SAN FRANCISCO — Electronic Arts’ upcoming game Dante’s Inferno is a riff on God of War that stars a beefed-up warrior based on the author of The Divine Comedy. Seriously.
For those of us who spent our formative years sleeping through Classics lectures, Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem The Divine Comedy is largely a mystery — 14,000 lines of allegory chronicling the author’s philosophical journey through hell, Purgatory and beyond. Electronic Arts hopes to jog our collective memories a bit with Dante’s Inferno, an action game adapted from the first section of the Comedy.
This contemporary take on the author’s trip through the nine circles of hell follows the general framework of the original piece, with artistic liberties taken to convert demure prose into a fast-paced action-adventure title for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
While the game is still at least a year away, I recently visited EA’s studios for some hands-on time with an early build of the PS3 version.
Inferno, the first part of Dante’s original work, consists largely of conversations between the author and the poet Virgil — not exactly the best source material for an action game.
EA’s take still features Dante as the protagonist, but the poet-philosopher is now a hulking veteran of the Crusades. He returns home from war to find Beatrice, the subject of his love and admiration, murdered. When her soul is “kidnapped” by Lucifer himself, Dante dives down to the very depths of hell, armed with Death’s scythe, to win her back.
Hell, as described in The Divine Comedy, is a nasty place. The development team at EA, fresh off their last game, Dead Space, is hard at work re-creating the nine circles in all their glory. The backgrounds are teeming with life (of sorts). Countless souls spew from demonic fountains, or shuffle about through Limbo, waiting to be judged.
Much of the concept art and monster designs are the work of Wayne Barlowe, who is credited with working on the Hellboy and Harry Potter movies. An unannounced Academy Award–winning writer will assist in penning the game’s script, and many of the lines and characters — including cameo appearances by Pontius Pilate and Pope Celestine V — will be lifted directly from The Divine Comedy.
The game itself is a single-player, combo-based action title, taking many cues from Sony’s God of War. Dante’s scythe extends in an arc just like Kratos’ cursed chain-blades. Enemies drop colored power-up orbs. Quick-time button-pressing events are used for dramatic action sequences. (It’s likely no coincidence that God of War II’s lead level designer is now on the Inferno team.)
The levels I traversed are likely to change dramatically before the game ships, but here’s what I saw. Dante tears through hordes of demonic minions, with occasional puzzle elements tossed in. The combat system is rather robust, blending simple combinations of light and heavy attacks into complex combos, with blocks and counterattacks thrown in to offer a wide variety of options.
Only a few types of enemies showed up in the demo, but each required specific strategies to defeat: Larger guards require players to block attacks and counterattack, while the hordes of unbaptized demonic attack-babies (with blades for arms) force you to stay on the move, lest you be overwhelmed by their numbers.
The development team is committed to keeping the game running at 60 frames per second, and it shows: Combat is fast and furious, featuring fluid, smooth animations even at this early, unpolished stage. They’re toying with adding a slow-motion effect that would slow the action down for about half a second on meaningful impacts — counters, special attacks, etc. — to give players a moment to adjust their stance, or prepare for the next move. It’s a subtle effect, but half a second’s reprieve in the midst of a crowd of enemies is a long time to prepare.
Dante’s Inferno stands in a rather awkward place. The source material is a treasured piece of culture, yes, but it’s far less likely to incite fanboy wrath than would a videogame adaptation of a contemporary movie or comic book series. Liberal arts majors might be shocked to find Dante morphed into a hypermasculine action hero. Other people won’t care.
There’s still plenty of time before the game escapes development purgatory, but as it stands I couldn’t shake just how much it felt like a God of War game. That said, God of War is popular for a reason, and it has very few imitators.
0 Response to "Dante’s Inferno Turns Epic Poem Into Hellish Action Game"