It follows Dante, imagined as a Templar knight from The Crusades, who, guided by the spirit of the poet Virgil, must fight through the nine Circles of Hell to rescue his wife Beatrice from the clutches of Lucifer himself.

In addition, Dante can use numerous magic based attacks and abilities channeled from a mana pool to help in combat, many of which are obtained as the game progresses.

A quick time event system is used when attempting to discharge the demon of its master (unbind from host) and during boss fights, where players must press the highlighted button on screen in order to continue the chain of attacks, or be countered and wounded otherwise.

There is also a series of environment-based puzzle sequences that can impair the progress of Dante's quest, such as requiring the correct positioning of movable objects or pulling levers at the appropriate time.

Some known historic figures of Inferno take place as bosses Dante must confront before proceeding, such as Queen Cleopatra (Alison Lees-Taylor) and her lover Mark Antony (Lewis Macleod) as well as King Minos (Richard Moll), who oversees Limbo as the Judge of the Damned.

Upon realizing the extent of his sins, especially not confessing to the prisoners' massacre and allowing Francesco to be executed, Dante resigns his pursuit and admits he belongs in Hell, asking forgiveness to Beatrice while giving her the holy cross back, which redeems her soul for Gabriel to take away to Heaven.

Being shifted away to Mount Purgatory by Beatrice, Dante removes his original skin-stitched cross tapestry now turned black as he starts his pilgrimage to the mountain top, stating he "did not die, and yet did not live".

[15] In addition, EA conducted an unsolicited mailing in which checks for $200 were sent to selected video game critics, with the following note: "In Dante's Inferno, Greed is a two-headed beast.

Around 20 protesters, claiming to be from a church in Ventura County, held up signs that called the game sacrilegious and labeled it possibly insensitive to people's beliefs.

When attempting to order the game, the website deems you a heretic and plays to a trailer for Dante's Inferno, as well as providing links to the related Facebook application called "Go to Hell".

[22] The application, created by Visceral Games lets users condemn their friends, groups, or photos to one of the nine circles of hell where they can then vote to punish or absolve them, or torment them with activities like "beast massage" or "succubus castration.

"[23] Later in October 2009, EA sent a series of packages to Veronica Belmont at Qore, the PlayStation: The Official Magazine offices and Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of the Escapist's Zero Punctuation column.

The package contained a small wooden box which, when opened, played the Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up", thus "Rickrolling" the journalists that received it.

[25] EA produced a commercial for the game that was shown during Super Bowl XLIV, a fast-paced cinematic of Dante's descent into hell, overplayed by what was considered an unusual use of Bill Withers' song "Ain't No Sunshine".

You shall pay for thy treachery by spending an eternity immersed up to your face, the place where shame shows itself, in the putrid, frozen waters of Hell."

[34] While some critics like IGN acknowledged the liberties taken with the original source material, they still observed that "much of what you see is appropriate for a game that tries to explore the extreme nature of Hell and its punishments", calling the overall style "visually impressive".

[36] PlayStation Official Magazine – UK also echoed this view, saying that the game was "just going through motions for the last three or four hours", despite what it considered to have a "robust fighting system" and being "visually strong".

[38] While Game Informer also found the gameplay to be too familiar, they did find the additional elements such as the punish/absolve mechanic and usable relics to give the title "some individuality".

[33] Wired gave the PS3 version a score of seven stars out of ten and called it "a ballsy take on literature that worships at the altar of God of War.

"[48] However, Nick Cowen of The Daily Telegraph gave the same version six out of ten, saying that it was "by no means a terrible game, but it's not an essential title and I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it.

Club gave the Xbox 360 version a C+, saying, "The game's rivers of blood, corpse-piles, and wailing souls make for a morbid, depression-inducing milieu.

[54] Regarding such similarities, in an interview for PlayStation Official Magazine – UK, God of War III director Stig Asmussen instead praised the game, stating "We've been intrigued about Dante's Inferno.

United States NPD Group sales data showed that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Dante's Inferno sold 242,500 and 224,700 copies respectively in February 2010, its first month of release.

"[60] However, GameSpot said that the PS3 version "does an admirable job of turning the worst idea from the original adventure into something entertaining, but it's still hampered by the same problems that made those initial trials such a drag.

However, the in-depth editor, extra playable character, and cooperative mode are different enough to lure back anyone anxious to be wrapped up in hell's clutches for a few more hours.

"[59] In October 2009, it was announced that the game would include a PlayStation 3 trophy and an Xbox 360 achievement entitled "Bad Nanny", which is awarded to players for killing monsters resembling children, supposedly the lost souls of unbaptized infants.

[69] In 2013 it was reported that Universal Studios is developing a live action film based on the video game with director Fede Álvarez to direct and produced by Eric Newman and Marc Abraham with EA Entertainment vice president Patrick O'Brien.

[70][71] Dante appears as a playable character in the PSP version of Army of Two: The 40th Day, unlockable after finishing the game by always making morally-bad choices.

[72] In August 2014, Tal Peleg, senior cinematic animator at Naughty Dog, released a fan-made CGI short movie inspired by the game, titled Dante's Redemption.

[74] Since the game ends in a cliffhanger with Dante reaching Mount Purgatory, it was widely speculated that a sequel, based on the second poem in The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, would enter production.