If More Classical Literature got the Dante's Inferno Treatment

Video games often take their inspiration from existing media. Movies, television, comics, anime, even music has their creative juices exploited by game companies. And yet it seems as though in all this time, once thing that inexplicably escaped it is literature. That's not to say that books have never been adapted into games, because they have, but with literally millions of books out there, it's surprising that there aren't as many literature-based games as you might think. How many works of classical literature would make great games? How many have actually been turned into such? Exactly.

Then, recently, this little number burst onto the scene:



It's gotten decent reviews, but that's not what we're here to talk about. This is perhaps the most well-known example of classical literature being converted into a game, but there's one problem. And that is, it's not exactly faithful to its written counterpart. Dante's Inferno, the game, takes a crapload of liberties with Mr. Alighieri's poem. Rather than a dapper poet taking a guided tour through the home of the afterlife, you control a warrior who must make kill his way through the catacombs of Hell to confront his inner demons as well as outter ones and save his main squeeze, the sexy Beatrice.

There are some differences.

So what if literature did more attention from the gaming world? And what if the Dante's Inferno embellishments aren't the exception, but become the norm for adapting written works into games? This is what I think we can expect to see.


Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The original novel, by William Golding, is critically acclaimed for is metaphorical portrayal of moral decay. It gives us a look into the psyche of a group of children who get trapped on a jungle island. While at first they try to get along, the isolation slowly drives them into a ethical degeneration and are reduced to tribal savages in a literal sense, even to the point of starting a feud and killing each other.
So, where does the title come from? "Simon, giving in to malnourshment, hallucinates an apparition of a demon claiming to be the entity that will drive the children against each other?" Nope. It's because the island is also inhabited by GIANT MUTANT INSECTS!


Twins Sam 'n Eric want to fight!
Ralph sent out Scyther!

In this game, you play as Ralph. In your quest for vengeance against Jack's tribe, you must become the literal Lord of the Flies. You must learn to control these bugs. Become their master. And only after you have risen through the ranks of arthropods can you command your army and reap your vengeance upon Jack and the rest of the tribe!


Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Everbody knows Steinbeck's classic work. It's the story of two homeless men who travel together. One of them, Lenny, is mentally challenged. Sadly, he often accidentally kills small animals, like puppies. The men get jobs working on a plantation, and Lenny's bumbling demeanor puts them at odds with the owner's son. But when Lenny accidentally kills the man's wife, the shit hits the fan.
Oh, and when I say "homeless men," I mean "rogue mercenaries." When I say, "mentally challenged," I mean "driven insane by the horrors of war." When I say "accidentally kill small puppies," I mean "ruthlessly slaughter demented hellhounds." By "owner's son," I mean "prince of darkness." By "accidentally kills his wife," I mean "duel to the death with wicked sorceress." And when I say, "the shit hits the fan," I mean:



An adrenaline-fueled co-op shooter that will test your strength, your endurance, your wit, and your friendship. Blast your way through eight hours of the most blood-spillingly intense action you've ever seen. Choose between Lenny or George to eliminate your enemies and protect the earth from the forces of evil.

The best laid plans of mice and men are about to go awry!


Shakespeare

Now we couldn't have a list like this without including Shakespeare, the very embodiment of classic literature. Shakespear has been the bane of many a high schooler's existence for generations. He's wirtten poems, plays, and is considered by many to be the greatest storyteller of all time. So how can you pick just one of his plays to adapt into a game? You don't, you do a crossover!



At last you can beat the crap out of your friends with your favorite Shakespear characters. You can finally know the answer to all of those questions you've been asking yourself all these years. Who would win in a fight, Hamlet or MacBeth? Mercutio or Guildenstern? Cinna or Petruchio? Othello or that guy with the donkey head? Now you can finally know the answer!

Use your iambic pentameter to whoop your oponents. Beat them into submission, then use a smash move to knock them out, out of the damned ring! Rough punches do shake YOUR OPPONENT'S FACE! You'd better get thee to a hospital before I make you eat my oh happy dagger! What light from yonder window breaks? It is your bones! Remember, all the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players, but only the best player wins in this balls-to-the-wall brawler!


The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Metamorphosis is a very sad tale about a salesman named Gregor who wakes up one day and finds himself transformed into a monster. His cold-hearted family disowns him, disgusted by his new form and quarantines him to a spare room. Gregor falls into a depression and gets sick. He eventually dies, his family all but forgets about him, and go on with their happy little lives while Gregor's tragic tale goes uncaringly into oblivion.
So how would this ballad of despair translate into a game? It wouldn't, because in video game world, transformations are AWESOME! Pokemon evolve, Link puts on the Goron mask, Bloody Roar is based on transforming. Pretty much every major boss in the last fifteen years has had multiple forms. Transformations are a pretty big deal. So instead of hitting rock bottom, Gregor would use his new powers to his advantage--to curb the impending zombie apocalypse!
Gregor's transformation is actually caused by a meteor passing between the earth and moon. The cosmic waves have not only converted him into his vermin form, but raised the dead and caused an onslaught of flesh-eating inferi to ravage the land. Now, our gritty action hero must travel the world, the last ray of hope to the few remaining survivors.

As his journey continues, he learns to control his transformation, as well as gaining new ones. But as he journeys, he must discover a secret about himself that could change the fate of the world forever...


The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
You are a grizzled, tough-as-nails space marine known only as Raven, and nothing more. While on a top-secret black ops mission in deep space, your ship, the Midnight Dreary, busts on the planet Pallas, which is inhabitted by a race of hostile aliens. When you wake up after the crash, you find your ship has been raided. And worse, they have stolen the top secret blueprints you've been carrying: the layout for a space canon which your employers, the angels, have named the Laser Energy Neutron Orbital Ray Emitter.

With your remaining crew members too weak and weary to assist, you strike out on your own to recover the lost L.E.N.O.R.E. and ship the aliens off to the plutonion shores.



This, of course, is all just backstory. The real meat of the game is, of course, the online multiplayer. Packed with highly original, never-seen-before, industry-changing mechanics like "death match" and "capture the flag." And it gets better! There's already a buttload of DLC already on the disk in development to keep the action going for a long time to come!
Pair all this with the stunning gray and brown next-gen graphics and you've got yourself one of the best shooters of the decade. This is truly the epic that Mr. Poe envisioned years ago, finally given the justice it deserves with the wonders of modern gaming technology.


The Iliad by Homer
It's one of the most well known stories of all time. A legend that has been passed on for generations. This is the account of the Trojan War, the ten year battle between the mighty Greeks and powerful Trojans. It took thousands of lives and saw some of the most reknowned battles in history.
As the legend goes, thousands of years ago, the vain goddesses had a beauty contest and got the naive Trojan Prince Paris as their judge. After his ruling, the winning goddess awarded him the beautiful Helen to be his bride. Except Helen was also the Queen of Sparta. Coupled with escalating conflict over land mass, the Greeks launched a massive assault on Troy. They sailed across the sea to confront the the Trojans and settle their differences the only way they knew how.
With a series of zany, wacky minigames!


Never before has war been this fun for the whole family! Experience six new ways to waggle your Wiimote like the ancient Greeks. You'll have blast with Spartan Minigolf, Spear Toss, and-aw, heck, does it even matter what they're called? They're all played the same way anyway.
These are the games the Greeks only dreamed of. Everyone knows they only held the Olympics because they couldn't play their games on video screens. But now that we have the technology, it's time turn the Greek tales into fun for the whole family.

As games become more and more cinematic, is it possible for for classical literature to meet the same fate as films? Sure, it's possible. There certainly are games based on books besides Dante's Inferno. The question is, will it be a trend?

I write this is jest, but if we really think about it, reading isn't exactly a popular hobby nowadays. If not a lot of people are familiar with the source material, then what is to stop game developers from butchering them? I'm not saying that Dante's Inferno is a bad game; I've never played it, so I can't make that judgement. But you can't deny that there are some pretty extreme departures from the source material. How many people, now, are going to walk around thinking that Dante Alighieri wrote a slasher novel about a guy who fights demons?

I don't know, that's some deeper discussion than I wanted to get into with a simple satire piece. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you enjoyed!