"Dante's Inferno" celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.However, EA didn't hold any celebrations.This action game launched by Visceral Games in 2010 tells the story of the crusader Dante as he journeys through the nine levels of hell in order to rescue his fiancée Beatrice from Lucifer.But it didn't have the huge, trend-setting impact that publisher EA had hoped.The original plan to launch a larger and more ambitious sequel was quietly shelved.

For more than a decade, the game's massive fanbase has been speculating about what would happen if Dante's Inferno actually existed.The game's story is inspired by the first third of Dante Alighieri's fourteenth-century epic work The Divine Comedy, which charts the author's journey to heaven.Therefore, the sequel could have continued the story to purgatory and finally to heaven.No details have leaked to the internet about the canceled project, other than it would involve a war between heaven and hell.EA kept all its information closely guarded, allowing it to gradually become a legend.

That hasn't changed until today.After speaking with multiple people involved in the project, IGN obtained a slew of never-before-seen internal documents, including concept art, cutscene storyboards, screenshots of basic level geometry, and - last but not least - a 240-page script written by Assassin's Creed 2 co-writer Joshua Rubin, which details every level, boss fight and plot point planned for Dante's Creed 2: Inferno.

Taken together, this information not only indicates that the development of "Dante's Inferno 2" is progressing faster than previously thought, but also indicates that Visceral Studio originally planned to take the sequel in a slightly different direction than expected.For example, the plot would have merged the Divine Comedy with another biblical epic, John Milton's Paradise Lost, and recast Lucifer as a morally ambiguous figure rather than an outright evil character.

The underlying design concept of the sequel has also been readjusted.A former Visceral employee told IGN: "The first game was heavily influenced by God of War, and when we were developing the second game, Uncharted 2 had a huge impact on the single-player game: cutscenes and QTE events were replaced with scripted gameplay, giving the player full control of the character."

Jonathan Knight, the creative director of the original game, said in an interview with IGN that "the original game largely followed the classic hack-and-slash gameplay of the arcade, with the traditional shadow of "Mortal Kombat", while also hinting that he did not want the sequel to continue to follow that path."That kind of design is: here is a scene, there is a gameplay, and then you go through a tunnel to the next part of the level. Some processes in the game are inevitable, but truly great works will find ways to make the environment feel believable and natural."

If the developers had been able to fully realize their creative vision, "Dante's Inferno 2" would have become what "Assassin's Creed 2" was to "Assassin's Creed", or what 2018's "God of War 4" was to the original trilogy: a sequel that dared to break through the framework of the previous game and move to a higher level.

The following is IGN's detailed (but by no means complete) text description of the complete process of the game "Dante's Inferno 2" from beginning to end.

Dante's "Divine Comedy: Inferno" Part 2: Inferno - Complete Story

Level 1: Dream of Eden

According to the script, the second part of "Dante's Inferno" was originally supposed to begin in the Garden of Eden.Dante lies on the grass and wakes up to find himself lying next to Beatrice, holding a baby girl in her arms - Beatrice tells him that this is their daughter."Tell me it's true," he murmured, but when he looked at Beatrice again, both the baby and Beatrice were gone.

At this point, you will control Dante, who will be searching for Beatrice in the garden as the opening credits roll.You can press a button and call her name, she'll respond, and you can follow her voice to find her.By the time you find her, Eden has become extremely dark and dreary.

The boss at the beginning of the game is a giant snake made of black smoke that appears out of thin air.Armed with your trusty sickle and cross, you fight to free Beatrice from its entanglement.However, when you finally find her, she is unrecognizable.She reverted back to the fallen Queen of Hell form from the original game, and said in Lucifer's voice: "You're dead, Dante!" The ground beneath your feet cracked, and you instantly disappeared into the abyss.

Level 2: The Shore of Purgatory

After a title sequence and a "prelude" montage, the game picks up right where the original game's ending cutscene left off: Dante emerges from a cave, so overwhelmed by the majestic view of Mount Purgatory that he doesn't notice that the cruciform tapestry he tore from his chest turns into a small red snake as it hits the ground.

"Despite being defeated in the first game," Knight recalls, "Lucifer is able to return through the device of a tapestry that actually represents Dante's sins. He has not been forgiven and still carries the burden of his sins."

The snake slinks away silently, and Dante sets out to find Beatrice, who, he tells everyone through narration, is waiting for him somewhere on the mountain.

The entire campaign of Hell 2 takes place on Purgatory Mountain.Described by Knights as "the opposite of hell," the mountain is divided into nine levels - or platforms - themed around the seven deadly sins of pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust.There is a huge gate on the cliffside at the base of the mountain, and the Garden of Eden is located on the seemingly unreachable top of the mountain.Each platform acts as a separate campaign level with its own challenges, puzzles, enemies, and caves of illusions.

On the beach at the foot of the mountain, Dante meets Cato, a Roman senator and guardian of Purgatory.Tall and half-embedded in the cliff, he greets a group of new souls, including Beatrice's brother Francesco, a former crusader who was defeated—and pardoned—by Dante in "Inferno."

Dante attempts to follow Francesco to the mountains, but Cato, sensing that he is "tainted by the darkness of hell," stops him.However, when the two were fighting, the red snake that appeared before inexplicably emerged from Cato's mouth and tore his face in half.The beach opened up, revealing a fissure filled with hellfire."This is where it all begins," Lucifer's voice rings out, and his demonic army launches a full-scale invasion of Purgatory.

A cutscene introduces us to God's chief archangel, Michael.Looking down from heaven, the divine ruler assessed Lucifer's forces and then sent his own.The "angel airship" penetrates the clouds above the Garden of Eden and flies down the hillside. Dante finds himself in the middle of a chaotic battle between angels and demons.

Dante was attacked from two sides and faced off with Lilith.Lilith is Adam's wife, who was seduced by Lucifer and now serves as his second-in-command.Similar to the final battle with Death in Inferno, the battle ends with Dante seizing Lilith's weapon: another scythe, but with unique moves.

Pain and prayer

In the sequel, Dante will once again be equipped with his cross (which can unleash holy energy to blast enemies) and a scythe.While the scythe looks and feels very different from the scythe in the previous game, the developers didn't want to make it too different."Dante's Inferno players loved this weapon," a former Visceral employee explained. "It can be retracted and wielded like Kratos's Blade of Chaos. We assembled a dedicated combat team that even included people who had worked on God of War, so we knew we shouldn't completely reinvent the wheel."

In addition to these weapons, Dante will gain access to a new set of psychic abilities that will be learned over the course of the game.The first is "Soul Leap," a skill that allows him to span vast distances.He later learned to control enemies (possession), dodge certain attacks (soul dodge), run at high speeds (soul dash), and, during a battle with the main boss, grow angel wings, allowing him to fly.To use these abilities, players must build up a "Faith Gauge," which once full allows them to enter "Soul Mode," an enhanced state that transforms Dante into an ethereal avatar.

As Lilith reports to Lucifer that everything is "going according to plan," another key character makes her debut.She is Dante’s guardian angel Santa Lucia.Lucia first appeared in the original game's DLC "Lucia's Trials", where she taught Dante how to soul jump, saving him from a burning airship.

The third level: early stage of purgatory

After reaching safety, Lucia tells Dante that he need not blame himself for unintentionally helping Lucifer escape Hell.She draws out the core plot of the game, revealing "a greater force at work."This invasion was part of a plan told to her by God alone, which would culminate in Dante's defeat of Lucifer once and for all.

If only God could inform Michael too.Just to be sure, the Archangel decided to close the Heavenly Gate connecting Eden to Heaven—a drastic and irreversible measure that would not only keep out Lucifer and his demons, but also souls like Beatrice who deserved to enter Heaven.In order to ensure that she can enter heaven, Dante must find her before the gates of heaven close and take her to the Garden of Eden.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to do it alone.To guide Dante on his way up, Lucia summons an old friend: Virgil.The Roman poet who leads you through hell in Dante's Inferno temporarily escapes the shackles of purgatory, explaining that if you succeed, he too will be allowed to ascend to heaven.The goals, stakes, and time bombs are set, and the journey begins.

The passage to Mount Purgatory was guarded by a vicar of St. Peter, a "huge, five-winged angel" with five wings for legs, "like a giant spider."Like Cato, ordinary souls can pass through, but Dante and Virgil are shut out.A final battle of the "largest and most difficult kind" ensues, and despite Virgil's strong objections, Dante finally kills the agent: a crime destined to bring them into the sight of all angels.

Level 4 and 5: Pride/Jealousy

From here on, the pace of the game becomes fluid.At each level of the Purgatory Stairs, Dante and Virgil interact with souls, some of whom Dante knew during his lifetime in Italy.Unlike hell, where people are tortured as punishment, souls in purgatory suffer for salvation: proud souls carry boulders on their backs, while jealous souls wander around purgatory with their eyes sewn shut, as described in the poem.sinful vision

Dante also must atone for his sins in order to reach the Garden of Eden.To this end, on each level of the stairs, Dante and Virgil will search for a "cave of visions" where Dante will relive his past experiences of succumbing to one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Screenwriter Joshua Rubin said he envisioned the caves as "controllable cutscenes," inspired by immersive theater productions such as Sleepless Night."Dante - in Soul Mode - travels like a ghost through memory, reliving the sinful moments that shaped his love story with Beatrice in Florence," he explains.At the end of these gameplay clips, Dante will battle against the "monstrous" incarnation of his sin, ultimately defeating the demon within him.

Each time you exit the Cave of Illusions, you receive a power-up from Lucia and are subsequently given the opportunity to make a gameplay choice that embodies Dante's moral growth.For example, on the Terrace of Envy, you can risk your life to save an NPC, thus demonstrating compassion - the opposite quality of envy.

Before leaving the Terrace of Envy, Dante and Virgil are ambushed by the second Archangel Gabriel.Why would Gabriel, who had been God's chief spokesman but had not heard God's voice for countless centuries, talk to Lucia? "If God really commands you," he warned Dante, "then let Him protect you from me."

In fact, it is God who should really protect Gabriel from Dante.After losing the boss battle against Dante and his angel companions, Gabriel witnessed your amazing spiritual power with his own eyes, and his doubts were dispelled.He believes in Dante's mission ("I can feel his presence in you...") and orders his men to assist us, not hinder us.From now on, players will fight alongside Gabriel's angels, not against them.