In a recent job listing on Gamasutra, EA's Visceral Games studio put out a feeler for "an experienced Environment Artist for an existing action/adventure franchise." We might normally excuse this as a job listing for the currently-in-development Dead Space 2, but the listing further details the project as "a major opportunity to contribute to a bold new franchise, heavily backed by the EA Games Label ... the sequel to a major new IP at the award-winning Visceral Games."
The listing concludes with another vaguely suggestive line about creating a sequel that will "set new quality standards and make the franchise the world-leader in the action/melee-combat genre." Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are mentioned as target consoles. All these clues add up to reasonable speculation that Visceral is recruiting for a sequel to this year's Dante's Inferno.
In December, the first game's producer was all for the idea of a sequel, but admitted that continuing to follow the path laid out by the The Divine Comedy source material, which would lead to Purgatory and perhaps on into Heaven, might not make for a great game -- especially in the action/melee-combat genre. Perhaps then, a Dante's Inferno sequel could take a few liberties with the story.
[Via Superannuation]
Reader Comments (31)
Posted: May 18th 2010 8:49PM AutobotIronhide said
Anyone who thinks it's Inferno 2 is an idiot. It's obviously Purgatorio.
Reply
Posted: May 19th 2010 12:24AM Silenus said
Umm, yeah. Have you read Purgatorio? Not exactly action/melee video game tasty goodness there.
They'd be safer going with Inferno 2 considering the massive and broad changes they made to the original story.
Such as, Beatrice. Dante running around being something other than a coward. Fighting death. The cross carved into Dante's chest. Pretty much the rest of the game.
Pick up a book instead of checking out Wikipedia and you might agree the last thing anyone needs is EA taking more liberties with Aligiheri's work.
Reply
They'd be safer going with Inferno 2 considering the massive and broad changes they made to the original story.
Such as, Beatrice. Dante running around being something other than a coward. Fighting death. The cross carved into Dante's chest. Pretty much the rest of the game.
Pick up a book instead of checking out Wikipedia and you might agree the last thing anyone needs is EA taking more liberties with Aligiheri's work.
Posted: May 18th 2010 11:16PM Prinnywithascarf said
Both of you are wrong.
It obviously takes place in the Netherworld, with plenty of overlords and cameos.
Reply
It obviously takes place in the Netherworld, with plenty of overlords and cameos.
Posted: May 19th 2010 7:50AM AutobotIronhide said
I read the damn book, don't question my judgement.
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 8:50PM ReginaPhalange said
I'm probably the only one, but I'm excited for this...
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 9:14PM seishino said
Is it just me, or is the "over-the-top action fighting platformer blockbuster" the new mascot platformer / fighting game / rts / fps? It seems like there has been a flood of titles in the God Of War genre. Can they all keep up that sized development budgets, fighting over an increasingly saturated market?
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 9:23PM HighFiveJesus said
They should first think about getting quality up to God of War's before anything
Reply
Posted: May 19th 2010 2:08AM CrashTunoku said
Not really. Before the string of Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, and God of War 3, there hadn't been much action in that genre since DMC4, God of War PSP, and Ninja Gaiden II in early/mid 2008. They just seem to crop up in bunches.
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 9:23PM HighFiveJesus said
If they are abandoning the story, they really should just start from scratch. Also bold as hell to try and say they can do better than ALL action/melee-combat genre games, and become the world's most recognized brand, especially with how good they were this year, and the first dante wasn't..
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 9:40PM The Nth Doctor said
It would be so sad to see the sequel take any liberties with the story, seeing as how the first was so faithful.
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 9:58PM gatotsu911 said
Cleric +1
I'm not a fan of either franchise, but yeah.
Reply
I'm not a fan of either franchise, but yeah.
Posted: May 18th 2010 11:02PM The Nth Doctor said
And Bayonetta is to Wicca.
And Lord of Shadows appears to be to Stoker.
There seems to be a pattern.
Reply
And Lord of Shadows appears to be to Stoker.
There seems to be a pattern.
Posted: May 18th 2010 11:16PM Prinnywithascarf said
Hopefully we can dine in hell in this new IP.
Reply
Posted: May 18th 2010 11:26PM Coldplay619 said
It was alright..not much variety in the environments until the last part of the game( ice part etc...)
It felt rough around the edges :/
Reply
It felt rough around the edges :/
Posted: May 19th 2010 1:32AM SisypheanLife said
Not every game needs a sequel. Just make an original action adventure game.
Reply
Posted: May 19th 2010 4:28AM sigma8 said
Hopefully they will remove Dante's name from the title. Usually, I'm all for works entering the public domain, but in this case I feel kind of bad that Mr. Aligheri can't protect his name. This isn't a knock on the game's merits, but as they continue to radically diverge from the divine comedy, I hope they remove "Dante" from the name.
Reply
Posted: May 19th 2010 4:51PM sigma8 said
I'm not expecting them to remove Dante from the game, but that doesn't mean they can't remove it. I realize I'm being a little idealistic, but it seems to me they want to focus on the Inferno, and not faithfulness to Dante's work. Lots of games drop parts of their names when their subtitles get too long. Maybe the sequel to this game will do that. Like: Dante's Inferno 2: The 666th Layer of Hell!, maybe that could just be "the 666th layer of hell" or something. I'm pretty sure that's a catchy title!
Although I think they totally should make a Purgatorio and Paradiso. Purgatorio can be kind of like playing Myst or some similar sort of adventure gamey experience. And Paradiso can basically be Mario Party 12, where everyone's smiling and happy and playing golf and other mini games.
Reply
Although I think they totally should make a Purgatorio and Paradiso. Purgatorio can be kind of like playing Myst or some similar sort of adventure gamey experience. And Paradiso can basically be Mario Party 12, where everyone's smiling and happy and playing golf and other mini games.
Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.
Featured Stories
Dark Side 'Cause It Looks Cool: The Failings of Moral Choice in Games
Posted on Feb 10th 2012 7:45PM
The most popular posts
in the last 7 days
- Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 221 comments
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 155 comments
- Blizzard taking Valve to court over 'DOTA' trademark 112 comments
- David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
- Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments








