Post a comment
Tweet this
Share on Facebook
Print this article
Dante tries to make his way through SecuROM DRM installation issues
EA Games today announced that the team behind Dead Space, EA Redwood Shores, is working on a video game version of the literary classic Dante’s Inferno.
In case you aren’t familiar with the tale, in the 14th century, author Dante Alighieri wrote an epic poem about his conception of the Christian afterlife in three parts entitled “The Divine Comedy“. The first part was called Inferno and is about a journey through the nine circles of Hell. Based on the preview video they showed today, the game will indeed be about traveling through hell. From the brief preview, it looks to be a third-person combat game akin to God of War or Heavenly Sword.
Of course, an announcement like this begs the question; is classic literature a vast, untapped resource of game ideas? One could argue that many video game stories do borrow from classics (notably Greek mythology) already, but this game shows that the well is not nearly dry.
Japanese RPGs often borrow from mythology, and it seems sometimes as if developers all swarm a specific mythos for a few years, then move on to another culture’s stories. For a few years, we saw a variety of RPGs made in Japan with Norse mythological weapons, enemies, and lands. Fenrirs, Odins, and Yggdrasils abounded.
Perhaps the next wave of cultural borrowing will come from current world religions. Ancient, dead religions are safe to borrow from—nobody’s going to get offended at a game where you play Thor. However, if you make Jesus or (Allah forbid) Muhammed an antagonist in a video game, you’d be sure that there would be CNN-worthy controvesy all over it.
For EA to delve into Christian mythology as a video game setting is equal parts bold, daring, and risky. There have been precious few before it, such as Painkiller, to pave the way. I’m excited to see what they do with it, because let’s face it—fighting demons and devils in hell is just plain cool.
RSS Feeds