The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline Review – A Gorgeously Grim Descent Into Puzzle Hell
It's not so funny now, is it Dante?
Gozer, Lord of the Sebouillia, was an utter bastard, but cosmic entities can’t compete with Lucifer, and if the premise in The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline is anything to go by, we might be in a bit of a pickle.
Every 33 years, a barrier between Hell and Earth (Walmart) needs resealing, and it’s the Alighieri family, descendants of Dante, the chap who wrote The Divine Comedy, who have to prevent anything catastrophic from happening.
Enter Gabriele, who has been reared for this burden. Yet he does not know what it’ll entail, other than a lot of fixing and upping, as he’s never been to Hell before. How can one be prepared for this?
The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline begins in the family mansion, flicking through a few pages of lineage and exposition, and while looking quite smart, it’s a familiar design not far off something like The Dark Room. Then Gabriele locates the portal to Hell.
Hell, Yeah!
Picking up immediately from where the demo ended, Gabriele is traversing a stunning, chaotic landscape of sharp, angular rocks, memorials and Titan-like figures. The prominent colour is a deep and seductive red – alarmingly so.
However, from a gaming perspective, we are looking at an on-rails walking simulator. It goes with the territory that it’ll most likely look good. How about the story? The gameplay?
Gabriele is accompanied by an ancestor who serves as a guide/guardian. This ancestor isn’t visible to him, but their voice occupies his mind, and in a Charles Dance-like appeal, really booms and is compelling, if they are somewhat ominous.
Repetition Is Its Own Circle
In Gabriele’s Dive, from a first-person perspective, he’ll walk through designated routes with the ancestor moonlighting as one of those tour guide devices that attach to your hip and play through cheap, worn-out headphones.
The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline is a wonder to experience, and the landscapes are gorgeous, with an ever-present doom that feels like Doom, only without the enemies and combat. And speed. And health. And…
Without a BFG, Gabriele must solve what I think are complex puzzles. There are no hints, and conveniently, your guide seems to shut up at this point. These puzzles aren’t annoying, though deciphering how to approach them can be tough.
When completing them and progressing, there’s more sense of accomplishment in applying your grey matter. After all, the world depends on it.
Technically, This Is Hell
I did find myself playing The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline intermittently, however. This wasn’t due to One On One Games’ challenging puzzles, but a technical aspect. Playing in 1440p was relatively smooth, yet my laptop was developing a temperature.
Unrelated specifically to the game, I started to fiddle with my settings to get the right bite. Technically, there were no issues with the game per se, and due to it being a walking simulator, any frame drops won’t spoil the experience.
The issue, as I found with a game that could be completed in one sitting, is the save game function. There are no manual saves, so you’ll be dropped back into wherever the checkpoint feels fits.
Having to hear the same rhetoric and being unable to skip it for the fourth time, then having to locate the same items in a mock sprint was frustrating.
The Verdict
Film fans will have their toilet breaks, grab refreshments and sort the seating arrangements before the film, not during. The same applies for gaming. It’s best to set up your system before getting into the game.
Without these interruptions, The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline was intriguing and visually compelling. While the narrative didn’t quench my thirst, it’s poetic like the source text, with some perplexing yet satisfying puzzles to crack.
