of combination attacks and finishing moves.

[3] His secondary weapon is a Holy Cross that

fires a volley of energy as a projectile attack. In addition, Dante can use numerous magic
based attacks and abilities channeled from a mana pool to help in combat, many of which
are obtained as the game progresses. A quick time event system(in which I call: precise
input cinematic combat) is used when attempting to discharge the demon of its
master(unbind from host ) and during boss fights, where players must press the
highlighted button on screen in order to continue the chain of attacks, or be countered and
wounded otherwise.[3]
Many attack combinations and abilities can be unlocked in exchange for souls, an in-game
currency that is collected upon defeating enemies or locating soul fountains. Each of these
skills fall into two categories; Holy (represented by blue orbs) or Unholy (represented by
red orbs) skill trees.[4] At the beginning of the game, both skill trees are equal in power,
but as Dante gains more Holy and Unholy experience, more abilities become available for
purchase. Experience is collected through the game's "Punish or Absolve" system, where
upon defeating enemies, Dante can either punish and dismember them or absolve and
save them with the Holy Cross.[2] Much experience can also be accumulated in punishing
or absolving the damned souls of many famous figures in history that appear in Dante
Alighieri's original The Divine Comedy whereupon choosing their fates, players enter a
mini game where the characters' "sins" move towards the center of the screen, pressing
required action symbols once the sin is in place. Players are rewarded with more souls and
experience as the number of sins collected increases.[2]
The game involves large sections of platforming, including swinging between ropes and
climbing walls, both of which can involve hazards such as fire or swinging blades. There is
also a series of environment-based puzzle sequences that can impair the progress of
Dante's quest, such as requiring the correct positioning of movable objects or pulling
levers at the appropriate time. In addition, there are numerous hidden passages where
Biblical relics can be found and equipped to improve Dante's abilities. [5]

Plot[edit]
The story follows Dante, a crusader who, despite his faith, has committed numerous
atrocities during the Third Crusade. At the city of Acre, Dante is entrusted to keep a group
of Saracen prisoners safe so King Richard I could obtain a holy relic from Saladin. But once
he brutally slaughters them, Dante is ordered to take the holy relic. During the attack,
Dante is stabbed in the back by an assassin, whereupon Death appears and condemns
Dante to "everlasting damnation for [his] sins," despite being promised by a Bishop that
his sins would be absolved. Dante refuses to accept his fate, vows to redeem himself, and
defeats Death, taking his scythe. Dante leaves the Crusade, stitching a red holy cross-
shaped tapestry onto his torso, depicting every sin he has committed in the past. He
returns to Florence, only to find his lover Beatrice Portinari and father Alighiero brutally
murdered. Beatrice's soul appears before Dante, telling him that she knew he would come
after her before a shadowy manifestation of Lucifer drags her into darkness. After making
it to a chapel, Dante blesses the holy cross that Beatrice gave him upon making their vows
to be true to each other, to protect him against the evils that await. Upon doing so, a crack
in the earth opens up, allowing Dante to descend to the Gates of Hell.
At the Gates, he encounters Virgil, who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him
through the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in
Heaven. Dante begins his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are
forced aboard the great ferry of Charon. Dante forces Charon to sail him across. After this,
Charon is destroyed when Dante tears his head off using a beast-mount. After arriving at
Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of the Damned, King Minos. After Minos
denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the Judge and kills him. Dante then
enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to find Beatrice, whose
soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to her that
Dante broke his vows to Beatrice with a captive woman back in Acre, in exchange for
sparing the life of her "brother". Reaching the top of the tower, Dante confronts and slays
the gigantic Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony. Entering the third circle Gluttony,
Dante slays its guardian the "Great Worm" Cerberus. It is here where Lucifer shows Dante
how Beatrice and his father Alighiero met their demise, both being slain by the assassin
from Acre, revealed to be the husband, not the brother as she claimed, of the captive
Dante slept with.
In the fourth circle; Greed, Dante encounters the greatly deformed soul of his father
Alighiero. After overcoming the puzzles of the fallen God of Wealth Plutus, Dante defeats
Alighiero and absolves him. In the fifth circle, Anger, Dante begins to float across the
vile River Styx on what appears to be a floating platform. Upon reaching the other side,
however, the platform is in fact the top of the head of the gigantic fiery
demon Phlegyas who attacks Dante. Overcoming this, Lucifer appears before Dante with
Beatrice who, broken-hearted by Dante's betrayals, willingly gives herself to Lucifer by
eating the forbidden fruit. Dante rides atop Phlegyas who he controls to smash down the
walls of the City of Dis and into the sixth circle, Heresy. Beyond lies the seventh
circle, Violence, including Phlegethon and the Wood of Suicides. Within the woods Dante
encounters his mother Bella. He becomes deeply saddened and enraged, having been told
as a child that she died of an illness but in fact hanged herself because of his father's
cruelty. Absolving her of her sin, he continues beyond the woods to the Abominable Sands
for those violent against God, where Dante also encounters his former comrade Crusader
and future brother-in-law Francesco, who is now a horribly disfigured version of his former
self and desires revenge against Dante for his state of being. Upon defeating Francesco,
Dante absolves him and descends into the eighth circle, Fraud.
Before Dante can reach Lucifer, Beatrice puts him through the challenges of ten stages of
the Malebolge, each depicting the fraudsters throughout history from simple thieves to the
false Popes. At the entrance of the ninth and last circle, Treachery, Dante insists to
Beatrice that he has faced all of his sins. Beatrice reminds him that he slaughtered the
Saracen prisoners out of anger and that Francesco died taking the blame for it. Realizing
that he has sinned beyond redemption, Dante admits that his place is in Hell and asks
Beatrice to forgive him. This act of supreme sacrifice undoes Beatrice's transformation and
restores her to her former self. As Dante watches, the Archangel Gabriel descends from
Heaven and carries Beatrice's soul away, promising Dante that he will see Beatrice again
and that his redemption is close at hand.
Journeying through the icy realm of Treachery and fighting his way to Lake Cocytus, Dante
finally confronts Lucifer himself, an enormous three-faced demon chained within the frozen
lake. After defeating the giant demon, Lucifer reveals that several enormous chains Dante
had destroyed to proceed were the Chains of Judecca, which kept him imprisoned in Lake
Cocytus and inside the body of the giant three headed demon. Lucifer reveals that he
merely used Beatrice as bait to get Dante to break the chains and free him. Lucifer
emerges from the giant monster in his true form, a horned, satyr-like monster, and battles
Dante. Through great struggle, Dante is able to defeat Lucifer and impales him on Death's
Scythe. Lucifer then summons the vision of the assassin stabbing Dante in Acre; Dante is
horrified to realize he died in Acre and thus cannot leave Hell, which is forbidden by God.
Lucifer gleefully reveals that, now free, he will rise from Hell, overthrow God and seize
Heaven, eliminating all that is good from the universe forever. But Dante, with the many
souls he gained through his trials, absolves himself and re-imprisons Lucifer deeper in the
ice once again.
Dante is then taken to Purgatory, where he sees himself near Mount Purgatory with Beat