Could these video games make it on the big screen?
Last Friday, it was revealed director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will no longer direct the film adaptation of BioShock, Irrational Games’ Ayn Randian romp through an underwater city fighting tank-like monsters and scary little girls. Gore Verbinski had originally taken the director’s seat but hopped off after a fight over the film’s rating and finances. Fresnadillo seems to have left for the same reasons.
Mentioning video games and movies together usually spells disaster on a level of the inane and cheesy Prince of Persia. BioShock, however, could set a new precedent: its source material is actually intelligent and reflective, not focused on headshots and instant kills.
Storytelling has not always been a focus in video games. But that’s changing. With companies like Bioware and Naughty Dog crafting lovely stories around their games, we now have titles that would make great films, not just action-packed spectacles. Here are a few games that would do justice to storytelling.
Assassin’s Creed
The Assassin’s Creed series is every history nerd’s dream game. Ubisoft’s team has crafted amazing recreations of the Crusade-era Holy Land, Renaissance Italy and 16th century Constantinople. The story intertwines with real events, such as the fall of the Borgias and the Pazzi Conspiracy. On top of that it’s a story of assassins, Templars, and a dash of sci-fi. The action is fun – it’s parkour style running across the rooftops of old cities – but the story and characters make it memorable.
Dragon Age
Not all fantasy is hobbits and princesses. Well, Dragon Age does have a princess, but she’s a ruthless politician who will sell you out at a hint of dissent. Dragon Age, one of Bioware’s best-selling titles, takes fantasy tropes and drowns them in blood. Characters do things for selfish reasons, racial prejudice creates slums and terrible crimes, and mages are considered sins against God. Dragon Age gives the main character the option to be a paladin or a cutthroat, but the rest of the world remains intriguingly gray. A dark fantasy film where characters can be destroyed for their idealism or made great from their cruelty? Sounds like a movie version of the Game of Thrones series, and thus an awesome idea.
Mass Effect
With the rerelease of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, sci-fi fans are reminded how spotty the space opera genre has gotten. Mass Effect could be a series to challenge that notion. In the distant future, Commander Shepard gathers a team to take on the Reapers, a race of mechanical beings most people believe are a myth. The story drags characters across the galaxy but the emotional core remains on Shepard and his oddball crew. Mass Effect flouts many sci-fi tropes, such as alien races being totally homogenous in beliefs and attitudes. Shootouts, moral ambiguity and inquiries into the nature of dark matter are par for the course.
Red Dead Redemption
Besides True Grit and Inglorious Basterds, the only good Western in the last decade has been a video game. Red Dead follows ex-highwayman Colton, a rough and tough rancher blackmailed into hunting down his former gang. Along the way he gets dragged into local rivalries, crazy plots, and a Mexican civil war. It’s a fun story that takes the best of the Clint Eastwood films, a dash of Spaghetti Western, and the satiric wit of the team behind the Grand Theft Auto series.