Billed as “Dead Space meets God of War in Hell,” Electronic Arts’ videogame adaptation of Dante’s Inferno sure doesn’t sound anything like The Inferno itself.
When Electronic Arts first announced its game adaptation of Dante’s epic poem and showed a cryptic teaser, we were all understandably skeptical. How do you make a game out of a poem about a sad guy walking around Hell looking at other even sorrier guys suffer? My guess was that the game would find protagonist Dante on “some sort of Kratos-esque mission to make it through Hell and kick some demon ass along the way.” It turns out that I was even more right than I was hoping to be. PSM3 has revealed the first details on the Inferno game, and it sounds pound-for-pound like an action game in the vein of God of War.
“Button-for-button the controls are identical to GoW‘s – from using the right stick to evade, to regular and heavy attacks being mapped to Square and Triangle,” PSM3 wrote. Enemies even drop mana and health orbs, just like in Devil May Cry and God of War, and you can also collect mana from chests which you open by holding down Circle, just like in – you guessed it – God of War. Also, “holding R1 and pressing Square lets you knock enemies into the air Devil May Cry-style and keep them hovering with a volley of rapid, light attacks.”
The game will also be chock-full of everyone’s favorite crutch: quick-time events. PSM3 describes one where Dante climbs onto the back of some gigantic monster, kicks off the demon who’s piloting and steals the ride for himself. I haven’t read Inferno since high school, and I do remember the scene where Dante and Virgil climb up the devil’s back, but I don’t think I remember that part.
Still, the magazine maintains that the game has its own flavor. “What really sets this apart from God of War is the setting,” they wrote. “Dante’s trip through hell is altogether more unpleasant, twisted creatures burst from doorways, lava spews from inverted crosses and bottomless fiery pits yawn deep beneath your feet.”
EA Redwood Shores, who are handling this, certainly proved themselves with Dead Space last year. And the God of War formula is undoubtedly fun when it’s done well. So it could be a good game, that’s for sure, but just don’t forget to leave your literary credentials at the door when you come in.
[Via CVG]
