Dante's Inferno: Hands-On With "Gates of Hell" Demo

In Greek mythology, a doomed soul would pay a gold coin to Charon the ferryman in order to cross the River Styx and enter Hades. This Thursday, PlayStation 3 owners will be able to take their miniature tour through hell for free with a demo level of Dante's Inferno, the upcoming action game from EA's Visceral Games studio. The demo will be available on December 24 for Xbox Live, and today we had a chance to play through that demo and get another look at a later level of Dante's harrowing adventure in the underworld.

First up is the demo, which features the opening level of the game and sets up the necessary backstory for Dante's plunge into the nine circles of hell. The opening scene gives you a look at Dante's life as a Crusader--and hints at some of the sins Dante committed during his service. After you get some quick background on the Crusades, the action begins with Dante, armed only with a halberd, fighting against enemy soldiers in the city of Acre, not far from Jerusalem. The halberd is a far cry from the powerful scythe you'll be armed with for the majority of the game; nonetheless, Dante is a powerful fighter and you'll make quick work of the enemy soldiers by using both light and heavy attacks (tied to the X and Y buttons on the Xbox 360 controller, respectively).

After defeating the first handful of soldiers, Dante scampers his way to a new area where he is subsequently stabbed in the back by an assassin. It's here that Dante comes face-to-face with Death himself. Dante, being the badass that he is, however, isn't about to succumb to Death, and thus begins the first boss fight of the game. Death vs. Dante doesn't sound like a fair fight--and the fight took us a couple of tries to get right--but with a bit of careful blocking (using the left trigger) and dodging (by flicking the right stick in any direction), we were able to defeat Death by snatching his famed scythe out of his hands and turning it on him. In fact, one of our favorite bits from the demo featured Death begging for mercy before Dante split him down the middle and sent him to wherever Death goes when he dies.

Death defeated and scythe in hand, Dante returns home to his farm in the Italian countryside, only to find his home ransacked, his servants dead, and his beloved Beatrice dead in the backyard. Rushing to Beatrice, Dante watches as her soul escapes her body and is then joined by a smoky figure we learn is a manifestation of Lucifer himself. Satan absconds with Beatrice, and Dante immediately gives chase.

In no time, the ground erupts as Satan's undead minions begin climbing out of the dirt and attacking Dante. After defeating a handful of them--you earn enough souls to buy some new combo moves in the game's upgrade screen. You upgrade your powers via holy paths (to upgrade your cross weapon) or unholy paths (to upgrade your scythe). In the demo you'll be earning more souls than in the full game in order to get a better taste of the upgrades that will be available to you. We upgraded Dante with, among other powers, an upgraded heavy attack that launched enemies into the air (perfect for midair juggling attacks).

After another wave of baddies are sent back to the grave, Dante heads to his local church, where he finds Beatrice lying on the altar. Beatrice accuses Dante of "breaking his promise" and after, a brief stylized cutscene (showing Dante swearing to Beatrice to forsake all pleasures of the flesh, followed by a malevolent-looking Pope forgiving the Crusader recruits for all their sins), Beatrice once again disappears. After that, the walls of the church begin to crumble, and you realize that Dante is now in hell and the long descent has begun.

Death begging for his life: Irony?

You won't see much of hell in the demo--just enough to get used to using Dante's holy cross (which effectively is a ranged weapon) and earn a magic spell that acts as a sort of dash attack. You also get a look at Dante's redemption ability--by performing combos and other powerful moves, you'll fill up a Redemption meter. When it's filled you activate Redemption by pressing the right and left bumper--which will temporarily make Dante faster and stronger than normal. You'll tangle with a few more powerful demons, as well as a huge demonic mount, similar to the one we saw on board the living ship Charon in an earlier look at the game. After taking control of the mount and killing a few more minions, it was time to bid a fond farewell to the underworld with the end of the demo.

That wasn't all we saw of Dante's Inferno, however. We also got a further look at the Anger level. The scenario we saw (but didn't play for ourselves, alas) was near the end of the level, just outside the gates of the City of Dis, which holds the four inner circles of hell. The scene opened up with Dante in midfight against a horde of minions and demons, while the gigantic Phlegyas (the giant demon who ferries Dante across the River Styx on top of his head, as seen in an earlier look at the game) does his best to kill everything onscreen. Avoiding Phlegyas' attacks while taking on the demon enemies is a challenge, but if you're careful, you can have the big guy do a chunk of your work for you--as when he sprays the entire platform you're fighting on with a blast of fiery breath (which you can avoid with a double jump or two).

Once the fight was finished, producers paused the game to give us a quick look at the upgrade screens, particularly those dealing with the holy/unholy upgrades for Dante's cross and scythe. You increase your holy or unholy level by absolving or punishing enemies in the game. To do so, you first grab them using the right trigger, and then you choose to either absolve or punish them; you then mash the appropriate button to finish the move and earn the souls as a result. Souls you earn will fill up your holy or unholy meter, and there are seven levels for each path. Each new level will grant you access to new abilities you can purchase--new combos and attacks as well as rewards like a larger health or mana bar, among other things.

Producers told us that it's unlikely you'll be able to maximize your level on both the holy and unholy paths after one play-through--but thanks to a feature that will let you keep everything you earned the first time through upon playing the game a second time, you'll be able to max out Dante's powers in the early goings of a second trip to hell. We also got a glimpse at the relic screen, where you'll be able to add modifier relics (there are 32 to find hidden throughout the underworld). These passive modifiers will give you abilities like causing damage when rolling or earning mana when killing enemies. You can equip two relics at the start, and you can buy additional relic slots as you go.

Continuing through the Anger level, we watched an impressively rendered cutscene that featured Dante in a confrontation with Beatrice and Lucifer. In his bid to destroy Dante's will, Lucifer tempts Beatrice with a conjured fruit, the seeds of which she eats, thus transforming her into a malevolent queen of sorts; the two then share a rather intimate moment in clear sight of Dante before disappearing. Of course, it will take more than Beatrice macking on the Devil to thwart Dante--a man who was shown earlier in the game sewing a cloth Christian cross into his own skin--and he leaps back onto Phlegyas' head to give chase.

Every former Crusader needs a bone scythe, a cross sewn into his chest, and arm ribbons.

From there, Dante pilots the massive Phlegyas into the formidable City of Dis. After bashing a hole through the rock wall that surrounds the city, you begin a sequence of wanton destruction as you move Phlegyas through the city, toppling towers and killing the tiny demons that are unable to slow your progress. As producers told us, this is basically a playground of destruction--you'll be tough, if not impossible, to kill, and you'll be earning souls for any and all destruction you cause, giving you a nice cache of souls to spend on upgrades after you're done.

With each new glimpse into the dark and forbidding world of Dante's Inferno, we continue to be impressed by the imaginative take on the underworld by the Visceral Games art team. Their vision of hell isn't just a place of eternal torment for damned souls; its twisted architecture creates a great game setting, one that is often beautiful in its depiction of suffering. That there are a few additional layers to Dante's combat system than mindless button mashing (though there is plenty of that) gives us hope that the game will continue to be interesting the further down into hell you descend.

Look for the Dante's Inferno demo for the PlayStation 3 on December 10 and for Xbox Live on December 24. (In the EU, the demo will appear on December 24 for both systems.) Dante's Inferno will be released to retail on February 9.