Rumors have been surfacing regarding the potential return of an old franchise that is expected to be announced during next month’s EA Play. There’s plenty of speculation on what game it could be, most of which is centered on Dead Space. This is a beloved series from developer Visceral Games, but it tanked after the developer was taken under EA’s wing. While the return of Dead Space would be exciting, what if another lost IP — one that once had a sequel in the works — returned instead?
Dante’s Inferno was another game from Visceral, and it was meant to blossom into a franchise. As the title suggests, it’s based on the Medieval poem the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. In the first canticle, “The Inferno,” the protagonist, Dante, travels through the nine circles of Hell. The game follows a very similar theme. However, the story is given a little more purpose, making Beatrice the reason for his descent.
Dante’s goal is to travel through each circle of Hell, guided by Virgil. On his way, he must defeat tons of sinners, demons and even people from his past taking on various sins. Everything is on a grand scale reminiscent of God of War games. It even has a familiar hack-and-slash feel, though there is some beat ’em up influence with Dante’s Inferno‘s 2.5D side scroller style and small arenas. There is also plenty of platforming with branching paths for the player to explore, making Hell more interesting and adding RPG elements that suit the game’s theme. For example, Dante can search for tormented or damned souls from history and chose to show them mercy or destroy them, which awards points to different fighting styles.
Dante’s Inferno is a fantastic game that received a lot of marketing and heavy support from EA at the time, even having a Super Bowl ad. It also received generally positive reviews and was impressive-looking for its time. Even though it has some graphic elements, it caused little controversy, and went on to inspire a comic, an animated short and a planned film adaptation.
EA even green-lit a sequel, which would have continued the open-ended story and drew from more of the source material. However, while this was announced in 2011, little news ever surfaced on the project, and Visceral is now defunct. Dante’s Inferno had the potential to be an entire franchise, but it instead disappeared with little fanfare and no clear reason as to why.
It’s possible the success of Dead Space caused Dante’s Inferno‘s untimely and unceremonious demise. The first Dead Space was released a year before Dante’s Inferno, but didn’t sell well until later. Dead Space 2 released in 2011, and it’s possible this overshadowed Dante’s Inferno. Following Dead Space‘s success, it’s likely EA wanted Visceral to focus on that franchise, resulting in Dante’s Inferno getting sidelined.
Dead Space is a great series, and it would be awesome to see it return after all these years. Many game reboots have been successful, but, sadly, considering Dead Space 3‘s bizarre microtransactions and disconnected story, it’s far from a guarantee that a new entry could get the series back on track. It’s also possible that EA is hopping aboard the remaster train and doing what BioWare did with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
Still, there may be room to hold out hope for other forgotten games. Dante’s Inferno was fantastic, but it didn’t get a chance to blossom. Instead of resurrecting games and franchises everyone knows and already loves, it’s time for the industry to pay attention to some underrated gems, giving life to titles that could have flourished if given the chance. Dante’s Inferno is a prime candidate for such treatment — after all, dark beat ’em ups certainly haven’t gone out of style.
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