Inferno

Inferno is a puzzle game that follows Dante Alighieri through the Nine Circles of Hell, adapting his poem of the same name. You solve more than 100 puzzles as Dante and, at points, Virgil, using mechanics that change as you descend. Between levels, the game presents passages from the poem, a built-in dictionary for its words and characters, and 50 colorized classical paintings and engravings by Gustave Doré and other artists.

The journey through Hell

The journey begins in a dark forest, where you learn the controls and physics through Sokoban-style box pushing and ladders. Dante meets Virgil, who guides him through the gates of Hell. In the Vestibule, you learn more about gravity and carrying boxes on your head before the two meet Charon, who takes them across the first river.

In Limbo, Dante and Virgil speak with Greek and Roman philosophers among trees and green meadows. The Circle of Lust shifts to storms and violent winds, with puzzles based on locks and keys. In the Circle of Gluttony, you can push inhabitants who keep moving in the same direction until they hit a wall. The Circle of Greed introduces patrolling souls, called walkers, whose movement you can manipulate.

Puzzles and mechanics

In the Circle of Wrath, Dante carries light sources and combines lights of different colors to break light-sensitive blocks. The Circle of Heresy includes a sliding square puzzle, the Towers of Hanoi, a Tetris puzzle and other classical puzzles. In the Circle of Violence, Virgil helps Dante solve puzzles, and you can switch between the two characters. The Circle of Fraud uses sand blocks that break when touched.

At the Well of Giants, Dante and Virgil climb and manipulate three chained giants to solve puzzles. The Circle of Treachery combines mechanics from earlier circles: breakable ice blocks and walkers feature in puzzles where you carve paths for the walkers and build mechanical circuits. The journey ends with a showdown at the centre of Hell and an epilogue.

The circles and their inhabitants

The poem’s settings and figures shape each stage. Limbo is home to souls who chose neither good nor evil, the unbaptized and people who lived before Christianity; its green-lit meadows are inhabited by philosophers. In the Circle of Lust, Dante and Virgil meet Cleopatra, Tristan and Helen of Troy, and hear Francesca’s tragic love story. The souls of the lustful are hurled about by an infernal hurricane.

The muddy Circle of Gluttony is home to gluttons condemned to turn in the mud. In the Circle of Greed, the avaricious and spendthrifts push huge bags of money. The wrathful lie beneath the swampy river Styx, while heretics such as Epicurus and the heretical Pope Anastasius II stand in flaming tombs. The Circle of Violence is divided into three rounds: the boiling-blood river Phlegethon, a dark forest where people become trees, and a desert under raining fire.

In Malebolge, the ditches of the Circle of Fraud, different kinds of fraudsters are punished according to their crimes. The Well of Giants lies between Fraud and Treachery; its three giants are chained for rebelling against God. In the icy deepest circle, traitors are frozen inside the ice, with their tears freezing on their faces.

Changing settings and sound

Each circle has its own atmosphere, lighting, music and puzzle themes. The forest is relatively bright, with relaxing but somber music; Limbo uses greenish light and slow, mysterious music. Lust brings blue and purple tones, rain and wind, while Gluttony is brown and yellow, with mud, rain, hail and medieval-style music.

Greed uses green and gold with music that is relaxing but eerie. Wrath is very dark, with oppressive, creepy music. Heresy has black walls, ramparts and towers, accompanied by dark, mysterious music that is gentler than Wrath’s. Fraud is fiery red with an intense soundtrack, while the stone-colored Well of Giants has turquoise lighting and water running down its walls. Treachery is covered in ice, with cold winds and slower, mysterious music.