Dare you enter Hell with Dante's Inferno?

Things are getting a bit hot on PlayStation 3, compliments of Electronic Arts. Find out more about the sizzler that is Dante's Inferno.

There are nine circles of Hell. At least there are according to Dante Alighieri's classic Renaissance poem The Divine Comedy. And now Electronic Arts wants you to explore them all along with the first part of Alighieri's poem in Dante's Inferno. Are you able to withstand the heat?

Hell's kitchen

A third person action adventure, Dante's Inferno throws you into the bowels of Hell and tasks you to survive its brimstone carnage and monstrous inhabitants. Taking the role of Dante, you embark on an epic journey to rescue the soul of his beloved Beatrice.

With a modicum of artistic license applied to the classic poem to allow more of an action slant to proceedings, the game features a slightly more ramped up version of Dante, who boasts the attire of a Crusader veteran and weapons that err more on the side of fantasy - in this case, the powerful scythe of Death itself and a Holy Cross which can be used for magic based attacks.

Purists shouldn't worry, however - Dante is accompanied by Roman poet Virgil and there is still a large amount of thematic exploration into the realm of sin as you descend into the nine circles named limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery, each boasting geography crafted straight from the poem's vivid descriptions.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

The backgrounds of these domains simmer with activity, whether it's a ranting and raging giant foe which you'll encounter later in the game or the tortured struggle of lost souls, whose flailing limbs also double up as a climbable wall for Dante.

Given his new action hero style and weapons, Dante himself is quite adept at beating back the fiends of Hell, capable of upgradable savage assaults, swift evasion, all encompassing magical strikes and massive combination moves, all necessary to survive the various enemies who often attack en masse and range from creepy demonic blade wielding babies to toxic vomiting and gluttonous beasts.

Dante's Inferno doesn't skimp on scale, either. There are a myriad of colossal monsters which attempt to put an end to the hero's quest, however these can be commandeered once their riders have been dispatched to create maximum havoc on the remaining foes with smashing assaults, fire breathing and more. There are also huge set pieces true to the game's action movie style, requiring you to perform duties such as clambering up the body of a giant and using him as transport after forceful persuasion - or large boss confrontations which require multiple stages of tactics as well as ample button combinations to defeat.

And the moral is...

There is also one other mechanic key to EA's game, which is morality. Along your journey you'll come across lost souls who will give you the choice of absolving or punishing them. Your decision plays into a risk/reward factor - punishing them may be gratifying and gain you souls for power upgrades, although absolving them potentially means a greater reward of soul power if you succeed at a skill-based mini-game. Failure leaves you empty handed.

The heat is being turned up in the action adventure genre with Dante's Inferno - make sure you check out the latest trailers and keep up to date with eu.playstation.com for more on this Hell-bound title.