Preview of Dante's Inferno
Dante's Inferno
by Stephen CameronAugust 13, 2009
First off, what is Dante's Inferno? Let's start from the beginning; the game's universe is based on the first book of an ancient Italian poem called "The Divine Comedy" by a guy named known as the “Father of the Italian Language” - Dante Alighieri. Now you have to remember when this piece of literature was written.. it's was a time (Roughly 1265-1321) when people thought mentally ill folks were possessed by the devil, and they needed to have a hole drilled in their heads get the evil spirits out. Whatever their twisted mindset was at that time, they never would have guessed that this highly creative and twisted poem would later make a killer premise for a video game!
From a video game standpoint, the Dante’s Inferno game idea is not a new one. From what I could find, a Commodore 64 version existed. I actually grabbed it and tried it on an emulator; let’s just say…it was nothing to write home about. (Check out a video)
Here is the story in a nut shell. Our friend Dante (the author) set out to fight his political enemies scattered out thru hell. The levels ot sections consist of upper hell with the first 5 circles of sin, then you have circles 6 and 7, which are mostly the mildly violent of sins, and finally circles 8 and 9 which gives love to the more malicious sins. Just to give you an idea of the level of creativity that Visceral Games and EA are brining to the table pertaining to the sins…is gluttony.
For those unfamiliar with this one, it's the sin of over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. They’ve taken this to a whole new level….they created this oversized, half rotted woman where she runs around and her job is to chase your ass down, and her primary weapon is toxic projectile waste. From both ends! Then.. if she gets a hold of you, she tries to eat you! It's freaking awesome!
The first level we got to try was called “Limbo”, it’s apparently the place "in between" or "front door" to hell. And as you can see from the image below, you can imagine what I was up against.
The game play reminded me a lot of course of God of War and Wolverine, the style mainly; of course they are going to borrow from such successful titles. But make no mistake; this game is NOT just a knock off. Was this all ok with me? Sure it was, because it’s very familiar. Honestly, what I did get to play was very short, but the main objective is to save the love of your life called Beatrice towards the end of the game. They never talked about the end, but if you’ve read the book, that’s basically the ultimate goal.
From what I was able to tell this game will ship with a Mature rating.
In closing, this game looks incredibly promising, and should be on your radar. Why? Because, the universe has been mapped out and has stood the test of time, nearly 500 years! Visceral has carefully layed out the universe in a game setting. Also, the story is very attractive and engaging, and the main character is nothing short of an awesome blood spilling super hero, and the main lure of the whole thing is to save your girl from hell! Great recipe.
Be sure to check out the official EA Dante's Inferno site for more info - http://www.dantesinferno.com..and, check out our sinful gift from the comminuty event!
