The Alighieri Circle: Dante’s Bloodline (ACDB) is a narrative puzzle adventure. Developed by ONE-O-ONE GAMES and published by Entalto Publishing and C&R Creative Studios, ACDB was released on September 10th, 2026. Players play as Gabriele Alighieri, a descendant of Dante who wrote the classic poem, the Divine Comedy. Well, the world knows it as a poem—for Dante’s descendants, it is a curse. Every 33 years, one of the family members must venture into Hell in order to collect pages and reseal the gates. Players need to solve puzzles in a grim and bleak world in order to proceed towards their objective.
ACDB has some fantastic visuals—worlds of gray mixed with deep reds, fog-like yellow and at one point even gold. The puzzles you must solve are enjoyable and have a great level of challenge to them. A few were more challenging, but it wasn’t an annoying type of struggle. I felt satisfied when I was able to solve them. I also liked the idea of the narrative but this, along with most of the game, felt massively hindered by one thing—the overall length. Gameplay in total will only take you around two hours to complete, give or take for puzzles. This is a full complete as well as there’s not really any replayability here. The short length left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. Ultimately, ACDB is a decent game for what it is but will most likely not leave you with a lasting impression.
The Curse of Dante’s Bloodline
There may be some slight spoilers in this section but nothing that I would deem major.
Every 33 years, a descendant of Dante Alighieri must venture into Hell to complete trials, collect pages, and reseal the gates. They call this the Dive. Our protagonist, Gabriele Alighieri, grew up knowing that one day it will be his turn. He saw the aftermath of his grandfather and mother when they went into their Dive. Both came back not the same—a bit more distant and depressed. He shoulders his duty as an Alighieri, and with his wife and daughter supporting him, he ventures to the old family villa where the ritual takes place. Armed with the knowledge of what he must do and the anxiety of what he may be like afterwards, he goes through the portal.
The Dive changes depending on the person travelling to it. For Gabriele, his Dive is chaotic and bleak—a gray world with deep reds and seemingly no structure or order to the landscape. He immediately starts hearing a mysterious voice speaking to him. This is the Guide—a previous descendant of Dante who has already ventured into the Dive. This voice wants to guide Gabriele through the Dive in order to complete his task. Gabriele is skeptical at first. He feels like the voice is being dishonest or not telling him something. Regardless, Gabriele ventures onward.
From here, the narrative explores the curse of Dante’s bloodline. Gabriele must decide if he will uphold his duty as a descendant or try to change the fate of his family. However, right when things were getting interesting, the narrative comes to an end. I’m left with unanswered questions and wanting more from the narrative. I suppose on one hand, I can appreciate that I did get invested into the narrative. On the other hand though, I feel underwhelmed. I could have used more in-depth character building as for now they all feel kind of surface level. I would have loved a small bit of gameplay before the family villa. Gabriele could be at home with his wife and daughter. Maybe we could wander through his house, solve a small puzzle or two before things start getting serious.
A way that ACDB helps tell the story is through collectibles. Players can find diary pages in the family villa and memories from Gabriele’s past. You can interact with these to learn more about them, and while neither is required to find, they add a welcome layer of depth that enriches both the characters and the curse’s backstory. However, I think I would still prefer a bit more that was in the moment rather than just in the text I’m reading from a letter or object.
Visually though, the world and atmosphere is really well done. The mansion is appealing, yes, but the Dive is where the developers really flexed their graphical muscles. When you aren’t solving puzzles, gameplay is entirely a walking simulator of just going from A to B on a linear path. It isn’t the most exciting of gameplay, but at least the path I’m walking on is beautiful to look at. I loved the bleakness of the atmosphere and think it works wonderfully for being a positive for the game. Visuals do fall off a tad in the last puzzle, but the rest are lovely to look at. I also want to give a shout out to the handful of jumpscares that exist. There wasn’t too many to feel redundant so they always caught me off guard when they did occur.
Completing Trials, One Puzzle at a Time
There are three trials that Gabriele must complete and each involves solving a puzzle of sorts—with smaller puzzles between to fill up the space. I’d guess that the developers were aiming for quality over quantity though. Overall, there’s a puzzle variety of maybe less than 10 total with some puzzles repeating in a different variation. However, I believed that the puzzles were enjoyable and effective in the moment. It never felt like I was solving a puzzle that had no reason to be included. Some puzzles were longer and more challenging, such as needing to connect five statues, a bell’s chime and a clock. Other puzzles were small and simple, such as needing to direct lost souls by turning towers.
Most puzzles are held within the Dive but a handful take place in the villa. I think more in the villa could have been nice, even if they were optional ones for the collectibles. Afterall, the villa guards the portal to the Dive—I’d think you’d want to keep things locked up tight in a complex way to hide the secrets. Or perhaps my previous idea, a small puzzle or two before the villa at Gabriele’s house that helps build a connection to him as a character and/or him to his family.
Though more puzzle variety would have been nice, I think the ones that do exist are effective. I felt stumped a time or two, but never frustrated. When I finally did solve it, I felt satisfied. For me, this is the ideal feeling you want to have in a puzzle game. I want my puzzle games to give me a slight challenge that requires me to think but not struggle over. I can appreciate the variety that does exist and how they feel in theme with the overall game and effective in the moment.
Gabriele’s Adventure into the Dive is…Short?
As mentioned, the game will take you around two hours to complete in total. This includes getting all achievements though some, especially one, can be easy to miss. The game relies on autosave and has no manual save, but players could reasonably expect to play and complete the game in one sitting. There is almost no reason to replay and the only reason I could think of is if you missed an achievement. Even this review is on the shorter side simply because there isn’t a whole lot here to discuss. Personally, I completed the game in two and a half hours and this includes time spent on taking notes and screengrabs.
There’s nothing wrong in a game being short. However, that game must be sure to maximize on its limited time in order to make an impactful and memorable experience. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that ACDB does this. Sure, for the most part, you will be either hearing narrative or solving puzzles. There are very few moments of just walking in silence. However, even despite this, I can’t help but believe the overall length is just a huge hinderance on both of these aspects and for a game that is a narrative puzzle adventure, that means quite a lot. I think a slightly longer game would have helped immensely at giving me a lasting, memorable impression.
Overall, though both narrative and puzzles are decent and the visuals are appealing, I don’t think they do enough for me. I simply wanted more—a longer experience that further explored the narrative, had more puzzles, and of course kept with having lovely visuals. Perhaps a longer game could have multiple endings and a larger puzzle variety. The game’s overall length leaves me wanting and underwhelmed to the point where I’m left giving a middling score. I could recommend this one if you want a quick, slightly enjoyable experience, but don’t expect it to leave an impression on you as a player. And if you are interested, I strongly suggest you pick this one up when its on sale.
Thank you for reading and good luck on the Dive!
