In the new medium, Dante, a mercenary soldier during the Third Crusade, pursues dark forces that have dragged his beloved Beatrice to the fiery depths. The interactive title, from Visceral and published by EA, places a contemporary spin on the poem. He is led from the woods by the Roman poet Virgil, first to Hell and then Purgatory, where Dante must overcome obstacles-temptation and sin-to achieve the ultimate goal: eternal bliss in heaven, guided there by the “ideal woman” Beatrice. The original literary work presented a spiritual journey in which Dante, halfway through his life, becomes assailed by three wild beasts after becoming lost in a dark forest. In fact, it is Knight who is credited for the game’s conception. “Dante’s Inferno is a big, epic action/adventure game that’s loosely based upon Part One of ‘The Divine Comedy,’ ” says Jonathan Knight, executive producer/creative director of the title. And more recently, the 3D artists at Visceral Games, which used “The Divine Comedy” as the basis for its Dante’s Inferno computer game. The piece is considered one of the greatest examples of world literature, serving as an inspiration for many artists throughout the past several centuries, from Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton, to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Karl Marx, and T.S. Artists at Visceral Games take players to the depths of the netherworld in Dante’s InfernoIn the 14th century, Dante Alighieri set the world ablaze with his allegorical tale “The Divine Comedy,” an imaginative epic poem that describes his journey, as the main character, through the three realms of the dead: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.