Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno is a 2010 third-person action adventure for PSP, published by Electronic Arts and developed for the handheld by Artificial Mind & Movement in collaboration with EA Redwood Shores. Loosely reimagining the first part of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, it turns the poet into a battle-worn Crusader and sends him through a grotesque vision of the afterlife.

After returning from war, Dante finds his beloved Beatrice dead and her soul claimed by Lucifer. He follows her into Hell, with the spirit of Virgil serving as his guide, and crosses the nine circles from Limbo to the frozen depths of Treachery. The journey mixes a rescue story with Dante's own reckoning, as memories and condemned souls expose the violence, betrayal, and broken promises behind his mission.

Combat centers on Death's Scythe, a close-range weapon built for quick strings, heavier blows, aerial attacks, and brutal finishing moves. Beatrice's Holy Cross complements it with ranged holy projectiles, giving the portable game a way to pressure enemies beyond scythe reach. Blocking, evasion, wall climbing, environmental hazards, and occasional puzzles break up the arena fights.

A holy and unholy progression system gives the action a moral flavor. Dante can punish defeated foes for unholy power or absolve them with the Cross to earn holy experience; collected souls can then be spent on new attacks and abilities. Relics found during the descent add equipable bonuses, while magic drawn from a mana supply expands the combat options with supernatural attacks.

The nine circles are treated as distinct hostile spaces filled with demons, damned shades, hazards, and imagery adapted freely from the poem. Major confrontations include enormous creature encounters and bosses, with quick-time sequences used for some finishing chains and boss attacks. Famous figures and sinners can also appear as encounters whose fate Dante helps decide.

This PSP release is a handheld adaptation of the same core campaign rather than a separate side story. Its presentation is scaled down for the system, but it retains the rapid action, two-weapon setup, upgrades, platforming, and journey through Hell that define the game. The tighter controls and reduced visual detail make it a compact version of the console experience for play on the go.

Dante's Inferno is deliberately a dark, violent interpretation rather than a faithful literary retelling. Its Mature rating reflects graphic combat, disturbing monsters, and sexual imagery, while its design prioritizes momentum: clearing rooms, building upgrades, finding collectibles, and pushing onward toward Beatrice and Lucifer at the bottom of Hell.