Heaven help you if you had any faith in Dante’s Inferno, the video game being developed by Visceral Games, an EA studio. Not only will it be a typical hack-and-slash romp, à la God of War, but it also takes the source material, The Divine Comedy, and punches it in the face. I expected no less.
To put it another way: unless you’re still young enough to equate violence with “being cool” or with the word “awesome,” you’re probably better off staying far, far away from the game. Or, simply: Dante’s Inferno misses the point.
Here’s but one example, as parlayed by Kotaku’s Brian Crecente:
In the Inferno, one of the first scenes that Dante comes upon is a the first ring hell. It’s here, in the original work, where unbaptized children and virtuous pagans live. It’s a scene, when turned into a battle, that could be problematic, it seems. But the developers when animating these children damned by original sin turned them into spider-like creatures with scythe’s for arms. The reimagining removes the shock some might experience when confronted by children sent to hell simply because they weren’t baptized, but it also will likely remove some mainstream flack the game could have received.
And one more, for good measure:
When Dante comes upon the 30 or so shades found in the game he can choose to punish or absolve them, permanently changing the metaphoric landscape of Dante’s hell.
Oh, that’s good. Let’s just turn Dante into an all-powerful divine entity, randomly saving whom he pleases. Nice.
Now, just because the game has about as much to do with Dante’s Inferno as an episode of “Rugrats” doesn’t mean the game won’t be fun; even if it’s a 1:1 clone of God of War, it’ll probably be worth at least a rental. What we’re annoyed at is the hijacking, and subsequent corruption, of the story.
Is it a big deal? Of course not; who cares? But it’s something worth pointing out.