The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And EA’s new Dante’s Inferno is another cobblestone on that road. Based off one of the most famous pieces of literature in the western hemishere, The Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno is an attempt to adapt that masterful work of religious symbolism and political satire into a game. Let’s clip from EA’s own press release:
“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.”
Adapting such a difficult, inherent un-game work for the medium I’m sure was an immense task. Dante’s Inferno is full of grotesque imagery, but little action. A lot of the themes will be exceedingly difficult to translate effectively. It’s an ambitious step to take for EA.
Or you could just make another 3D gory action brawler ala God of War. That might certainly translate Dante’s work into the medium.
This is not to say that in the end Dante’s Inferno won’t be a good game. In fact, with the collective might of EA behind it I’m sure at the very least it will be a polished affair that borrows some of the best modern tropes of action titles. With a little luck you may have a game that rivals God of War or Devil May Cry as some of the best beat-em-ups of recent years.
But to claim you’re making an honest attempt at adapting Dante Alighieri’s work and ending up with another over-the-top action game seems disingenuous at best and just dishonest at worst. No medium is a stranger to adaptation, games for the longest time have borrowed from film and films themselves like to borrow from literary sources. Yet as much as we hate it when film adaptations of books miss the mark in concept so should we be disappointed when a game attempts to do the same.
Borrowing from greater works raises expectations of the adaptation. Adapting an action film is easy, adapting The Divine Comedy is quite difficult and it takes a certain amount of laziness to end up with the same solution in both cases. With Dante’s Inferno it looks like EA is just borrowing the names and some imagery behind the work resulting in a work that might be better labeled as inspired by The Divine Comedy. Which is perfectly fine, God of War borrowed heavily from Greek mythology, but no one really complained there since God of War never claimed to be a tool for familiarizing the unfamiliar with the remarkable details of a great work of art.
And in the end, that’s really the heart of my complaint with Dante’s Inferno. There’s nothing wrong with creating an action game inspired by Dante. There’s nothing wrong with liberally borrowing from the source. But don’t pretend you’re doing the original work any justice with this creative bastardization. Don’t sprout off meaningless PR jabber attempting to make the game seem more notable than it is. Just call the game Seven Circles of Hell, put in an inspired byline, and call it a day. Don’t drag better works to your level.
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