Religion in Games Making a Comeback? (lengthy post)
By JokerClown88 19 Comments
More specifically the Judeo-Christian belief of Heaven and Hell. There havn't been many Religious video games since the days of Wisdom Tree. It appears to me that there is a resurgance of games that have this concept in them. I'm not just talking about a casual refrence to God or to Satan or all of that nonsence, I am talking about games that actually focus on them. This month and next month see/saw the releases of Darksiders, Bayonetta, and Dantes Inferno. All three of these games deal with the concepts of Heaven and Hell pretty blatantly. Lets get into the nitty gritty shall we?
The next game that we will look at does not directly deal with these stories, but still deals with the concepts of Heaven and Hell. That game is Bayonetta. Now I will be the first to admit that I have not spent a whole lot of time with the game itself, but the prologue itself even states about the different "worlds" that the game centers around. Bayonetta herself is a witch who is a target of the Angels of "Paradiso" to be taken to "Inferno." Bayonetta herself engages the Angels of Paradiso in the relm of Purgatorio where the Angels can be seen. Heck even the "Hair demons" that she summons come from Inferno. Even the names of the relms themselves are taken from the Divine Comedy. Bayonetta is the game that takes the most liberities with the standard beliefs and stories, but the framework is still very much there. And why is it that Bayonetta and Darksiders are games that cast the player as someone who is "evil?" I mean Darksiders your character is one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse that unleashes the End of Days among humans and Bayonetta has you summoning Demons to kill Angels. Is there a calling for that kind of thing? I have no idea, but it is interesting to me.
The last game that we will look is is Dante's Inferno. This game comes out next month and it is the only game of the three that casts you as a "good guy." Ripped almost completly from The Divine Comedy, Dante's Inferno has you playing as Dante who must fight through the Nine Circles of Hell to rescue the one he loves. Basically what happened is Dante got screwed while fighting the Crusades and is aproached by Death to be taken to Hell. Dante resists and has his wife taken in his stead. He then pledges his complete self to God and renounces the pleasures of flesh (sex for the uninformed) until his wife is saved from the clutches of Satan himself. How many games spend the majority of their time in Hell? How many games have a deeply religious Christian as their protagonist? Dante's Inferno does. One of his weapons is even a Cross that allows him to Absolve an enemy of their sins, or Damn them as well as giving him access to divine magics. This game is the most blatantly and openly "Christian" game that has been released in years. Decades even. Another quick question. Why is it that all of these games are straight up action games? Ya Darksiders has adventure elements in it, but it is still 50% action game? But I digress...
It is refreshing to me to see that games are crossing the religion barrier more openly. Granted this will definatly lead to a greater backlash against the hobby that we all know and love, but a little controversy is never a bad thing. I personally hope that in the near future we can see some kind of RPG using the plot outline of Dante's Inferno due to the fact that to me it is the perfect setup for one. It is certainly better then another flood of Zombie games.
-JD