When I'm not teaching college-level courses, I'm playing video games. Being recently assigned to teach a course in poetry, I assigned to my students Dante's Inferno from the author's Divine Comedy, the actual epic poem. It is a magnificent and important piece of work.
I had been sitting on Dante's Inferno, the game, for months. So, having to teach the poem, I played through it. Now if you are looking for a modern-day vision of Dante's Inferno, of Dante's vision of hell this is *the* game to get. Now if you are disinterested in a man's depictions of hell, then you want to avoid this game.
There are plenty of depictions of Freddy Kruger-type silhouettes of trapped in walls. There is plenty of T&A, including the player character's love interest. As the story goes, an oath he made to not "partake of the flesh" while away on the crusade, an oath vowed in what appears to be a sex scene of sorts. This will play out in the narrative. Also there are smaller enemies being succubus (or succubi), who attack the player with weapons emanating from the female genitalia. The second circle of hell, lust, culminates with a boss who generates enemies from the nipples of her bear breast. Even the defeat of said enemy is suggestive.
Dante will decent further into hell in the game. The author, Dante, orders the circles of hell in according to what he believes to be the worst sins, with the unsaved/unbaptized yet "good people" (think Virgil, Ghandi, etc) in the first circle down to TREACHERY in the last circle (think Judas, Brutus, etc) where the player will inevitably fight a...well-endowed Lucifer. And while there is SUGGESTION and explicit nudity, none of it compares to the God of War sex mini-games which are simply pornographic. The nudity in this game is more aesthetic like that depicted in classic art. It's just pervasive.
Throughout the game, the player will be able to render judgement upon historical figures (shades) who appear in the Divine Comedy. Violent execution or the blessing of forgiveness..the player decides.
Indeed, this game is NOT for children. I just wanted to provide details for ADULTS as well. Some of us would rather not expose our spirits to this kind of content.
Now if you're a fan of Dante's Inferno and can handle the content, prepare for a treat.
Ah, I did indicate positive message! Yes, well, if one finds themselves in hell, it is because they did something to get there. So the story is thus a story of redemption. And upon adventures through each of the outer circles (the inner circles, the worst circles are rather brief), details are revealed to show how Dante must overcome the particular sin he has committed which justifies his place there. So even within the graphic nature of the game, there is a moral lesson to be learned.
Oh, I keep forgetting things... one can align themselves with holy (divine?) or evil power, depending on if one "saves" his enemies or condemns them. Personally, I choose holy because using the cross as a projectile weapon was great AND the passive heal (which you will need to beat the boss). The evil path lends for stylistic attacks and buffing magic (heretic, pagan) spells. Less useful, IMO.