Has EA truly managed to turn the factory that created the Godfather games into a creative powerhouse in the gaming industry? Will Dante's Inferno end up being a meaningful success or a throwback to the studio's history of creating competent but forgettable games?
To find out, Gamasutra spoke to Earl at length.
There's still time for the Visceral Games cult classic action-adventure game Dante's Inferno to return to the limelight 15 years later.
Absolutely loved this game. Don't know why it went under the radar with so many people.
Was outshadowed by GOW3 it was a bad decision to release it at the same time because EA was counting on a push from xbox players. The game was DOA. I never played it
....that's a you problem for not playing it, but the game wasn't DOA. It was very widely revered. The story was to continue in the sequel and the EA decided to focus on other projects. That wasn't the fault of the game and/or GoW.... it was the fault of EA and not wanting to invest in the team behind it.
Do yourself a favor and play it. If you have an XBO or Series X, you can find a cheap 360 disc as it's BC. It still hols up exceptionally well still to this day.
Darth
It was suicide mission to release it the same day as gow3. A massive majority of ps3 skipped it.
Nothing to do with the game itself, it’s EA who didn’t manage and bet wrong
Darth
Lol I just read this
“it was the fault of EA and not wanting to invest in the team behind it.”
Did you know that this same studio who didn’t get investment from EA who delivered Dead Space 1-2-3 and Battlefield Hardline? 😆
Game was loaned to me and I never booted it because GoW3 was getting all of my attention at the time. After GoW3 I had no desire to even try Dante’s Inferno because I was ready to move on to a different type of game. Not saying Dante is a bad game. It may be great. It just didn’t get to it.
@caca, what I mean by team are the guys who actually worked on it. The ones who did this game are not the same ones who worked on dead space. They may all work at visceral, but they are in different teams.
So it really was about EA choosing not to continue on with Jonathan knight and his crew and instead turn their focus on the upcoming Dead Space 2 which was from a different team.
A lot of people think a developer is just that and is not made up of different teams for different projects. The sequel was to expand on the story further. They had all kinds of new ideas all story boarded and ready to go. EA just had other plans.
Not out shadowed but written off as a gow clone by multiple magazines, howrver in reality was a darker game entirely.
I think it was a couple of factors,
1. Everyone was anxiously waiting for God of War 3 to release(myself included), so we could see what the Santa Monica Studio were going to accomplish with the mighty PS3.
2. It was such a direct ripoff of the GoW formula right down to the button prompts, (such as clicking L3 & R3 to activate your ultimate) .
Now, of course lots of games borrow and evolve ideas, but this was like a carbon copy with a different skin and not quite as good or pretty.
3. It was cool to look at, it played fine, good artistic design and everything, but our standards were astronomically high after GoW 1 & 2… and it just wasn’t anything to write home about.
That being said, I have been wanting to revisit it for years.
It's probably the best GoW clone ever. Better than even 3 to some extent. The story may be loosely based on the poem but the liberties they took with the various levels of hell were pretty entertaining.
Definitely worth playing through again. It also helps that it plays even better on an XBO/ Series.
Better than 3 to NO extent dude. I get it, you liked the game, but it was objectively worse than GOW3 in every way. I was one of the few who played both at the time as I couldn't get enough of GOW formula, and i liked it as a straight-to-dvd kind of game, but it did nothing better than GOW3 my guy.
I think with a few live service features EA could revive the IP and turn it into a million dollar franchise.
Look, EA is dumb, but they can still read comments on random aggregate sites. Let's not help them with more bad ideas.
There are good video game protagonists, and there are bad video game protagonists.
I disagree that max is unlikable. Chloe is infinitely more unlikable in my opinion.
Abby was absolute trash protagonist in every way..
Tidus was so meh to me..
On villain side, the one i didn’t like wa Micah, because they wanted him to be that way and it was brilliant👍🏽
Both are horrible, granted Chloe is infinitely worse, it feels like Chloe is just fanservice for people who too over the edge and wasn't written to be a character that makes sense
Ye I was expecting her too. Guess they actually played the game. Unlike you and whoever agrees.
She's actually not bad. It's the writing itself that is bad overall, but she's fine overall. She's no worse than Miles Morales IMHO. Both thrust into a spotlight and receiving both praise and blame and dealing with it.
Forspoken is a bland game because it's 75% bland, boring, repetitive going through the motions and diversions that add nothing of the value with purposefully gated memory moments that don't feel organic or like you're discovering things but waiting for others to reveal things.
Exactly Chris. Even though I liked the game. I kno u played it. People who actually played it and went thru her dream saw she was a good likeable person who really just acted out due to being alone and unloved. I think your problem is it was open world, I think if it was more linear you may have liked it better.
Oh no she's bad. Very unlikable even before you add on the bad dialogue. The game could have been quite good with a good protagonist
For all the people like synner. Shes actually half white lol. Inferior complexity is a hell of a thing. You'll be ok.
Most of these aren't even that bad. Especially comparing to others like Squall "Whatever" Leonhart, Forspoken's Frey, and the guy from Atomic Heart.
Squall is one of the best developed main FF characters so...
People talk about his "whatever" thing thats at the start of the game, not the character he eventually becomes in the end.
No amount of "character development", (especially the ones that for me feels sudden and undeserved like Squall's), will justify him being a d**k to my girl Quistis. Even if he found the cure for cancer, from that moment on, I would never like him.
The article is about being unlikeable, and he was indeed unlikeable for at least half of the game.
the "watever" is only present in the english localisation.
so your argument doesnt rly ... stand imo.
Good for you that you could enjoy the japanese version. That's not the case for me and the majority of people here, though.
i had to stop reading after the "blatant misogyny" in the Dantes inferno section.
i actually liked Max haha.
the forspoken chick is missing tho
Grab your katana, and slice your way through this list featuring the best hack and slash games the PlayStation 3 had to offer.
Dante's inferno... an excellent GoW inspired game. So sad the sequels will never be.
I recall enjoying it well enough at the time, but it wasn't a patch on God of War 3 which came out around the same time I think.
I own it and fired it up on my PS3 about 6 months ago and time hadn't been particularly kind to it although it still very much nailed the atmosphere and it is a cool as he'll setting and universe.
Dante's Inferno needs the GOW treatment. No cut camera, with a real hellish depiction of the 9 circles and a story as dark and as serious would be amazing.
Still pretty amazing there was a PSP version that was actually pretty good. I remember playing it 10 years ago. I had the PS3 version when it first came out and loved it.
Yup, I remember being blown away with Heavenly Sword. I remember holding out hope that they would go back and add trophy support as a incentive to go back and replay the game, but I don't think they ever did?
I couldn't beat the final boss though! Spent several days trying but eventually gave up, lol. Still enjoyed it though.
heavenly sword was such a short, but amazing game. that game should be prime material to be made into a download only remaster.
I really enjoyed Castlevania, but struggled to get into it again reattempting it a few years back. I still think it does another of things well; story, presentation, level varietily and art style at least. Gameplay maybe has not stood test of time unfortunately which makes it a chore to get through.
Okay, I haven't played either Dead Space or Dantes Inferno, BUT one thing I have to say, is that they have to make more success, not copy success.
One cannot say after the demo, that Dantes Inferno isn't a game to get the GoW audience. I'd just like to see them do more original stuff like Dead Space apparently was (heard very good things), it's just renaming a company to an awesome name and generating a clone just kind of lowers their expectations to me. Although, you know, they could be the next Shiny or Insomniac which would be great.
I have to admit, Dantes Inferno looks great.