Movies and television shows often look to books for inspiration. Hollywood translates books to the biggest screens all of the time. Look at Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings for example. Did you know video games take inspiration from books as well? Books to video games are much less popular than books to movies though. I believe more books should be translated into video games for some rich storytelling for new media to explore. Here are some video games that take inspiration from books.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
You probably recognize Tom Clancy for his detailed military and spy books. It’s difficult to go into a book store and not see something with Tom Clancy’s name on it. Clancy has sold more than 100 million books worldwide. Some of his books also became major movies such as The Hunt for Red October.
Clancy co-founded Red Storm Entertainment, a video game developer studio. Red Storm Entertainment created a game Called Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. This game shares the name with Clancy’s book Rainbow Six. The book and game focus on a fictional counter terrorist group called Rainbow. The Rainbow group handles terrorist situations when other world organizations cannot. The Rainbow group is the best at countering terrorist activity. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six is a tactical first person shooter game where you fight against terrorism.
Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher Series
Sapkowski’s books first gained popularity in Poland where he originally published them. Since then the books have been translated into 37 languages and sold worldwide. These books sparked The Witcher video game series which act as sequels to the book series.
Both the books and the games are about Geralt of Rivia who is a witcher. Witchers are modified at a young age to be monster hunters. Geralt finds himself linked by fate to a young girl, Ciri. The game is an open world RPG where you can take on bounties to hunt monsters or follow the main quest lines. Some people consider The Witcher III: Wild Hunt to be the best RPG of all time.
Vladimir Bartol’s Alamut
Bartol’s wrote Alamut as a historical fiction novel set in the 11th century in the fortress of Alamut. Hassan-i Sabbah controlled the fortress with his army. Sabbah intends to build his army so he can attack the Seljuk Empire. Sabbah and his army inspired the first game of Assassin’s Creed which also takes place here. The assassins like Sabbah’s army were loyal to fault and followed their leaders every order.
The famous quote in Assassin’s Creed, “nothing is real, everything is permitted,” stems from a very similar line in Alamut. “Nothing is an absolute reality, all is permitted.” Both the novel and the game follow the historical fiction genre, where it takes place during a real time period and involves real people. Assassin’s Creed is unique because you can learn about the historical figures while you play through the game.
Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand came up with a philosophical system that she wrote about in her books, specifically The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged along with some non-fiction essays. She wrote on the philosophy of objectivism. Rand defines objectivism as, “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” If you are a video game enthusiast, maybe you can already name the game.
In 2K’s Bioshock the game takes place in the city of Rapture. Andrew Ryan (Andrew Ryan, Ayn Rand notice the similarities?) founded Rapture on pure self interest with no morals for the citizens to follow. This allowed the city to advance its science far more than normal places. Atlas (another call out?) hires the protagonist to kill Andrew due to his misdeeds.
This game takes Ayn Rand’s philosophy and takes it to the extreme. Rapture was supposed to be a Utopia but after pursuing man’s self interests and achievement turns it into the wonderful world of Bioshock that we all know and love.
H.P Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu and his other works
Off the top of my head I can think of three games that take Lovecraft’s ideas and run with it in video games. Creators of these games call it Lovecraftian horror. Lovecraft wrote about huge monsters, tentacle beings, and things to make humans seem insignificant. Lovecraft’s writing talked about the philosophy of cosmicism. Cosmicism states that humanity is insignificant in the universe and can be wiped out any second. Humans stand no chance against the creatures he wrote about.
FromSoftware’s Bloodborne came to mind first. It’s a soulslike action RPG where you face off against different monsters. The game takes place in the gothic city of Yharnam. Horrors await around each corner of the world including giant cosmic horrors the player must face.
Black Salt Games developed a different take to the Lovecraft monsters which involve fishing. You travel around islands in a boat fishing for money. The further out you sail the more unique creatures you can catch. At night the monsters come out in greater numbers. I never liked fishing games but this unique horror take on fishing kept me invested.
Lastly and most obviously, comes Cyanide’s Call of Cthulhu. This game’s inspiration came directly from H.P Lovecraft’s story of the same name. Call of Cthulhu is a psychological horror game with elements of exploration, investigation and stealth. A private investigator is hired to look into the death of an entire family. The investigator ends up on Darkwater Island where he encounters cultists and Lovecraft’s favorite cosmic horrors.
Homer’s The Iliad
Creative Assembly created one of my all time favorite turn based strategy games. The Total War franchise always keeps me on my toes struggling for world domination. In 2020 Creative Assembly released Total War: Troy based upon Homer’s epic poem The Iliad. The Iliad tells the story about the war between Troy and the Greek city states. Paris of Troy takes the king of Sparta’s wife because they fall in love. The Greek city states declare war on Troy because of this.
In Total War: Troy you pick a faction to play as and wage war against the other factions. The game not only focuses on the Greek city states and Troy but the surrounding Aegean civilizations. You can fight on either side of the war and use diplomacy to help you against your enemies. If you are looking for a fun turn based strategy game, I highly recommend this one based on Homer’s The Iliad.
Conclusion
Inspiration can come from anything, but we see it coming from books and stories the most. There are countless other video games we could have featured, perhaps a second post for the future. What books or video games would you like to see? Is there a book you’d like to see as a video game? I know there are countless books we’d like to see.
As always, happy reading!