Sulphur on 3/6/2025 at 12:03
I don't know about perfect, but the obvious call out from the dark ages is TIE Fighter. It was the kind of Star Wars thing I was hoping for when I played Dark Forces, which felt a lot more like Doom with some Star Wars fixings. A wonderful, hard as balls game.
I also really, really liked Dark Corners of the Earth, especially for the beginning and how it evokes the atmosphere of something deeply and uncomfortably wrong with the town and its people before it swells into a quiet, escalating dread. And then there's the chase sequence - I hate chase sequences - but I loved this one for the sheer panic of it. Lovecraft is largely unadaptable, but CoC: DCotE managed to capture some of the cosmic horror you imagine while reading his stories, while stripping out the racism.
And while it isn't perfect, I'm gonna have to say that Alien: Isolation is one of the best all-time adaptations of one of my all-time favourite sci-fi franchises in history. It is absolutely bonkers how well-made and lovingly crafted that game was, down to researching the technology available in the 70s to recreate elements for the game's environments and design.
And I guess we're gonna mention the Arkham games at some point, right? Not necessarily for the gameplay, but parts of each of the Rocksteady trilogy nailed a specific vibe and atmosphere that belongs purely to the darker stretches of Batman's comic book history.
Malf on 3/6/2025 at 12:04
Quote Posted by Thirith
That raises a question, though: did you like
Shadow of Mordor in spite of it being Tolkien, or was it a way of getting into Tolkien for you?
A little of both really.
The game's focus on the grimier side of things and the orcs in particular, made the game a lot more approachable than a straight-up adaptation. But at the same time, due to the economy of writing in the games, they were able to get across high-level concepts about the world and characters in a more palateable way for me.
Still not sure about the anthropomorphic, boobified Shelob mind you.
That strikes me as some weirdly specific dev fetish.
Malf on 3/6/2025 at 12:11
Quote Posted by Starker
Well, in that case,
Aliens Versus Predator should probably be on the list. The way the different campaigns had unique gameplay mechanics and a different UI (down to the Yautja numbering system) should count for something at least, and the worldbuilding and story felt very much like Aliens. You could just tell the game was made by huge Alien/Predator nerds.
Yeah, I think AvP deserves a mention, especially as, at least for the first two games, they were
significantly better than the movies (note that I never read the Dark Horse comics the concept originated from, mind you.)
Where do you stand on 1 vs 2?
Personally, I think 1 had better replay value and more visceral gameplay, but 2 delivered a better story, and I would also say is one of the formative games for narrative-driven level design in FPSes.
Starker on 3/6/2025 at 12:48
I... don't think I ever played AvP2.
Malf on 3/6/2025 at 13:24
Oh, well it's well worth a playthrough if you can find it.
It's not Rebellion, but Monolith this time (who, it's becoming apparent, seem to have a good track record with this sort of thing.)
Sulphur on 3/6/2025 at 13:43
*seemed.
Malf on 3/6/2025 at 13:49
Oooo, you evil git Sulphur. Just hammer those nails home >:E
demagogue on 3/6/2025 at 15:30
Disco Elysium was adapted from a novel. I can't even speak to how well the adaptation was since I've never read it. I don't know anyone that has. But there's no denying it's one of the best narrative RPGs in the last ... well since Planescape: Torment whenever that was (Google says 1999), and I think it outshines even that. So I think its safe to say it even outdoes the work it's adapting.
henke on 3/6/2025 at 17:37
My contentious take is that when people say "this thing GETS the source material" more often they mean "this thing is GOOD, and the source material was GOOD" rather than "it's good in the exact same way".
Take that Indy game. I do think it differs from the movies in some key areas. Its open world structure with lots of side quests encourages a quite relaxed pace through the story. In the movies Indy is always rushing from place to place in pursuit of his goal, in the game he'll amble around town collecting all 30 doodads and trinkets before moving on to the next place. And I liked the slower moments of the game. The action-packed setpieces on the other hand are the weakest part, imo. Which is inverse of how it is in the movies. The Indy game is great, just like the movies. But I don't think it's great in the same ways. Nor does it need to be. Honestly, I prefer it when devs prioritise making a good game, rather than trying to perfectly match the source material.
Alien: Isolation I do think is a great adaptation tho. Both in look and how it feels to play.
Some of my fave games based on movies:
Riddick: EfBB - my favourite game based on movies. Doesn't really match the tone of the movies, but then again it's not there's a whole lot of cohesion between the movies of the Riddick Cinematic Universe either.
King Kong - takes a lot of liberties with the adaptation. Michel Ancel just did his own thing and it worked out great.
The Warriors - this one I do think is a good adaptation. Fleshes out the world of the movie in an organic feeling way.
Starker on 3/6/2025 at 20:26
Quote Posted by demagogue
Disco Elysium was adapted from a novel. I can't even speak to how well the adaptation was since I've never read it. I don't know anyone that has. But there's no denying it's one of the best narrative RPGs in the last ... well since Planescape: Torment whenever that was (Google says 1999), and I think it outshines even that. So I think its safe to say it even outdoes the work it's adapting.
Both the novel and the game are based on a tabletop RPG setting, so it's an adaptation in the same sense Baldur's Gate or VTMB or indeed Planescape: Torment are adaptations. You can actually read the English translation of the book here, if you're interested: (
https://archive.org/details/sacred-and-terrible-air/page/14/mode/2up)
Beware, though, that this is a fan translation that was created without any input from the author. Estonian can be a tricky language to translate at the best of times and Kurvitz has a way of playing with the word order and the language in ways that is simply not possible in English, so the translation loses some of the dreamlike quality present in Estonian, but I can tell the translators actually tried to convey some of the strangeness.
There's also a machine translated and human edited translation out there that someone made, which is a bit more domesticated and easier to read: (
https://suricrasia.online/elysium/)