How many people can say they’ve played a game based on a poem?  Well, EA wants to give everyone that opportunity, recently confirming the planned release of a game based on the 14th century epic poem, Dante’s Inferno.

Badass Mofo'

Written by Dante Alighieri, Inferno is part of the Divine Comedy, a series of poems written about a man’s venture into Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.  Of course, this is all highly metaphorical, but we’re here to talk about video games.  Not poetry.

Gamasutra quotes Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante’s Inferno, as saying:

“The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience that, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art… It’s the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story.”

Jon.  We are ready.

Admittedly the trailer looks pretty sweet.  But while I’m being completely honest, I definitely laughed my ass off each time I watched it (which was about five or six times).  It’s just impossible to take the damn thing seriously when a buff and armor-clad Dante is shown tearing down a wall with a massive scythe–the words “go to hell” flashing on the screen shortly afterward–followed by a shot of Dante stabbing some scrawny, ghoulish pagan in the face with a crucifix.

Granted, the idea is interesting.  But the direction EA seems to want to go with Dante’s Inferno (which looks to be a God of War styled action game), well–er–I think I’m just going to wait and see what happens with this one.  Hopefully EA doesn’t totally shit on a literary masterpiece, but it is EA we’re talking about here, soooo yeah.

Of course, to fully understand how divinely funny this trailer is, you might want to see it for yourself:

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