The developers planned to use an approach in the spirit of Uncharted 2.
Recently, players remembered Dante's Inferno again. IGN journalists released a story about the game's sequel, which never made it to release.
The project was supposed to be called "Dante's Inferno 2: Purgatorio" (or Dante’s Purgatorio). IGN was able to obtain a set of internal documents, including concept art, storyboard cutscenes, screenshots of level geometry, and a 240-page script written by Assassin's Creed 2 co-author Joshua Rubin.
This script includes descriptions of levels, boss battles, and plot twists, indicating that the development of the sequel progressed further than previously thought.
Visceral planned to take the sequel in a slightly different direction than expected. For example, the plot would involve a combination of the "Divine Comedy" with another biblical epic, John Milton's "Paradise Lost"
A former Visceral employee told IGN about the source of inspiration: in the case of the sequel, it was Uncharted 2:
The first game was largely influenced by God of War. At the time we were working on the second [game], Uncharted 2 was a big influence on single-player games: cutscenes and QTEs were replaced with scripted gameplay segments where the player is in full control of the character
The events would unfold on a mountain called Purgatory:
This mountain is divided into nine tiers, or terraces, themed around the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. At its foot, on the rock, are giant gates, and on the seemingly unattainable summit is the Garden of Eden. Each terrace is a campaign arena with its own challenges, puzzles, enemies, and Cave of Visions
