This project had the chance to match the impact of Assassin’s Creed 2. Dante’s Purgatorio was to show the war of hell and heaven

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Visceral Games is often remembered as one of the most sorely missed game development studios from the 2010s. Best known for the Dead Space series, they also created Dante’s Inferno, a 2010 action game inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which gained a loyal following. However, despite its fans, the game didn’t perform well enough financially for its publisher, Electronic Arts, to approve a sequel.

Despite the cancellation of a sequel to Dante’s Inferno, the development team had completed a significant amount of planning – around 240 pages worth of documentation. While details were kept secret for a while, a recent article on IGN revealed a lot about the game’s intended features. Instead of summarizing the entire game, I’ll focus on some particularly interesting aspects.

Climbing through purgatory

Originally, EA planned a sequel to Dante’s Inferno called Dante’s Purgatorio (though they also considered Dante’s Inferno 2: Purgatorio). The game would have continued the story, shifting the setting to Purgatory. Players would have controlled Dante Alighieri, reimagined as a brave warrior, as he found himself caught between warring angels and demons.

The developers didn’t intend Dante’s Purgatorio to just continue the story of the previous game. They aimed for it to be a significant leap forward, similar to how Assassin’s Creed II improved upon the first Assassin’s Creed. Notably, the game’s script was co-written by Joshua Rubin, who also worked on the story for Ezio Auditore. The plan was to build on the existing successful formula by adding new features, with a more robust climbing system being a key improvement. According to creative director Jonathan Knight in an IGN interview:

I want this to be the best climbing game out there, better than Uncharted or Tomb Raider.

The developers set out to create something ambitious. They didn’t want a simple system where the character just automatically climbed by sticking to walls. Instead, they envisioned each climbing section as a unique puzzle, requiring players to find the best route through tricky paths and unstable terrain. They also moved away from the repetitive arena-tunnel-arena level structure of the first game, opting for more original and creative designs.

A bloody journey

The core of the game would involve traveling through different areas and fighting enemies. You’d encounter a variety of foes, including demons and aggressive angels. The boss battles, in particular, were designed to be incredibly memorable – largely because the bosses were massive in scale. Some of the key opponents included Lilith wielding her scythe, the powerful vicar of St. Peter, Archangel Gabriel, Beatrice as the queen of hell, the giant Phlegyas, Archangel Uriel, and ultimately, Lucifer in a final, climactic battle.

The battles will be quick and action-packed, demanding constant movement and skillful combos using a variety of weapons and abilities, just like the original game. Players will have access to new tools like a scythe (taken from Lilith), a cross for ranged attacks, and powerful Spirit Powers. These powers include a long-distance leap, the ability to possess enemies, enhanced dodging and sprinting, and even angelic wings for flight. As the game progresses, Dante will also unlock the ability to see hidden angelic structures, which will visually change the environments he explores.

The game’s version of purgatory is designed as a mountain – a stark contrast to hell. Like Dante’s Inferno, the world is split into seven distinct circles. Within these circles, Dante will discover Vision Caves, allowing the developers to show flashbacks of his life. These flashbacks will force him to deal with past errors and confront the physical forms of his sins.

Alone against the forces of hell and heaven

Dante finds himself battling both demons and angels, a tricky situation even with help from allies like Virgil, Saint Lucy, and Beatrice (before she becomes queen of hell). Some angels, such as Gabriel and Uriel, initially view him as an enemy and try to stop him. However, Gabriel eventually joins Dante’s side, while Uriel surprisingly betrays heaven – following in Lucifer’s footsteps and siding with evil.

Is Lucifer truly a villain? The game developers aimed to create a complex character, drawing inspiration from works like John Milton’s Paradise Lost. This approach encourages players to consider a different viewpoint and see him as more than just evil.

Although the conclusion of this story might suggest Dante accidentally unleashed hellish powers on heaven instead of rescuing purgatory, everything was actually unfolding according to a larger divine plan. This plan would be fully revealed in the third part of the series, titled Dante’s Paradiso (or Dante’s Inferno 3: Paradiso), which would depict a major heavenly conflict primarily happening on Earth, including locations like medieval Florence. The ultimate goal of this plan was to completely reshape the afterlife, moving away from a system of strict rewards and punishments and instead focusing entirely on love.

Multiplayer

Although Dante’s Purgatorio was designed as a single-player experience, it still showed the industry trend of the time, where publishers frequently pressured developers to add multiplayer features. This was done to extend a game’s lifespan and reduce the rate at which players would finish with it and resell it. The planned sequel to Dante’s Inferno was intended to include both cooperative and competitive modes, allowing players to participate in battles between angels and demons.

What happened next?

Despite its initial promise, Dante’s Inferno didn’t receive a follow-up. The development team moved on to create the Dead Space series, and then worked on Battlefield Hardline. Their final released game was Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, which came out in March 2013. They later started working on Ragtag with Amy Hennig, but that project was canceled in October 2017, ultimately leading to the studio’s closure. However, the details of that closure are a story for another time.

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2025-11-29 23:04