For the longest time, saying the term ‘video game adaptation’ was enough to send someone into a mental breakdown as they were forced to remember all the horrors of every previous ‘video game adaptation’ that ruined their childhood and killed any hope they had for a good video game movie. Uncharted, Resident Evil, Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia and so much more were blatant examples of big studios putting together poorly written and rushed scripts, after getting the go-ahead from these developers, in the hopes that tickets will sell on the name alone.
With the recent success of Netflix’s Arcane and HBO’s The Last of Us, it seems as though video game adaptations now have a safer future within the world of TV. Hopefully, this starts a new wave of adaptations that feature less money-grabbing and more faithful re-tellings. Speaking of The Last of Us, ever since the finale aired I’ve been thinking about other video games that could have a very bright future on the small screen. So, with that being said, here are 5 of those video games I thought of.
5. The Wolf Among Us
Telltale started the ‘episodic’ trend in video games so it only makes sense to start this list with one of their games. Explaining the premise of The Wolf Among Us will be difficult considering how much there is to get through, but here we go. The game takes place in the 1980s and follows all your favourite characters from all your favourite fairy tales and folklore. In this game, they have all fled their ‘Homelands’ and taken refuge within a fictional town dubbed ‘Fabletown’, located in Manhattan, New York. Using a spell called ‘Glamour’ they mask their real identity and blend into the real world. You follow Bigby Wolf, commonly known in his past as the Big Bad Wolf, who assumes the position of the town sheriff and must solve a string of murders, the first that Fabletown has seen in a number of years. This noir-style story will not be forgotten anytime soon and already has a fantastic framework to build from. The original game is split into 5 episodes and season 2 has already been announced and is currently in development.
4. Assassin’s Creed
I understand this game series is very polarising, but it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t have great stories or concepts. While it does have its fair share of ups and downs, you can’t deny that experiencing some of history’s most significant moments as an assassin is intriguing. Ubisoft, however, doesn’t seem interested in ending this story anytime soon, so this could pose an interesting question to a potential series. Do you tell the full story or go a different route? Maybe they could ditch the modern-day aspect entirely, maybe they come up with a completely original story that uses aspects from the games, or maybe they even stick to just one Assassin’s story. I vote for Ezio. I think that’s a better alternative than 15 seasons of potential mediocrity.
3. LA Noire
Did I lose you after bringing up Assassin’s Creed? Well, maybe LA Noire is enough to bring you back. As the title suggests, this is another noir-type detective story. Set in 1940s Los Angeles, LA Noire follows Detective Cole Phelps, a young police officer rising through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department as he solves murders, missing-persons cases, and even drug scandals. This game also offers the potential path to multiple seasons which really could flesh out Cole’s character, turning his time with traffic, homicide, vice, and so on, into separate seasons. I suppose the difficulty in adapting this game would be the actual gameplay. The core part of what made LA Noire such an iconic game was the ability to search for clues, use evidence against people of interest, judge whether the information you’re being told is true or false and call suspects out on lies. A good middle-ground would be creating a show that excels in the mystery part but leaves people curious about playing the game for the full experience. I mean The Last of Us made many ‘non-gamers’ buy a PS5 to play the game and even increased the player base in multiplayer.
2. Red Dead Redemption
Well, how about that? Back-to-back Rockstar games. Red Dead Redemption is an amazing story of revenge and follows a badass character named John Marston. A classic Western story. Not sure anything more needs to be said, the story just needs to be experienced by a wider audience. At this point, some of you may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned the second game yet and the answer to that is simple. I am yet to play the second game. Despite this, I am aware of how good the story is meant to be and how adored it is by everybody. I’m also aware that it is a prequel to the first and features over 50 hours of gameplay. Maybe it would be best to start the series with the second game and transition into the first, or a better idea might be to tell the story of the first and then release another show to tell the story of Red Dead Redemption 2. Sort of like what Better Call Saul was to Breaking Bad. Whether it’s Arthur Morgan or John Marston (or hopefully both!), Red Dead Redemption would be an absolute hit. I have no doubt about that.
1. Silent Hill 2
One criticism I had of HBO’s The Last of Us was that the show was lacking in the horror department. One aspect of the game that generally gets overlooked by its fans is how good it is at depicting horror and unfortunately, the show also overlooked that. Silent Hill 2, however, would be a completely different story. I know they tried to release some movies with the same name a few years ago, but I suppose we’re better off pretending those don’t exist. Silent Hill 2 is about loss, grief, depression, and sadness. Our protagonist, James Sunderland, has been summoned to the town of Silent Hill in search of his deceased wife. What follows is James being confronted by monsters that are essentially manifestations of his own insecurities and guilt. The personal horror of Silent Hill 2 is something that could resonate with a lot of people and also terrify a lot of people. The idea of this place using your own trauma as a vehicle to lure you into its darkness is definitely horrifying. With Konami working on a remastered version of Silent Hill 2, rumoured for release at some point in 2024, why not coincide that release with the premiere of the first episode or a trailer for the TV Show?
Thank You!
The five games I mentioned were games I thought of myself. There are a lot of games that could work well in a TV show format so please use the comments to start a discussion and maybe we’ll do a part 2 soon. I should also mention that TV has had its fair share of horrible adaptations too, I don’t want to make TV look like the good guy here, but it seems as though people are willing to show these stories a lot more care now and telling a 15-50 hour story seems much easier in a TV Show instead of a 2-hour long movie. Check back soon to see the opposite of this list, 5 movies/tv shows that should be made into video games.