Dante's Inferno - PSP Announced!

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EA Invites PSP Owners to Go to Hell
EA Redwood Shores’ Dante’s Inferno Coming to Sony’s PlayStation Portable Alongside PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that its highly anticipated action adventure game Dante’s InfernoTM will be coming to the PSP® (Sony PlayStation® Portable). Based on part one of Dante Alighieri’s classic, “The Divine Comedy,” EA’s Dante’s Inferno will also take players on an epic adventure through Dante’s famously mapped nine circles of hell. Dante’s Inferno will be available simultaneously for the PSP, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system next year.

Dante’s Inferno for the PSP is being developed by EA’s award-winning EA Redwood Shores studio and Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M), based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

“Our team and the team at A2M are taking the vision for Dante’s Inferno and translating it directly to the PSP,” said Jonathan Knight, executive producer and creative director on Dante’s Inferno. “PSP owners can expect to get the same level of fast, responsive gameplay through all nine detailed and unique circles of hell we are aiming to achieve on the consoles.”

Alighieri’s “Dante’s Inferno” is widely credited for being the work that has defined the western world’s contemporary conception of hell and purgatory. Just like the poem, players of EA’s 3rd person action adventure game will descend through all nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery, playing as Dante as they battle through a gauntlet of unimaginable evils, fighting to recapture the soul of his beloved Beatrice.

Dante’s Inferno has not yet been rated by the ESRB or PEGI. For more information about Dante’s Inferno, please visit www.dantesinferno.com.

Looks like our little portable is getting some real lovin' now

[Shin-Ra]

First impressions of Dante's Inferno on PSP
Holy Hell

You could accuse it of being God of War with a different backdrop, but the comparison wouldn't bother EA at all. That people are comparing Dante's Inferno to the massively successful myth-based hack 'n' slasher can only be a good thing, although the developers are keen to point out that they've been playing a lot of Devil May Cry and Onimusha too.

In fact, Dante's Inferno is an attempt to make weapon-based melee action even more spectacular than its predecessors did. The sub-bosses are big enough as it is, and you have to get the better of them before you can even think about besting the actual bosses. Seems like EA's throwing a bit a Shadow of the Colossus into the mix as well.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is that Dante's Inferno is PSP bound. Canadian studio A2M is on development duties. Although it uses a PSP-specific engine, the game itself will be the same as the PS3 - suitably scaled down in terms of graphical resolution, of course.

At the recent EA showcase in London, an early version of the first level was on display, although not yet playable, unless you happened to be produce Wes Culver.

"We're only a couple of months into development," he explained. "There are a lot of issues to be ironed out."

These mainly seemed to revolve around collision detection and clipping, but apart from those, the first level, which see Dante riding of the back of the ferryman across to hell, look pretty sparkling. Culver said the game was currently running at between 35 to 60 frames per second.

As you'd expect, the characters and environments are suitable grotesque, the style being something perhaps best described as organic gothic.

The action consists of wiping out waves of nasty lost souls who rise up from the floor, your tools of the trade being a huge scythe and a cross, which you can use in combination to perform the usual array of light and heavy strikes, counters, projectile attacks and special moves, as well as juggling enemies in the air and giving them a righteous beating.

The best part, however, is when the lumbering sub-boss turns up. You have to dish out a mild beating - while avoiding his stamp attacks - then use your scythe to climb up onto his back via a series of press-the-X-button-now Quick Time Events.

Then it's just a case of unseating the daemon riding him and taking control yourself. This results in some satisfying quashing action before you lumber over to the ferryman and rip his head off. Lovely.

Next up come the unbaptised babies, who have curved blades for arms and lollop across the floor, with appropriate fingernails down the blackboard audio.

Run away.

As you should be able to tell by now, Dante's Inferno is an unsettling mix of dark humour and mediaeval angst, all shot through with lashing of spectacular particle effects and blood splatter. And, of course, you will be collecting souls as you make you way through the underworld so you can access the upgrade system. The pope will be so proud.

As for the release date, the PSP version will be out at the same time as the PS3 version, although this is likely to be sometime in 2010.

[Marine Mike]

Looks like a God of War-type game!

[Septimus Prime]

Awesome. I hope it's a different game, though, as I don't see myself buying both versions if the PS3 one is clearly superior.