If you think you can design a better Dante’s Inferno level than your neighbor Phil, now’s your chance to prove it.
To celebrate the release of Dante’s Inferno in Europe (before the North American release? that’s not supposed to happen!), Electronic Arts has officially announced the game’s DLC, which comes with a big surprise. The usual new areas and new enemies will be included, but developer Visceral Games is also including a level editor that will let the best creators duke it out for the top spots on leaderboards.
The first announced DLC pack is called Dark Forest, scheduled for release in March, which is a prequel that tells the story of Dante’s journey home and includes new enemies, puzzles, and relics. This is the pack that, while sounding good enough, is standard fare as far as DLC goes. However, the pack scheduled for April, called Trials of St. Lucia is anything but.
Trials of St. Lucia is dubbed a “full expansion” that will include not only a level editor, but a multiplayer co-op mode and a new playable character (presumably for that multiplayer co-op mode I just mentioned). The level editor will allow players to create trials with waves of enemies, from both the original game and DLC, that can then be uploaded for everyone to play and vote on. The top levels will be ranked on multiple leaderboards.
I’ve never seen a level editor in a God of War-style game before, so Visceral Games could be making a world first here. Though Dante’s Inferno was obviously inspired by God of War (c’mon Visceral, it had to be), these new features actually serve to differentiate it from not only God of War but all other action games as well. A level editor is a feature that probably won’t be included in any other action game in the near future, so it not only looks fun but is a very cool idea.
Dante’s Inferno is out now in Europe, but it’ll be hitting North America on February 9.
