A lot of video games, media and works of art took on a whole new meaning in the 2020s, despite not directly addressing the global pandemic that blighted the start of the decade. Themes of isolation and societal collapse are common in fiction, but revisiting games about stories like that is a bit more harrowing after living through something felt so similar. Very few games directly tackle the idea of life after COVID lockdown, and the fact that Mediterranea Inferno does just that is only one of several reasons why it’s the most unorthodox, unique, and unforgettable visual novels I’ve ever played.
Mediterranea Inferno focuses on a trio of fashionable, trend-setting boys in their early 20s who have made a name for themselves in the Milan club scene. They’re popular, they’re desirable, and they’re the talk of the town – ‘I ragazzi del sole’, or Sun Guys. At least, they are all these things and more until COVID-19 strikes and brings their lives crumbling down. COVID protocols and lockdowns in Italy were far stricter than they were in some other countries, and the Sun Boys – Claudio, Andrea, and Mida – have each lost something important to them as a result of it.
In August 2022, the three reunite after two years apart to rebuild their friendship and, though nobody wants to admit it, to rebuild themselves. Claudio struggles to find his identity after missing out on such crucial years of his life, while Andrea longs for connection with others – physically, mostly. Mida, despite seeming well-adjusted with a fancy new modeling gig, has some of their own skeletons to worry about. For each of them, this scorching Italian summer slowly descends into a sensory onslaught, a nightmarish coming-of-age adventure through hell, and a volatile journey of either self-reflection or self-destruction, depending on your choices as the player.
Mediterranea Inferno is entirely a visual novel – everything is told through text and shown through both environmental illustrations and character portraits. Yet none of it is done in the repetitive, mechanical way you’d expect from a visual novel – every single scene features bespoke art, unique animations, and hauntingly atmospheric sound-design. I found myself staring in awe at my screen on multiple occasions – every scene is framed like an experimental painting, and your button presses to progress the text-boxes also progress the animation, giving you time to soak in every moment like frozen fragments of time.
The Sun Guys are given a task during their summer excursion together – each one must peel and eat four Fruit of Mirages, and upon doing so by the night of Ferragosto and the feast of Assumption, they can reach Heaven. Each fruit will grant the boys Mirage visions that transport them into truly unexplainable, unnatural realms of their own thoughts, fears, and hopes. There isn’t enough fruit for all three boys to each obtain four, though, meaning your goal as the player is to make choices that dictate which members of the crew will have their ideal heavenly summer, and which ones will wallow in sadness and descend deeper into their own insecurities.
A single playthrough of Mediterranea Inferno will only take a few hours, but it’s incredibly tempting to renew the cycle and play through it multiple times. Not only do your different choices create meaningfully different outcomes for each boy, but there’s a final secret Mirage you can obtain by collecting eight hidden cards. By the end of my time exploring the story of Mediterranea Inferno, I could barely describe the feelings I felt. It’s an incredibly artistic and vividlydark story, and one of the most creative visual novel experiences I’ve ever had. The faint of heart likely won’t stick with it to the end, but if you do, you’re in for an unforgettable experience.
