God of War III director Stig Asmussen has high expectations for the upcoming Dante’s Inferno title, hoping it will give his own Kratos some fierce competition.
In an interview between Asmussen and CVG’s Mike Jackson, Jackson asked the man at the helm of God of War III what he thought of Dante’s Inferno – after all, the game bears much more of a resemblance to the GoW series than it does the classical work of literature by Dante Alighieri – and whether or not it would be a potential challenger to Asmussen’s own game.
Asmussen admitted that “[o]utside of a few previews and a high-res trailer, [he hadn’t] really seen much of the game.” Even so, he said that “the impressions from the press sound really good.” Beyond that, though, Asmussen wants Inferno to be totally sweet:
Some of the guys who used to work on GOW are working on Dante’s. Really good guys. I hope they make a fantastic game that serves as good competition for us. I think using Dante’s Inferno as a theme could really cook into something special – it is a very rich world to draw from.
As far as a threat to Kratos goes, I hope so. We need more great games in this genre!
What genre would that be, exactly? Killing everything that moves in Hell (or, Hades, as it were)?
…okay, yeah, that is a pretty awesome genre.
Asmussen was also asked what he thought about that other Dante: “Gameplay wise I think [Devil May Cry 4] is pretty fantastic! We have learned a ton from that series and it has given us a great deal of inspiration. The combat in the game is always a topic of conversation in the studio.” According to the man, the first game earned the nickname Game Developers May Cry when he and his coworkers first saw it back at Midway Games – mainly because, “we just wanted to go home and cry because we didn’t think it was possible to make a game that awesome!”
At any rate, Hell might be feeling a little full these days – but there’s no reason that Dante and Kratos can’t share the space. Maybe draw a line down the center, and then have wacky sitcom-esque hijinx. I know I’d watch it.
(You can read the full interview with Stig Asmussen here at CVG)