Dante's inferno

The gameplay of the game is characteristic of many games of the slasher genre. The player controls a character who, moving around locations, destroys many enemies (in this game, they are demons). As in many games of this genre, the main character’s weapons are designed for a large radius, to defeat a larger number of enemies. Boss battles are implemented in the likeness of God of War , the player at the beginning simply fights with the boss, and then uses the quick press of the necessary buttons to permanently destroy him. The game also has puzzles, the solution of which requires the player not only thinking, but also reaction. The levels themselves are many connected platforms. There are also places that you need to climb in jumps: both conventional and using weapons. The player’s total amount of weapons is small: the Scythe of Death and the Holy Crucifix. There are also many abilities that can be discovered using the necessary souls. If the enemy is killed (Scythe Death), then his soul passes to the Scythe of Death, and if released (Crucifixion), then his soul passes to the Crucifixion.

The game takes place in 1191. Returning after the third crusade , where the hero of Dante fought against Saladin and stormed Jerusalem , the good and faithful man turned into a cruel and calculating warrior who obeys all the orders of bishops distraught from religion. They promised to absolve him of all sins, if only he continued to fight against the infidels. Intoxicated by impunity and hatred, Dante is mired in the sins of debauchery and murder. Remembering that he had sworn allegiance to his beloved Beatrice, having sealed his oath on a holy crucifix (the name Beatrice (Italian: Beatrice ) is a reference to the real lover of the poet Dante Alighieri), he decides to reunite with his beloved. Returning home, he discovers that his father and lover are killed. Maddened by grief, he becomes a witness, as Beatrice, who arrived for the soul of the devil , abducts her. The hero goes in search of his beloved right to the underworld . He is destined to go through all nine circles of hell, one for every mortal sin and fight with the most terrible guards of the underworld and face off with Lucifer himself. In this difficult journey, Dante is accompanied by one of the inhabitants of Limb , the poet Virgil .

Trials of St Lucia

Tests of Saint Lucia was released on April 29, 2010, includes a game editor for missions and a cooperative mode. The new game character in this expansion is Saint Lucia , a Christian martyr portrayed as the guardian angel of Dante.

The advertising campaign of the game was built by Electronic Arts on the principles of viral marketing , exploiting, first of all, topics related to deadly sins and hell. Thus, the GameStop chain of stores as part of the promotion of the game on September 9, 2009 (September 9, 09) provided a discount of $ 6 66 cents for pre-ordering the game; and the date and size of the discount are references to the Number of the Beast - 666 ^[5] .

Checks for $ 200 were sent to a number of gaming reviewers with the following letter: “In Dante's Inferno, Greed is a beast with two heads. One is nourished by skopidomstvo, the other by wasting wealth. By cashing this check, you will succumb to greed by appropriating unclean money; without cashing out - scramble for nothing, falling into squandering . ” Journalists resolved the dilemma in different ways: Brian Krechente from Kotaku.com burned his check, Christopher Grant from Joystiq.com chose to cash the check, saying that he would donate the money to charity ^[6] .

In a similar fashion, parcels containing a sturdy wooden crate were sent to the editors of Qore and PlayStation: The Official Magazine , as well as to independent columnist Ben Kroshaw ( Yahtzee ). When trying to open the drawer, the built-in player started playing the song “ Never Gonna Give You Up ” by Rick Astley , exploiting the popular Internet meme re - rolling . There was no other way to stop annoying music than to break the box with the hammer attached to the parcel. A note inside the box informed reporters that they succumbed to the sin of anger ^{[7] [8]} .

In parallel with the Dante's Inferno promotion, an advertising campaign was launched for the nonexistent Mass: We Pray game, supposedly a simulator of Christian church rites, offering to send them home during the game using a cross-shaped controller reminiscent of Wii Remote . When trying to pre-order the game on the official website of the game ^{[9], the} user was shown a message reproaching him for heresy , and the trailer "Dante's Inferno" ^[10] .

The television commercial of the game, first shown during the Super Bowl XLIV match - the record TV show in the history of television in the United States ^[11] - was a video sequence from the game to Bill Withers' sharply contrasted song with it. A columnist for Time magazine called the ad “something magical and funny.” ^[12]

A demo version of the game was released on December 10, 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and December 24, 2009 for the Xbox 360 ^[13] .