. Absolutely perfect themes for an action/horror video game!

Originally released in 2010, Dante’s Inferno was developed by Visceral Games, the studio who had two years earlier released another horror classic, Dead Space. Dante is much more action oriented than Dead Space with the horror of the game coming from the ghastly surroundings and terrifying enemies Dante encounters rather than atmosphere and suspense.

Indeed, Visceral have created a wonderfully realized version of Hell with suffering and woe everywhere you look. Sinners are impaled on spikes, trapped wailing…