Hell's Gate

Lore & Background

The game's single player campaign follows a dead man in Purgatory who is offered a deal to defeat the invading forces of Lucifer's army in exchange for being allowed to enter Heaven. The protagonist is a young man named Daniel Garner, who is killed in a car crash along with his wife Catherine. While Catherine goes to Heaven, Daniel is trapped in Purgatory. An angel named Samael tasks him with killing four of Lucifer's generals. After killing the generals and confronting Lucifer, Daniel eventually enters Hell, kills Lucifer, but learns that the general Alastor can only be defeated in Hell and has taken over as ruler. The game ends with Daniel defending himself against never-ending hordes. If finished on the hardest difficulty (Trauma), an extra ending shows Daniel finally able to go to Heaven and reunite with Catherine.

In Their Own Story

The smell hits first — not fire, but wet iron and old blood. Daniel Dax feels the pull before he sees the gate: a hook behind his sternum, tugging him forward across a field of black glass. The portcullise is already half-raised, grinding on tracks that weep molten slag. Beyond it, the sky is the color of a bruise three days old, and something vast is breathing in the dark. He does not draw his weapon. He does not need to. The gate knows him. The gate always knows him. He steps through, and behind him the iron slams shut with the finality of a coffin lid, and the sound of the other side — the quiet, ordinary, *safe* other side — is swallowed whole.

Reader's Guide

The game is divided into five chapters, each about five levels long. The player's objective is to get through each level by slaughtering hundreds of monsters. Fighting often occurs in mass battles in large rooms with exits shut and heavy metal music playing; after the battle, a checkpoint is passed, exits open, and music softens. Each level presents a new location (castles, monasteries, opera houses, graveyards, etc.). There are five boss levels. The player can complete a special task each level to obtain a 'tarot card' that provides bonuses for 30 seconds. The multiplayer component includes Deathmatch and Capture-the-Flag, playable via LAN or online. Online support for the Xbox version shut down in April 2010, though it is now playable on the replacement Xbox Live servers called Insignia.

Did You Know?

• The game was featured for two seasons on the Cyberathlete Professional League's World Tour.
• The Special Edition includes only 12 of the 24 levels, no full-motion videos, and no multiplayer mode.
• The Gold/Black Edition combines the Battle Out of Hell expansion with the original game on a single disc.
• The Universe/Triple Dose edition was released July 8, 2008, containing the original game, Battle Out of Hell, and Overdose packages.