Well, Electronic Arts seems committed to producing original game ideas, and you don't get more unique than a videogame based on The Divine Comedy. Coming from Redwood Shores, the guys that brought us Dead Space, Dante's Inferno is an action game that will take you to Hell itself. The Pope is going to love this.
As well as the official announcement, Dante's Inferno has an official Web site and, of course, the above video. As you can see, it doesn't reveal too much, but I am really digging the style and the fact that a crucifix gets rammed in some guy's head.
Based on the sheer audacity of the idea alone, I am intrigued to find out more, and really hope that Redwood delivers. I may not have been on the Dead Space love wagon, but Redwood has proven it's capable of solid gameplay. Hopefully this can build upon what Dead Space had done and truly give us something that'll make us sh*t our pants.
Also, I think it's sad that there are some ignorant tools online who already think this is some sort of "lame Devil May Cry remake."
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.*An abducted soul, a lifetime of sins, a journey to the depths of despair.Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA Redwood Shores, the studio behind the hit horror game Dead Space™, is now working on another original property -- this one based on the medieval epic poem The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The dark fiction gave birth to the Tuscan Italian dialect and is widely considered the work that has defined the western world's contemporary conception of hell and purgatory. The poem tells the tale of Dante who journeys through the twisted, menacing nine circles of hell in pursuit of his beloved Beatrice. Dante's tortured and tormented world is an ideal setting for this 3rd person action and adventure of a video game, Dante's Inferno™.
Written in the 14th Century, The Divine Comedy was published and read aloud in Italian (unlike the Bible), thereby making the poem accessible to the mass public. The poem delivers a striking and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. In part one, known as Dante's Inferno, Dante traverses all nine circles of hell; limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery.
"The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience who, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art," said Jonathan Knight, Executive Producer for Dante's Inferno. "It's the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story."
For more information on Dante's Inferno, please visit www.dantesinferno.com and sign up for the newsletter and bookmark for news, features and upcoming events.
* Translation: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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This idea would've been a million times better had it been an adventure game with light action elements. Really EA, really? ANOTHER beat em' up, and from one of most well-known literary masterpieces of ALL time. This has so much potential for actual exploration and character depth since because of the nature of the environment your walking into. But no...we're just going to kill everything instead of making it an intellectually stimulating experience.
I'm sure it'll still be a fun game, but this is like making a FPS out of Slaughterhouse 5. Sure you could do it but you're wasting SO much gameplay potential in the process.
This could be good. It could also be alright. Only time will tell, No point getting super excited over this trailer that doesn't tell us anything about the game, except "Go to hell", which I find a little offensive (yeah, fuck you too EA).
(A) I'm not sure that telling potential consumers to "go to hell" is the best way to market, well, anything.
(B) So they're turning a renowned literary work into...a God of War-style action game (as far as I can tell)?
Uhhhh.....why is anybody hating on this game at all? We haven't even really seen the fucker! You know, it's entirely possible to tell an interesting and/or epic story within the confines of an action game.
I'm really quite doubtful about this game. I don't think an action game is appropriate for the source material.
C'mon, they announce a game based on what is one of the greatest works of literature in the western world and it's cool because a guy shoves a crucifix into the head of some damned soul? Sorry but that doesn't help me believe games can be art...
Limbo, well... the style looks all creepy and stuff but I remember reading that Limbo looked very much like Heaven, but without a divine presence. there was no 'punishment' except the permanent separation from God and Heaven. There are supposed to be green fields and such like. What we get is freaky looking people and babies with blades for arms? Err, no.
Dante's Inferno has the potential to deliver something terrifying and mind wrecking but if we end up traipsing through the nine circles killing everything in our path it'll have fallen waaaaay short of its potential.
God of War was greek fan fiction, pure and simple. And that worked because it wasn't trying to mask itself as anything else. Dante's inferno doesn't have the framework for an action game, it was a poem about the hierarchy of evil and the physical exploration of hell. This game is already labeling itself as a TP beat em' up which, if it just randomly took place in hell is fine, but its trying to dawn a literary coat of paint to make it seem 'cultural'.
I loved GoW, but this is just a waste in my eyes. I had been hoping for years for an inferno modernization with a new Dante, but he's not an action hero, he never was. Dante was a man given insight into what he was never meant to see, he was mostly a passive observer which could easily be a role given to gamers in a more 'adventurous' environment.
We know a lot because of genre constrains, you know, the stuff that supplements the trailers. I'm not criticizing it based on how good a game it might be, but for the game we know it's not going to be.
I'm cautiously optimistic about it. The trailer didn't really show off all that much. But I agree with viralhunter if its going to be another beat em up action game, not all that bad a thing, EA is missing a great opportunity to make something different and more exciting.
While I can think of worse ideas, I feel like it's games like this that show the lack of subtlety and restraint on the part of game makers. Normally it's pretty obvious, but when put in the context of Dante's Inferno, juxtaposed with the original story, it just looks ridiculous.
Exactly. There's nothing wrong with updates so long as you're keeping the the central focus of original piece at the forefront instead of using it as a launching pad to something completely different.
The graphics look uninspiringly dull. I know graphics to make a game, but if they are looking to show off Dante's Inferno, one of the best pieces of literature ever made they better be able to display it in a way that makes you just as afraid as if you read it. If this game looks anything less then stellar it will take away the immersion completely and end in a poor-mediocre experience. EA, you better work your ass off or just drop it right now.
Funny, I never read the book, but I don't think the main character has weapons to slaughter the damned with - never mind the fact that their lives already suck bad enough, without someone jamming a cross into their head.
You fuckers should relax. This is Destructoid -- if anything, tastelessly taking a piece of classical literature out of all context and taste should be applauded for the sheer absurdity.
Not to be knit-picky or anything, but it's just called "The Inferno", it it only Dante's Inferno because he wrote it.
And whoever pointed out that Limbo looks nothing like Limbo is absolutely correct:
"The chief irony in this circle is that Limbo shares many characteristics with the Elysian Fields; thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the portal of faith," Canto IV, l.36) they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle, the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including Virgil himself, as well as the Islamic philosophers Averroes and Avicenna. In the castle Dante meets the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan and the philosophers Socrates and Aristotle. Interestingly, he also sees Saladin in Limbo (Canto IV). Dante implies that all virtuous pagans find themselves here, although he later encounters two in heaven and one (Cato of Utica) in Purgatory."
I hope they don't completely go off the deep end with it, it would be great as an Adventure game or could easily be twisted into an RPG. But if it's going to be an action game it had better be super bad ass.
That being said, this is going to be the title the people in the mainstream point to and say, "Games are for overly-violent" 12 year old boys.
Several people have already made the point so I won't belabor it, but this is a classic case of not having enough imagination.
Beautiful, funny, awe-striking, but irreverent book becomes over the top, melodramatic, gory brawler? Come on, guys, there's so much more that can be done here.
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Contest:
12:41 PM on 12.15.2008
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I'm sure it'll still be a fun game, but this is like making a FPS out of Slaughterhouse 5. Sure you could do it but you're wasting SO much gameplay potential in the process.
(B) So they're turning a renowned literary work into...a God of War-style action game (as far as I can tell)?
What's next "Paradise Lost: The Squad based Shooter"...
Didn't anybody play God of War?
WTF?
C'mon, they announce a game based on what is one of the greatest works of literature in the western world and it's cool because a guy shoves a crucifix into the head of some damned soul? Sorry but that doesn't help me believe games can be art...
Limbo, well... the style looks all creepy and stuff but I remember reading that Limbo looked very much like Heaven, but without a divine presence. there was no 'punishment' except the permanent separation from God and Heaven. There are supposed to be green fields and such like. What we get is freaky looking people and babies with blades for arms? Err, no.
Dante's Inferno has the potential to deliver something terrifying and mind wrecking but if we end up traipsing through the nine circles killing everything in our path it'll have fallen waaaaay short of its potential.
I loved GoW, but this is just a waste in my eyes. I had been hoping for years for an inferno modernization with a new Dante, but he's not an action hero, he never was. Dante was a man given insight into what he was never meant to see, he was mostly a passive observer which could easily be a role given to gamers in a more 'adventurous' environment.
Unless your interpretation of a divine presence is hands and colour, in which case they are totally lacking it. Job done, good work EA.
lmfao.
I think it looks really cool though and unless the reviews are horrible I'll definitely be picking it up.
Exactly. There's nothing wrong with updates so long as you're keeping the the central focus of original piece at the forefront instead of using it as a launching pad to something completely different.
And whoever pointed out that Limbo looks nothing like Limbo is absolutely correct:
"The chief irony in this circle is that Limbo shares many characteristics with the Elysian Fields; thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the portal of faith," Canto IV, l.36) they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle, the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including Virgil himself, as well as the Islamic philosophers Averroes and Avicenna. In the castle Dante meets the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan and the philosophers Socrates and Aristotle. Interestingly, he also sees Saladin in Limbo (Canto IV). Dante implies that all virtuous pagans find themselves here, although he later encounters two in heaven and one (Cato of Utica) in Purgatory."
I hope they don't completely go off the deep end with it, it would be great as an Adventure game or could easily be twisted into an RPG. But if it's going to be an action game it had better be super bad ass.
That being said, this is going to be the title the people in the mainstream point to and say, "Games are for overly-violent" 12 year old boys.
Several people have already made the point so I won't belabor it, but this is a classic case of not having enough imagination.
Beautiful, funny, awe-striking, but irreverent book becomes over the top, melodramatic, gory brawler? Come on, guys, there's so much more that can be done here.