If the title doesn't conjure up images of demons and fiery torment for you then knowing that the developer is Visceral Games, the team behind the Dead Space series, should be enough to paint a picture of what to expect here. Dante's Inferno is a third person action adventure game set in the particularly horrific depiction of hell described by the Italian poet Dante Aligieri.
Dante vividly pictured a tiered, nine levelled hell in Inferno - the first book of his poem The Divine Comedy. In this, Dante takes the reader on a tour of the underworld, beginning on the outer reaches of hell and travelling deeper towards the abode of Lucifer himself, detailing the horrors and uniqueness of each tier as he passes through. One has to wonder, when looking at the visual potential of the poem, why something like this hasn't been attempted before.
Visceral Games have of course taken considerable liberties with the text, adapting certain elements of the story into something more fitting for a video game. For a start, Dante is no longer a passive observer being guided through the fire and brimstone depths; he's been re-cast as a dead crusader with a badass scythe and a substantial bone to pick with Satan himself.
The story of Visceral's interpretation has Dante pursuing his murdered fiancée Beatrice into the afterlife, discovering that Lucifer has plans to use her to obtain freedom from hell. When Death confronts Dante as he exits the living world Dante kills him and takes his scythe, setting the stage for some blade wielding action in the nine circles of hell.
The game play of Dante's Inferno looks to be fairly generic - it's a hack and slash action adventure, the real hook being the setting. That said, it does have a couple neat tricks up its sleeve. Dante has two primary weapons at his disposal; the aforementioned scythe for basic combat and a cross given to Dante by Beatrice that can send blasts of light to destroy the damned.
Giving Dante's Inferno an edge is the beast taming ability. The demons of hell make use of huge creatures as mounts. If you can unseat one of these demons you can steal their beast and put to use whatever powers it might have at its disposal. From fire-breathing to ramming your cursed enemies, beast taming offers some fun new aspects to the game play.