EA started the Dante’s Inferno panel by giving us an overview of what The Divine Comedy is. If you’re interested in learning more, then check out the Wikipedia entry on it. The game is based on Dante’s work so while it’s not an exact retelling, it will have elements that people will be able to recognize from The Divine Comedy. Plus, if the game was exactly like The Divine Comedy, then it would just be text adventure game with Dante talking to people the entire time.
Dante’s Inferno begins with Dante killing Death and taking Death’s scythe. Dante then returns home to find that his fiancée, Beatrice, murdered and Lucifer has seduced her into Hell. This is what causes Dante to break through the gates of Hell and go through the nine circles of Hell to rescue his love.
Have you noticed that cross that’s on Dante’s chest? It’s actually tapestry sewn into his chest and each seam marks a sin he has committed in his life. As Dante goes through the circles of Hell, he will have to deal with the sins of his past in some form. He must face his past sins and redeem himself on his quest to rescue his true love, who we soon find out was also full of sin herself.
Dante’s Inferno holds a lot of potential. The game is being developed at EARS where Dead Space was developed at, two of the developers on the team have worked on Half-Life 2, Oddworld, God of War II and Metroid Prime and EA’s recent track record should leave gamers with some confidence that the game will turn out great.
And as far as the God of War comparisons go, one of the EA reps talking (I believe it was Jonathan Knight) at the panel said that they are flattered to be compared to God of War and were surprised that they don’t get more Devil May Cry comparisons. Oh, and one thing that I thought was pretty cool was the premise behind the Charon, the ferryman of Hades. Charon is the man who takes souls across the river to the other side. For the game, they've transformed Charon into a living boat.
There's a few versions of the Charon boat design as well as some other behind-the-scenes look at Dante's Inferno in the gallery. Check it out ... or go to Hell!
LAUNCH GALLERY (20 IMAGES)
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 03.02.2009
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I went to Florence last year and learnt some stuff about all of this in their huge churches and stuff. Oh, how it'll take me back to my summer break!
Charon is a Greek mythological figure and one who has no place in Inferno.
Now that I think about it, is there a dedicated psychopomp for damned souls in the Christian mythos, or is that just another task lumped onto angels?
You know, I hope they make a really good game. But my real wish is that they made a great game that wasn't tied (solely for marketing purposes) to this work of literature.
In fact, the Comedy is filled to the brim with Greek mythological figures. Dante meets Minos and Ulysses, too.
For better or worse, EA got that little detail right. The rest of it is bollocks, though.
Dante meets him.
That's it? All you can think of to do with the plot is that? The game may play well, but again, the gameplay and setting didn't need the name.
I don't see the issue here.
There's one thing for it to be "loosely based" on the poem. It's another entirely to take the name of the poem and some of the characters (reworked to being almost unrecognizable), then attach a hackneyed, "save the princess" sort of story for it. It's lazy and unfitting of a work of literature so full of possibilities for interpretation to have such a generic, run-of-the-mill objective.
There are nigh infinite ways they could have worked this and had it remain more true to the poem at its base level than this farce. You could even retain the action-oriented gameplay.
In fact, were I in the room when they started discussing these concepts, I'd have been all for the whole "sin tapestry" thing. I'll wholeheartedly admit that there are aspects of this game that appeal to my interests. The motivation and means for Dante to traverse Hell, however, are nowhere among them.
Shit, have Beatrice (now in Paradise) reach out to Dante in a vision and warn him that he must cleanse his soul by braving the consequences that await sinners in the hereafter. That's a hell of a lot closer to the poem while still allowing for the DMC-style action they seem to be pursuing.
EA can feel free to change their entire plotline to that. Or, frankly, damn near anything else as far as I'm concerned. Wait... no. Anything more befitting than what they have.