14 DAY TRIAL // Visceral, the developers of Dante's Inferno, and Electronic Arts, the publisher, have announced that the Dark Forest downloadable content will also be offered for those who pick up the game on the Xbox 360 home gaming console from Microsoft. Initially, the extra content was only talked about for the PlayStation 3 from Sony, as part of the Divine Edition pre-order deal.
Those who pick it up for the Microsoft platform will have to pay for it and although the price has not been mentioned it will probably run around the usual 320 Microsoft Points, which is about 4 dollars.
The Dark Forest is set before Dante actually goes down to Hell in order to save his beloved Beatrice. The original poem was pretty unclear on how Dante arrived at the Gates of Hell, which allowed developers Visceral to play around with the setting a little. The main character is disoriented and he must overcome a series of obstacles, including an end boss, before he can begin his main mission. The creators have not said how long the Dark Forest segment is set to be.
On the PlayStation 3, the Divine Edition of Dante's Inferno should include extra developer commentary, the Dark Forest stuff, a digital art book showing off concepts and prototypes, a soundtrack and a digital version of the Inferno as written by Dante Alighieri for those who are interested in exploring the inspiration for the videogame. It is retailing for 60 dollars.
Dante's Inferno was coolly received by the gaming community because it takes a pretty high brow source and translates it into a videogaming experience built around violence. The demo released for the action adventure title offered a nice slice of gameplay although the end boss battle was somewhat tedious and little innovation was on display.