Dante’s Inferno Developer Diaries

I’ve been extremely skeptical about how good the new Dante’s Inferno for PS3 is going to be. Mostly this was because of the extreme over-hyping it’s been getting. There was so much about how controvercial the game will be, but so little about the actual game. I recently downloaded the 7 Developer Diaries from the PSN. The diaries discuss features and aspects of the new video game… one circle of Hell at a time.


In a nutshell, the speakers in these video s think that the game is dark, disturbing, dark, controversial… and did I mention dark? (Cue swirly darkness effect). But in all seriousness, it’s nice to see all this information about the actual game, gameplay, and concepts behind Dante’s Inferno. The diaries include lots of in-game footage, and show just how much detail was put into each level and monster you will come across.

The diaries also address some of the concerns that I had about the game when I wrote about the demo. They do mention that they strated from the book in a lot of places because, as they put it, this is a video game, and sticking to the text word for word would have just been… boring (after all, all Dante does in the book is walk around). Still, they assure us that the developers took the text very seriously and stuck to the floorplan and concepts laid out by the poet… for the most part. The Dante in the game is different from the character in the book because if he’s going to be fighting Hell’s worst monsters, he has to be “an over-the-top action figure.” He is also guilty of all the sins of Hell and then some. The video game hero Dante has a rich and troubled history. The cross on his chest (which I was wondering about…) is a tapestry that represents all his past sins, and his realization that he must repent for them.

The developer diaries have almost changed my mind about this game. Dante’s Inferno might draw inspiration from the poem, but the developers have made it their own. I’m still trying to figure out if I think this is good or not.

Watch the videos through PSN, or here.