Visceral Games, the studio behind the popular Dead Space franchise, has announced that a demo will be available for its upcoming title Dante’s Inferno.

The demo, entitled “Gates of Hell”, will be available for download on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in December, and will include the entire first level of gameplay. Players will engage in frantic hack-and-slash gameplay, fending off hordes of enemies before engaging in a boss battle with Death itself. The player will claim Death’s scythe as their own upon successfully defeating their opponent.

Dante’s Inferno is based upon Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy, which charts an epic descent through Dante Alighieri’s nine circles of hell – limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery.

“Our main goal from the start of this project has been to create a journey that will make gamers truly feel like they are going through hell,” said executive producer Jonathan Knight. “The demo will give everyone some insight into how we are treating the story and a taste of the gameplay.  And with nine more circles of hell to explore once the game comes out in February, we are literally just scratching the surface.”

Dante’s Inferno will retail nationwide from February 12th 2010 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Portable consoles.