Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are set to take the box office by storm with the third part of the movie series based around Dan Brown’s latest book, Inferno. The movie stars Tom Hanks, reprising his role as Robert Langdon from the previous Angels & Demons movie and The Da Vinci Code that preceded it. The new ARG for Inferno Journey Through Hell focuses on solving a series of puzzles scattered throughout Google’s services.
The object is for people to visit the Inferno Movie website, and then find the three new puzzles based on Dante Alighierhi’s depiction of hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy’s section centered around the Inferno.
There will be clues on how to solve each of the puzzles through Google Maps, Gmail, Google’s search engine, Google Play, Google Docs, Google Cultural Institute and even YouTube. Participants will use these clues to solve the puzzles, and then await the next set of puzzles that will roll out in the following weeks. The more puzzles you complete the more opportunities you’ll have to win a trip to Italy to visit iconic locales like Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice.
Dan Brown mentioned in the press release…
“I’m excited to bring together the technology of Google and the code-breaking elements of the Robert Langdon series. The experience allows audiences to bring Robert Langdon’s world to life by deciphering puzzles and utilizing online tools at their fingertips,”
It’s possible to participate in the puzzles by either signing in with your Google account or by signing in as a guest.
In total, there are nine puzzles to complete, which will roll out in threes throughout October leading up to the October 28th release of the Inferno: Journey Through Hell movie.
The entire thing is setup to promote both Google and the upcoming movie. I’m not much of a fan of puzzle games so it wasn’t as if I bothered to try to solve the puzzles using Google’s services. The augmented virtual reality crossover means that you can look for clues while you do other stuff associated with Google’s products, but for the average person not heavily into ARGs or for people who aren’t fond of Google’s spying or for people who don’t care about promotional content for movies, then this news will likely slide off your back like facts slide off an SJW Twitter account.
Anyways, the first three puzzles are available right now and the next three puzzles will be available next week. The final set of puzzles will be available the week after that. For more info feel free to hit up the official Inferno website.
