The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline Review – Dive Into Despair
You may have read Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy in high school or college, or perhaps played Dante’s Inferno and explored its infamous nine circles of Hell. But what if Dante’s journey didn’t just end there? What if his descent into Hell was part of a family legacy that would continue long after his death?
That’s the premise behind The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline, a psychological nightmare adventure from ONE-O-ONE GAMES. You play as Gabriele Alighieri, a descendant of Dante who inherits the responsibility of resealing Hell’s gates. What begins as a simple mission quickly becomes something more as Gabriele descends deeper into Hell and uncovers the secrets surrounding his family’s bloodline.
We were able to venture into Hell ourselves, and while the concept has plenty of potential, the experience takes a more restrained approach than you might expect from a game centered on Hell and Dante’s legacy.
Fair warning to those who want to play and experience the game: this article will contain spoilers.
Descend Into Hell
Hell isn’t quite what you might expect. Rather than being a straightforward descent into a fiery underworld, it acts more like a personal purgatory, shaped by the soul of the person trapped within it. The environment twists and warps around their personality, fears, and the darker parts of the mind that we often try to ignore or refuse to acknowledge.
For Gabriele, this journey is driven by duty and the responsibility of carrying on his family’s legacy. But the deeper he descends, the more he uncovers the truth behind his family’s duty and the curse that has followed his bloodline for generations.
This is a puzzle-solving game, and it is very linear. There isn’t much you can do to explore the world. You will see everything as you walk or even run at a seemingly slow pace.
The journey begins at Gabriele’s family home, where you must complete a series of objectives to open the portal to Hell. Once the portal is unlocked, your journey truly begins as you descend deeper into Hell and work toward performing the ritual at its very depths.
Along the way, a previous ancestor who performed the ritual before will guide you. He offers cryptic guidance and vague explanations, helping you understand what lies ahead without giving away too much. As you progress, however, it becomes clear that completing the ritual comes with a price.
While you will witness much of what happened to the Alighieri family, it still leaves a lot unexplained, leaving you with more questions. Some details about the family’s history and the curse surrounding the bloodline are deliberately left unexplained, leaving you to piece together what really happened.
Escaping Hell
The game is fairly short. It took me roughly five hours to complete the story and unlock almost every achievement. You can 100% the game in a single playthrough, although a few achievements are easy to miss, so pay close attention as you explore. The game also has no manual save slots and relies entirely on autosaves, meaning that if you quit and return later, you will resume from the most recent autosave.
As I mentioned earlier, The Alighieri Circle is a linear and straightforward experience. Most areas are relatively small, though there are a few sections where you may need to look around carefully to figure out a puzzle or find what you need. The game is divided into three chapters, with the puzzles becoming slightly more challenging as you progress. That said, every puzzle can be solved by paying attention to the clues and important details around you. I could give you the answers, but I’d rather let you suffer as I did. Trust me, you won’t need to brute-force your way through them.
Beyond that, the gameplay isn’t very varied. You’ll spend most of your time listening to character conversations, exploring the environment, completing objectives, collecting items, and solving puzzles. While the story is a bit intriguing, it didn’t really captivate me enough.
Final Destination
I can see The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline not being everyone’s cup of tea. I liked the direction the game was taking at first, but it started to lose me after about an hour. I do enjoy a good puzzle, and honestly, that ended up being one of the game’s saving graces for me. The puzzles give you something to think about and break up the slower exploration sections.
Unfortunately, the movement doesn’t do the game any favors. The walking and running animations often feel more like a slightly brisk power walk, which can make exploration feel sluggish.
Gabriele’s character development also feels underwhelming, especially considering the weight of his family’s history and the curse he is trying to uncover.
I also wish the game had gone further with its interpretation of the nine circles of Hell. There was plenty of potential to expand each circle into more elaborate environments, puzzles, and encounters while leaning harder into the horror elements. The game does have a few decent jump scares, but I think a stronger horror presence could have made the journey through Hell much more memorable.
There’s potential here, and perhaps we’ll see that further explored and expanded with a sequel of sorts. Overall, you’ll likely find it an enjoyable experience to play through if you’re looking for a quick, linear narrative puzzle game to knock out over an afternoon, even if it leaves you wishing it had dug a little deeper into its infernal premise.
Pros
- Few enjoyable puzzles
- Can be completed and 100% in a single playthrough
Cons
- Slow and awkward movement animations
- Short overall experience
- Limited character development
- No manual save slots
The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
