If life is like a box of chocolates, then the televised Super Bowl is like an Oreo. The chocolate wafers are the game itself, and the ads are the cream filling. If you watched those ads, you probably saw this one, heralding that Electronic Arts is bringing to an Xbox 360 and/or PlayStation 3 near you its reimagining of Dante’s Inferno. Yes, the Inferno is now a video game. This means that you and I, by punching buttons, can traverse the nine circles of hell, fend off three-headed Cerberus, gaze on Minos, King of the Underworld, and chop off demons’ heads with a scythe and the “Holy Cross” weapon to reach blessed, beatific Beatrice—who, in a plot twist, has been murdered. In fact, there are quite a few plot twists. Dante, for instance, has just returned from fighting in a crusade in EA’s retelling. Oh, and Virgil is curiously absent. Otherwise, it might be too easy to reach the ninth circle and move onto pugatory.
The game doesn’t aim to replace, or even summarize, the book. Just take a look at its website. Furthermore, EA has also released a paper edition of the Inferno, illustrated with stills of the game (which might leave you pining for William Blake’s illustrations or the engravings of Gustave Doré). Dante’s Inferno simply toys, albeit shamelessly, with the hell-mapping classic in the hope of turning a high profit—which EA needs to do after dishing out so much money for the Super Bowl spot.
