EA Announces Dante's Inferno
Today EA announced that EA Redwood Shores, the team behind Dead Space are now hard at work on an interpretation of the first book of Dante Alighieri's epic poem, The Divine Comedy. To give props where props are due, NaviFairy predicted this exact same studio pairing when the game was first mentioned in Variety two weeks ago.
Navi also wondered what genre the game would wind up being, and while it's being touted as a "third person action adventure adaptation of the medieval epic poem," and expressed fears that the game would trounce all across the original plotline (in which Dante does relatively little but observe - he certainly doesn't level up twin blades of carnage and behead Lucifer in a stunning three-headed boss fight). I share those fears, although this soundbyte gave me some hope:
"The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience that, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art," said Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante's Inferno. "It's the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story."
In Alighieri's original 14th century poem, Dante is given a tour of the nine circles of hell by the specter of the Roman poet Virgil, and Dante's only real motivation is to find his departed beloved, Beatrice. But thanks to the ideals of courtly love, Beatrice may not have even known Dante existed, and married someone else shortly after he met her. Then she died.
But if you take a jaunt over to EA's Dante website, you can see a video showing Dante braining some kind of ghoul with a heavy metal cross. So...there's that. I'm honestly not sure that I care if EA shreds this poetic classic, so long as they make a great game. But it would be nice if some semblance of the original (which was filled with contemporary political figures and Italian power-brokers, rather than anything that needed physical smiting). I'm not sure that Santa's gonna grant that wish, however.
EXTERNAL PRESS RELEASE
This press release is from Electronic Arts's website.
EA SENDS PLAYERS TO HELL IN EPIC ACTION GAME
Guildford, UK - December 15, 2008 - An abducted soul, a lifetime of sins, a journey to the depths of despair. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA Redwood Shores, the studio behind hit horror game Dead Space™, is making Dante's Inferno™ - a third-person action adventure adaptation of the medieval epic poem The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The dark fiction gave birth to the Tuscan Italian dialect and is widely considered to have defined the western world's contemporary conception of hell and purgatory. The poem tells the tale of Dante who journeys through the twisted, menacing nine circles of hell in pursuit of his beloved Beatrice.
Written in the 14th Century, The Divine Comedy was published and read aloud in Italian (unlike the Bible), thereby making the poem accessible to the mass public. The poem delivers a striking and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. In part one, known as Dante's Inferno, Dante traverses all nine circles of hell; limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery.
"The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience that, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art," said Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante's Inferno. "It's the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story."
For more information on Dante's Inferno, please visit www.dantesinferno.com and sign up for the newsletter and bookmark for news, features and upcoming events.
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tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 15 December 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: dante alighieri, dante's inferno, ea, ea redwood shores
I don't even know what to think.
Oh, I do!
Atrocious.
I always wonder why game devs can't see, as clearly as we do, that the game they are making is going to result in massive layoffs and profit loss.