Story Overview 剧情简介
In 1916, artillery fire poured across the battlefield of Verdun, filling the air with smoke and the smell of blood. Late at night, while soldiers huddled in their trenches and greedily savoured a brief moment of peace, the ground beneath them suddenly began to shake. The earth was torn open in an instant, and a narrow abyss stretching for several kilometres split the battlefield in two. Accompanied by piercing roars, countless demons streamed out of the chasm and rolled across the battlefield like raging war machines, annihilating every living thing in their path. Humanity entered an endless war against the demons from the day forward.
By 1922, demons had occupied most of the world's land, while the remaining humans clung to survival in the last few fortified cities. Humanity finally discovered the demons' true origin after years of fighting and investigation. A colossal Gate of Hell connected Hell to the human world at the far end of the abyss on the Verdun battlefield, continuously transporting demons from one realm into the other. After repeated attempts to destroy the Gate failed, humanity began sending investigative units into Hell, hoping to find a way to close it from within.
In the spring of 1929, the resources of the human cities were nearly exhausted. Countless investigative units had marched into Hell one after another, yet none had found a way to close the Gate. In desperation, humanity assembled its remaining forces and launched a final expedition towards the Gate of Hell, hoping to find the answer in the depths of Hell.
In the autumn of 1929, six months after the expeditionary force set out, all contact with the headquarter suddenly ceased. No telegraph messages arrived, and no carrier pigeons returned; the fate of the expedition remained unknown. Guilt-ridden prisoners were selected for a deadly mission into Hell to search for the missing force. The player takes the role of one of these "Atoners," descending into Hell to follow the traces left by the expedition and investigate the truth behind its disappearance, while exploring the secrets of Hell in search of a way to close the Gate.
1916年，凡尔登的战场上炮火倾泻而下，空气中弥漫着硝烟和血的味道。深夜里，当士兵蜷缩在战壕中贪婪地享受着片刻的平静时，脚下的土地却突然开始颤动。大地在刹那间被撕裂，一道绵延数公里的狭长深渊将战场一分为二。伴随着刺耳的嘶吼，难以计数的恶魔从深渊中鱼贯而出，如同狂暴的战车般碾过战场，让所到之处的一切生灵灰飞烟灭。从这一天起，人类开始了和恶魔永无休止的战斗。
1922年，恶魔已经占领了世界上大部分的土地，残存的人类据守在最后的几座堡垒城市苟延残喘。经过多年的战斗和调查后，人类也知晓了这些恶魔的真正来源。在凡尔登战场深渊的末端，一扇巨大的地狱之门连通了地狱和人间，将恶魔源源不断地从地狱输送到人类世界。在反复尝试摧毁地狱之门未果后，人类开始派遣调查部队进入地狱，希望能够从地狱内部找到关闭地狱之门的方法。
1929年春天，人类城市的资源接近枯竭。无数的调查部队前赴后继，却一直没有找到关闭地狱之门的方法。在绝望之际，人类集结兵力发动了最后一次远征前往地狱之门，希望能够在地狱深处找到答案。
1929年秋天，在远征军出发六个月之后，和总部的联系却突然中断。没有电报联络，也没有信鸽飞回，远征军生死未卜。身处囚笼之中，背负罪孽之人被选中，参加前往地狱搜寻远征军的死亡任务。玩家将扮演其中一名“赎罪者“深入地狱，追随远征军留下的痕迹并调查他们失联的真相，同时探索地狱的秘密以寻求关闭地狱之门的方法。
Divine Comedy 神曲
The Divine Comedy is a long narrative poem written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri between approximately 1307 and 1321. It is divided into three parts - Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso - and follows Dante's journey through the three realms under the guidance of the ancient Roman poet Virgil and the blessed Beatrice. It is one of the most important works in the history of Western literature. The game's story draws from Dante's journey through Hell in Inferno, but it is not a complete recreation. The Divine Comedy provides a basic framework for the game's narrative progression, ultimately allowing players to experience a distinctive vision of Hell inspired by Dante through the medium of a video game.
《神曲》是意大利诗人但丁·阿利吉耶里于1307年至1321年前后创作的长诗。全诗分为《地狱篇》、《炼狱篇》和《天堂篇》三部分，讲述但丁在古罗马诗人维吉尔及圣女贝亚特丽丝引领下游历三界的故事，是西方文学史上的重要作品之一。游戏的剧情参考了但丁在《神曲·地狱篇》中游历地狱的情节，但并不是完整的再现。《神曲》给游戏的剧情流程提供了一个基本的框架，最终让玩家能够以游戏的方式体验受但丁《神曲》启发的独特地狱世界。
First World War 第一次世界大战
The First World War was a global military conflict centred on Europe that lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was the largest war in history at the time, with at least 67 million people mobilised by the participating nations. Countries involved in the European theatre entered a state of total war, devoting nearly all of their economic, industrial, scientific, and technological resources to the conflict. The First World War was one of the deadliest military conflicts in history: ten million soldiers were killed and twenty million were wounded, while several million civilians died from genocide, famine, and influenza. The war fundamentally transformed Europe's political landscape and social order, as well as people's understanding of modern civilization.
Using the Battle of Verdun as its historical turning point, the game imagines a world permanently transformed by the opening of the Gate of Hell. There are two main reasons for choosing the First World War as the setting. First, the war itself can be seen as a concentration of human sin: violence, greed, wrath, betrayal, and deception filled every corner of the battlefield. When technology and industry became tools of destruction during the war, people were forced to reconsider their understanding of modern civilization. The evils of war are also directly connected to the opening of the Gate in the game's story, allowing players to understand what was then the largest and deadliest war in history from different perspectives through in-game texts and conversations with characters. Second, the technological level of the First World War suits the overall tone of the project. Research into military technology accelerated dramatically during the conflict, and heavy artillery existed alongside machetes on the battlefield. Although the game is fictional, it aims to retain as much internal realism as possible: humanity needs the ability to fight demons with bullets and artillery, yet weapons of nuclear-scale destruction and excessively advanced technological equipment should not exist.
第一次世界大战是1914年至1918年发生的以欧洲为中心的全球军事冲突，也是当时历史上规模最大的战争，各国动员至少6,700万人参与这场军事冲突。欧洲战场的参战国皆进入总体战状态，几乎将自身国家的全部经济、工业、科学技术用于战争之上。第一次世界大战是历史上最致命的军事冲突之一，军人死亡人数达1千万、受伤人数达2千万，另有数百万平民死于种族灭绝、饥荒、流感。这场战争彻底改变了欧洲的政治格局、社会秩序与人们对现代文明的认知。
本作以第一次世界大战的凡尔登战役作为节点，虚构了一个被地狱之门开启而永远改变的现实世界。游戏选择以一战作为时代背景有两个主要考量：首先是战争本身就可以被视为人类罪恶的集合，人的暴力，贪婪，愤怒，背叛，欺骗充斥着战场的每一寸角落。当一战中科技和工业成为毁灭的工具时，所有人都被迫重新审视了自己对于现代文明的认知。战争中的罪恶也与游戏剧情里地狱之门的开启有直接联系，玩家可以通过游戏中的文本和与角色的交流从不同的视角理解这场当时历史上规模最大也最致命的战争。其二是一战的科技水平符合本作整体的气质，人类对于战争科技的研究在一战进入了爆发期，战场上重炮和砍刀并存。本作虽然是虚构作品，但是希望尽可能地追求设定上的真实感，因此人类需要有通过子弹和火炮与恶魔战斗的能力，但又不应该存在核弹级别的毁灭性武器或者过于先进的科技装备。
Battle of Verdun 凡尔登战役
The Battle of Verdun took place from 21 February to 19 December 1916 and was the longest and most destructive battle of attrition on the Western Front during the First World War. Germany and France committed more than one hundred divisions, resulting in over 700,000 casualties; because of its brutality, it became known as the "Verdun Meat Grinder." After the battle, nine French villages that had been inhabited for generations were completely erased from the map by intense shelling. Tens of millions of unexploded conventional shells and highly toxic chemical gas shells also remained in the soil, and these areas are still closed to human habitation and agriculture. The unprecedented concentration of sin, death, suffering, and despair on the Verdun battlefield became one of the key factors that opened the Gate of Hell within the game's story.
凡尔登战役发生于1916年2月21日至12月19日，是第一次世界大战西方战线上历时最长、破坏性最大的阵地消耗战。德法两国投入了100多个师的兵力，造成了超过70万人的重大伤亡，因其惨烈程度被称为“凡尔登绞肉机”。战后有9个世代居住于此的法国村庄在密集的炮火下被完全从地图上抹去，同时当地的土壤中还遗留了数千万枚未爆炸的常规炮弹和剧毒化学毒气弹，这些土地至今依然禁止人类居住和进行农业生产。在游戏剧情上，凡尔登战场上充斥的各种罪恶、死亡、痛苦和绝望达到了前所未有的浓度，成为了开启地狱之门的重要因素之一。
Hell 地狱
Dante describes Hell as an immense funnel beneath the earth that narrows as it descends in Divine Comedy. Hell is divided into nine circles, with sinners assigned to different regions according to the sins they committed in life and subjected to corresponding punishments. The deeper the circle, the more serious the sin and the more severe the punishment. Apart from Limbo in the first circle, the remaining eight correspond to the sins of lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and betrayal. Dante's Hell inspired not only the game's environmental art but also its narrative. Sin and punishment, the central theme explored in Inferno, also form an important part of the game's story. In addition, characters encountered by Dante in Hell, such as Charon and Minos, are represented in the game's narrative or environments.
但丁在《神曲·地狱篇》中将地狱描绘成一个位于地下、逐层向下收缩的巨大漏斗。地狱共分九层，罪人根据生前所犯的罪被安排在不同区域，并承受与罪行相对应的惩罚。越往下，罪行越严重，惩罚也越残酷。除了第一层的灵薄狱，其余八层分别对应了色欲、暴食、贪婪、愤怒、异端、暴力、欺诈、背叛的罪行。但丁笔下的地狱不止启发了游戏的环境美术，还启发了游戏的剧情。《神曲·地狱篇》中探讨的核心—罪与罚也是本作剧情的重要组成部分。 此外，但丁在地狱中遇到的角色比如卡戎，米诺斯也都在游戏的剧情或环境中有所体现。
Post-Apocalypse 后启示录
The post-apocalyptic setting used in the game frequently appears in literature, games, film, and television, typically depicting a world in which the old order of civilization has collapsed after war, disaster, plague, or ecological breakdown. The concept of the post-apocalypse can be traced back to ancient religious prophecies of the end of the world, particularly the Judeo-Christian tradition's descriptions of destruction, judgement, and rebirth. From the nineteenth century onwards, these religious narratives gradually became secularised and developed into an independent genre. The game's story draws from many post-apocalyptic works, including the game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the anime Attack on Titan, and the tabletop game Trench Crusade.
本作采用的后启示录设定在文学、游戏和影视作品中经常出现，通常描写战争、灾难、瘟疫或生态崩溃后，旧有文明秩序瓦解的世界。后启示录的概念最早可追溯至古代宗教中的末日预言，尤其是犹太—基督教传统对世界毁灭、审判与重生的描述。进入19世纪后，这类宗教叙事逐渐被世俗化并成为独立类型。本作的剧情参考了大量后启示录风格的作品，包括游戏《光与影：33号远征队》、动画《进击的巨人》、桌游《战壕十字军》等。