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I am the way into the doleful city,
I am the way into eternal grief,
I am the way into forsaken race,
Justice it was that moved my great creator:
Divine omnipotence created me,
and highest wisdom joined with primal love,
Before me not hing but eternal things were made,
And I shall last eternally,
Abandon every hope, all ye who enter.

So begins Dante Aligheri's rather doleful poem Inferno, the tale of a pilgrim's journey through hell to Mount Purgatory on the other side of the world. Not the fettle for a computer game you may think, but using the story as the basis for a plot, Denton Designs have produced what must the first computer game-of-the-poem.

The game takes the form of an arcade adventure in which you must guide the pilgrim through limbo and the nine circles of hell to confront Lucifer, the root of all evil. You only have seven game days to complete this task take too long and you will remain damned for all eternity...

All action takes place in a scrolling window, with the pilgrim appearing in the middle of the screen. The pligrim can be moved up, down, left or right and also made to pick up or drop objects - an action which needs to be taken at regular intervals during the woods for any useful objects; the pilgrim must walk through the gates of hell and begin his adventure proper. The gates of hell lead straight into limbo, a bare and blasted land patrolled by hornets. If the pilgrim remains there too long, the hornets will seek him out and sting him to death.

The pilgrim can only escape from limbo by crossing the river Styx. But the cold water kills any living thing on contact, so what is the pilgrim to do? Perhaps Charon, ferryman of the river, can be persuaded to take him across in his boat...

Across the river lies the first circle of hell, the place where virtuous non-Christians are sent. An evil whip-wielding demon patrols this area and tries to track the pilgrim down. The demon's touch is death, so he is best avoided. Passing through circle two, you must dodge the lustful who are eternally blown around by a hurricane.

If the pilgrim is unlucky enough to touch the lustful, he becomes one of them and the game ends. As you progress through the other seven levels you will meet such horrors as Medusa, the slothful, the gluttons, the wrathful, and finally Beelzebub himself.

Presentation 79%
Informative instructions, good title screen and pleasant enough in-game presentation.

Graphics 77%
Imaginative sprites but bland backdrops.

Sound 68%
A reasonable ditty plays throughout.

Hookability 78%
The puzzles are quite straightforward and so is the objective.

Lastability 68%
Nine 'circles' of hell to get through in seven days.

Value For Money 60%
An expensive journey to hell.

Overall 66%
Nothing special - look before you leap.