Games That Would Make Great Movies

Though video games are mostly about gameplay, once in a while they come up with great storylines that are able to keep us enthralled the whole time. In the interest of tall tales and mythical lore alike, here are some games whose storylines are big-screen-potential great.

One caveat (that’s fancy-people-speak for ‘rule’), before we proceed: To be able to make it onto the list, the game CANNOT have a web series that is produced or supported by the makers of the game. So, that rules out Team Fortress, Halo and Payday. Also, games that are made in movie/ narrative fashion like Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls are not considered… because that would be cheating.

Since I'll be talking about the games’ stories, there are spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

1. Half Life

Last time I talked about this game,- or more specifically, the last time I DIDN’T talk about this game- I said it was one of the most amazing franchises in history. Being one of the first games ever to use scripted sequences instead of cut scenes to progress its stories; it also gave us relatable and loveable characters that have been etched in the minds of gamers worldwide. The game’s main story line starts us off in New Mexico where experiments on an unknown crystalline artifact rip open a rift between the Black Mesa laboratory and the Xen dimension. Enter Gordon Freeman… the brave man who sets out on a mission with fellow scientists to stop Xen’s aliens while at the same time avoiding a government unit hell-bent on eliminating all the survivors of the Black Mesa incident. Fast-forward 20 years into the future. Freeman saves the world and awakens from stasis sleep to find that a new race of aliens have teamed up with humans and formed a group called the Combine. Gordon freeman is again forced to help other Black Mesa Survivors start a revolution, kill the Yeti and hopefully get noticed by Senpai. That last part is untrue. Go and play the game :)

2. BioShock

If you ever wanted to get lost in a world that is both fantastic and ridiculous, something never seen before but still grounded and believable, then the world of BioShock is something you should check out. With its great themes and plot twists that will shatter the floodgates that hold back your feels, BioShock would make a damn good movie. The series not only has a great crusader, but also puts some effort into the antagonist characters- even the low-level enemies make you feel bad for killing them. Frequent killing of ‘little sisters’ and their protectors (‘big daddies’) will eventually make you question your sadistic tendencies. This is another story whose detail I don’t want to give away so, would you kindly play the game.

3. Borderlands

I’m not gonna lie… this title almost didn’t make it here because of the recently birthed Tales from the Borderlands spin-off. I almost put it in the same category as Beyond Two Souls and Heavy Rain but then I thought, why make a movie of this when we could get a series. I mean, the game is massive with a huge roster of great characters. It would be pretty hard deciding which ones make it into a film and which ones don’t, so why not just have all of them. And let’s be clear… when I say all of them, I don’t mean most of them. I mean ALL of them. From the vault hunters we have all come to love, to the quirky and crazy "friends" we make in the mystical world of Pandora, to the great enemies with personality like Handsome Jack and even maybe Face McShooty, we couldn’t possibly justify leaving anyone behind. If the characters of Borderlands aren’t your cup of tea, there’s a cool story about aliens and a secret vault that can grant you anything. Oh… and Claptrap. If there’s a reason we want to see a Borderlands adaptation of any form, it’s Claptrap. Also Tiny Tina.

4. Assassin’s Creed

If there is a game whose film debut is long overdue it has to be Assassin’s Creed. The franchise has for years done whatever the heck it wants to history; attacking great historical figures from the head honchos at the Vatican to the founding fathers of America. Again, I know the Assassin’s Creed: Lineage short films might put this game on the "banned" list, but they just proved what we all know: that the game has great potential for a movie adaptation with all assassins being connected in one way or another. Altair? Ezio? Desmond? Your guess is as good as mine.

5. God of War

Before I even start talking about why this would be a great movie, let’s all agree that no one in this world will be able to portray Kratos because it is impossible to find someone that angry. Fun fact: Daniel Craig was apparently supposed to do it, but that didn’t pan out. Unless Goldberg undergoes the best coaching to help him realize the true potential of his sub-par acting ability, this movie will never get a good adaptation. Moving on, I personally feel that Greek mythology in general hasn’t been done justice in the movie world. What better way to redeem it than one of the best action films in history? My early gaming days were filled with hours upon hours of killing gods and boat captains (Poor guy. Kratos killed him THREE effing times). I’m pretty sure we’d all be cheering Kratos’ madness on the big screen as well.

6. Far Cry

If you fell in love with Heath Ledger’s Joker then you will love the psychopaths that Far Cry has brought us. These people are so insanely fun that you feel bad ‘cause there isn’t a rally-with-them option in the game (except for Far Cry 4 where you can wait for a few minutes in the opening chapter and you’ll get to end the game early and join Pagan Min). Told you there would be spoilers. Anyway Far cry would be a great movie because in an industry filled with pretty faces to rope in audiences, (I’m looking at you, Loki!) it would be fun to see an antagonist whose greatest feature is pure madness. A character we don’t want to die not because he suddenly saves people but because he just always lights up the screen. Sound familiar?

7. The Last of Us

I might have banned the other two PlayStation exclusives but this one managed to slip through the cracks ‘cause it has BOTH a great storyline and amazing gameplay. The Last of Us has to be by far the GREATEST zombie apocalypse game that involves an older man taking care of a younger kid who isn’t their child but treats them as such and together they face zombies and maniacal human beings.I know this sounds like The walking Dead (game) but... OK. Wait. Actually, it IS a lot like The Walking Dead. Anyway, all jokes aside, this game is another great example of characters we fall in love with and become so afraid to lose. I’m sure that if there were a movie adaptation it would be just as heart wrenching.

They came close to a movie adaptation with ‘The Last of Us: One Night Live’- it was a stage performance. A friend of mine heard about it a day in advance and hadn’t played the game so he sat up all night watching a 5-hour gameplay video, and finished just in time to stream it at 0500H the next morning on Twitch. He says it was kinda worth it, and that “they didn’t let the people that were streaming see the ‘special ending’, which sucked.” You can watch that stage performance here.

Fun fact: There may be a movie in the works, and Arya Stark will play Ellie. Apropos? I think so. Rhymes, bitch!

So, those are the games I would love to see. If you have any additions (or deletions), sound off in the comments.

The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me, now there is no hope!