The Jon Venture

I think I’ve subconsciously been opposing writing about a videogame that dared tackle Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia because of the respect I have for the source material. Loosely based on part of the classic allegorical poem that has influenced the world for seven centuries, EA and Visceral Games is poised to release Dante’s Inferno on Xbox 360, PS3, and PSP on February 9^th in North America. Honestly, I don’t know what to make of the whole situation. Even though the story for this third person action adventure epic was written by Will Rokos of Monster’s Ball fame, there are so many things that could go wrong with Dante’s Inferno that I cannot outright cheer for it as if my opinion was bought while writing for a mainstream fanboy gaming website. I can only take into account what I experienced in the demo, the videos I’ve seen online, and the rightful hesitance of playing the newest God of War clone to hit home consoles. I find myself almost in disbelief that the medium has come this far, yet titles like Brutal Legend and Mass Effect 2 have proven that the proper amount of polish can drive the sales of any interactive glorified storybook. Harsh? Yes, but I’d rather be weary than fooled by EA’s hype machine. Again.

Dante’s Inferno follows the titular character as a knight (not a poet) during the Crusades who must rescue the soul of his beloved Beatrice from Lucifer. Dante’s got it a bit tougher than Super Mario, because his “princess” is not in another castle- she’s deep within the ninth Circle of Hell and Lucifer himself has plans of marrying her in order to storm Heaven and the Almighty. Having to confront the innocent souls he’s slaughtered while in service, the sins committed during his times of weakness, and the dark truth of his family’s fate, Dante will need nothing less than Holy power to literally face his demons. The story behind Dante’s Inferno can rightfully be referred to as epic, but there’s not much that separates “epic” from “epic fail”. The difference lies in the tools used to get the job done.

Part of the prerelease criticism, and the strength, behind the gameplay in Dante’s Inferno are its similarities to a certain Sony Spartan also making a console appearance this year. Rather than the Blades of Athena, Dante will be using Death’s scythe to carve a path through Hell. Beyond beating Death in an afterschool fight by the flagpole and taking his toy, Dante will also be employing a cross given to him by Beatrice to slay countless hellish minions. Beatrice’s cross is said to be an heirloom containing a thorn from Jesus’ crown, and is capable of absolving the souls of the damned. The cross will be Dante’s means of using magic, the scythe his choice in hack-n-slash hardware, and both will be used to collect souls that can increase his skills and add combos to the mix. Hell, Dante will even be riding beasts as Kratos did, but I’m not sure whose dominion over beasts is more impressive. Either way, Dante’s Inferno is set for an ambitious outing that too closely resembles an already successful gaming franchise not to garner comparisons even before its official North American release.

With a release scheduled to coincide with the highly anticipated Bioshock 2 on February 9^th, it will be interesting to see just how well Dante’s Inferno performs under pressure. There are scores of gamers who have yet to play the recently released Mass Effect 2 or Darksiders, and many gamers are already committed to spending their hard earned cash on said Bioshock 2 or the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Each of those marquee titles have enough influence to sway a season’s sales in their direction, and I’ve not even brought up the armies still at war on Modern Warfare 2 nightly that could cause gamers to completely ignore Dante’s Inferno. I truly hope that Dante’s Inferno does well, and I will definitely be picking up a copy, but not without the knowledge that it might blow up in my face like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Beware the EA hype machine powered by fake protests and Super Bowl commercials, because no one will absolve your sins (or give you a full refund) if Dante’s Inferno ends up in the clearance bin on launch day in Hell’s GameStop.