The mouthful that is The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline is quite the descriptive title, all told. Hailing from Rome-based One O One Games, it riffs on Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth-century narrative poem Inferno, itself the first part of the Divine Comedy. Nothing to do with that bloke Neil Hannon in this case.
You play in first person as Gabriele, the last heir to the Alighier – hence the titular bloodline. The premise is that every thirty-three years the pages of the Divine Comedy and a sigil must be renewed. Set in 1993 – conveniently thirty-three years ago – the game tasks you with carrying out the ritual and completing the binding to spare the entire human race untold suffering.
Given that this is very much a narrative affair, I can’t elaborate much further without giving too much away. Suffice it to say, this is a walking simulator with a fairly fixed outcome.
Across its three Dives – a term I suspect is a mistranslation of the Italian word abisso, judging by the subtitles – you’re guided by a narrator rather like Virgil in the original poem, though I’ll leave their identity for you to discover. In the first Dive, you’re tasked with pairing the seven deadly sins with their corresponding virtues in a stylish depiction of purgatory.
Among others, you’ll encounter Charon, the ferryman of the River Acheron. All the while, you’ll converse with the mystery voice, though I did wonder whether the performance was better in the original Italian. Thankfully, you can switch the dialogue track and enable English subtitles; it feels much more authentic that way.
Being set in 1993, a few anachronisms find their way into the story, the most jarring of which occurs in a bit of dialogue between Gabriele and his wife, but that might just be down to a goofy bit of localisation for the American audience.
The main issue with Dante’s Bloodline is its brief runtime. You can easily finish the whole storyline and pop the platinum Trophy within an hour and a half – assuming you don’t miss a collectible, as I did in the first Dive. Without a chapter select, I had no option but to pore over the areas again to find the missing item, and I still had to collect every remaining item to unlock the Trophy. The short runtime helps in that regard, sure, but replaying the game reveals just how rigid the plot and gameplay really are.
On my first playthrough, I also became stuck in a library where I was meant to find a key. For some reason, the assets were bunched together, creating an impassable corridor. The level loaded correctly after I quit and reloaded, but not before I had spent far too long searching for a hidden exit that didn’t exist.
Only three puzzles have any real significance during a playthrough, and their solutions are the same every time, making this low-hanging fruit for Trophy and achievement hunters on their respective platforms. At £15.99 on the PlayStation Store, however, it feels a bit steep—especially given its brevity. Something for the weekend, if you will.
That said, it’s stylishly done, even if the short runtime and limited replayability don’t lend themselves to repeat playthroughs. The puzzles aren’t randomised, presumably because of the game’s narrative focus. If you do decide to take the plunge into this interpretation of Inferno, the Italian voiceover is definitely the way to go. Don’t abandon all hope upon going in – just a little.
One O One Games and Entalto Publishing’s The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline is out now on PS5, Xbox Series and PC.