Can Video Games do more with adaptations?

[themistermanguy]

Many times in entertainment, works from one medium are adapted into another. From novels becoming films, to films becoming comics, to comics, becoming TV shows, and poems becoming songs. But Video Games often get the short end of the stick at least up until recently. Whenever a work from another medium does become a game, it's usually in the form of poorly made licensed merchandise games for kids. But developers have recently been taking licensed games more seriously. South Park: The Stick of Truth, Batman: Arkham, and the new Spider-Man Insomniac game all are or look like great titles. But what if we can go further than that?

What if we can actually adapt things that we've never done before? Thing's like Literature, Graphic Novels, Non-Blockbuster Movies. What if we can get our hands on another work, before a film studio or book publisher gets to it? What if we could've adapted something like The Hunger Games way before the the film industry got it? Or what if Scott Pilgrim was adapted as just the game rather than the game and movie? What if we can adapt works that we wouldn't even expect from Video Games, or even put our own spin on Fairy Tales like Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty?

I'm all for original creations and they should always remain the driving force of the medium, but it'd be interesting to see Video Game takes on works that have been adapted for years across other mediums as well.

 

[Saelune]

Well ofcourse. Its just a matter of taking it seriously.

Goldeneye, Stick of Truth, and plenty of Marvel/DC games are good, because they were made as legitimate attempts at making a game.

Its just a matter of taking it seriously and putting actual effort in.

 

[Recusant]

As Saelune noted, it's all about effort, assuming you're trying to make a good game and not just a good tie-in. Very few game adaptations are made to take advantage of the medium's noture; you can do things in a game you can't do in a book or movie.

 

[sXeth]

Well ofcourse. Its just a matter of taking it seriously.

Goldeneye, Stick of Truth, and plenty of Marvel/DC games are good, because they were made as legitimate attempts at making a game.

Its just a matter of taking it seriously and putting actual effort in.

I'd say that while Goldeneye was a good game (in its time, it aged very quickly), its really kind of a poor adaptation. While Bond cetainly does shoot his share of people, big gunfights don't tend to be the setpieces of the films so much as hand to hand confrontations or car chases and stuff.

 

[Saelune]

Well ofcourse. Its just a matter of taking it seriously.

Goldeneye, Stick of Truth, and plenty of Marvel/DC games are good, because they were made as legitimate attempts at making a game.

Its just a matter of taking it seriously and putting actual effort in.

I'd say that while Goldeneye was a good game (in its time, it aged very quickly), its really kind of a poor adaptation. While Bond cetainly does shoot his share of people, big gunfights don't tend to be the setpieces of the films so much as hand to hand confrontations or car chases and stuff.

For a game that still just went through the movie though, it is amazing. Every other game that just goes through the film flops.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Basically what Saelune said but I do have to bring up this one example - Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor.

Unlike movie adaptations like Star Wars Rogue Squadron or Goldeneye, this one's source was not the movie, was the actual Tolkien Middle Earth universe, that game set in the universe that is the beggining of one of the oldest fanbases, and unlike the other adaptation that take main elements of the movies/TV etc and run with it, this one created its own flag to stick in the canon that is 100 years old. Less of an adaptation, and more like something that grabs a legacy and runs with it leaving a print of its own.

I think a lot of medias could work like that, like a prequel to Harry Potter/Hunger Games/Divergent, a character that's put into one of the factions/districts and tries to make a history that is not exactly connected to the ones people know and love, but do make justice with its source material. Or a game that depicts the struggle of Edmond Dantes in Count of Monte Cristo. Heck, could even use some artistic changes like a game where we explore the life of Count Escalus from Romeo and Juliet in his struggle to keep the peace between the Montague and Capulet. We just need somebody who understands these source materials and is bold enough to do something great with it. Because why tell the story everybody knows and not give a new perspective on it?

 

[Saelune]

Basically what Saelune said but I do have to bring up this one example - Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor.

Unlike movie adaptations like Star Wars Rogue Squadron or Goldeneye, this one's source was not the movie, was the actual Tolkien Middle Earth universe, that game set in the universe that is the beggining of one of the oldest fanbases, and unlike the other adaptation that take main elements of the movies/TV etc and run with it, this one created its own flag to stick in the canon that is 100 years old. Less of an adaptation, and more like something that grabs a legacy and runs with it leaving a print of its own.

I think a lot of medias could work like that, like a prequel to Harry Potter/Hunger Games/Divergent, a character that's put into one of the factions/districts and tries to make a history that is not exactly connected to the ones people know and love, but do make justice with its source material. Or a game that depicts the struggle of Edmond Dantes in Count of Monte Cristo. Heck, could even use some artistic changes like a game where we explore the life of Count Escalus from Romeo and Juliet in his struggle to keep the peace between the Montague and Capulet. We just need somebody who understands these source materials and is bold enough to do something great with it. Because why tell the story everybody knows and not give a new perspective on it?

Well, I think "adaptations" should work within the lore. Id love a Red Dead movie, but Id rather it be a prequel showing John during his time in Dutch's gang, leading up to his and his wife ditching.

I was hoping the Ratchet and Clank movie and game would have done similar, with the movie setting up the game perhaps.

If they ever want to do a Hitman movie right, have it star David Bateson (Agent 47's voice actor and character model base...aka the guy who looks and sounds just like him!) and have it set within the game's canon. And don't make it an action movie.

And games based on movies and books can always expand the movie's and book's worlds. What happened before? What happened after? I loved those Star Wars games about Kyle Catarn cause it worked around the original Trilogy to expand the world (and the bases of Rogue One).

Hell that's part of why people don't like Disney retconing out the expanded universe, cause it included games like those and KotoR.

Edit: I went into rant mode and may have not responded well, so if you go "Wtf were you on about?" that's why...

 

[CaitSeith]

Check indie and old games. The industry has been doing that once in a while for decades. For example: I have no mouth and I must scream. That 90's game is a 60's sci-fi book adaptation that neither TV or movies have even attempted. Although not an adaptation, Spec Ops: The Line is inspired in the book Heart of Darkness. I you search for them, you'll surely find them.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think there's been a fair share of games being "inspired" by, say, classic works of literature. Direct adaptations, not so much.

 

[Kyrian007]

Sure they can, its worked before. I'm even direct-ish adaptations can be awesome, say... Spiderman 2. The typical lack of quality in such things is usually the product of a time crunch and oversight from... not game developers. Adapting isn't inherently flawed, it just has an extra set difficulties.

Now, what I want to see is more "non-adaptive" works built on trials in adaptations. A perfect example is Shadow of Mordor. A great game, but I still saw it as, "we have this really good melee fighting system and want to test out our new "nemesis" system. Lets put them together in a game, but to make sure people buy it let's slap whatever licensed brand on it that we have lying around to pump up the user base."

And it was a great idea. But now I want "phase 2" to happen... start putting those systems you tested into NEW GAMES. Maybe even new IP's? Maybe adapt it to different genres of games. Basically stop churning out nothing but samey brownshooters like so much Madden updating.

Like what failed so badly after Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I still think that like Shadow of Mordor, Shattered Memories was a test to determine how some fairly new ideas would work on such a gimmicky console. Wiimote as flashlight and cell phone. The whole "personality test" thing... It was actually fairly cool. But to crank up that user base they slapped the Silent Hill name on it. What I wanted to see was a new survival/horror ip that used some of those ideas and lessons learned to make something new. With Konami it was a super long shot of course...

 

[distortedreality]

The Witcher and Walking Dead series both come immediately to mind. I'm not sure how big TWD when Telltale announced the first game, but the Witcher was relatively unknown in western circles when the first game came out.