5 story driven video games inspired by novels

Converting video games into novels has been a common practice for quite a while now. However, there has been widespread practice the other way around too. The recently released Witcher series is a popular book adaptation that every gamer might be aware of.

Interestingly, the all-time favorite action-adventure series Assassin Creed’s first-ever entry was also inspired by a 1938 novel named Alamut by Vladimir Bartol. The novel depicts the 11th-century Persian fortress located 60 miles from the city of Tehran.

Below is a list of five other video games that have been adapted or taken inspiration from novels:

Note: This article reflects the authors' personalized list

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BioShock, Bloodborne, and three other story-rich video games inspired by books

1) Stalker series

The Stalker series is a popular first-person shooter loosely based on the 1972 novel Roadside Picnic, co-authored by the Strugatsky brothers. The original novel follows the journey of Redrick "Red" Schuhart – an experienced Stalker venturing into the dangerous zones often visited by extra-terrestrials to find artifacts for profit. Stalker games have a handsome amount of mysterious secrets to solve and supernatural abilities to keep one engaged for days.

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2) BioShock

The Bioshock games have Ayn Rand written all over it. The City of Rapture, in BioShock, is founded on the principles of Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophy. Her philosophical ideas lay heavy emphasis on individualism over everything else, and the dangers of such an ideology in creating a grandiose and utopic society, which is inherently destructive. All these dark aspects are very well portrayed in the Bioshock games’ storylines.

Andrew Ryan, the founder of Rapture and the owner of the Ryan industry, is himself named after the author. The character Frank Fountain is named after one of Ayn Rand’s most popular novels, The Fountainhead.

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3) Bloodborne

Bloodborne and Bioshock are similar in the sense that both video games have taken heavy inspiration from the author's body of work rather than adapting an entire novel altogether.

In Bloodborne’s case, it’s H.P. Lovecraft whose influence can be seen everywhere from the streets of Yharnam to the depictions of Gothic-themed horrors full of witches and werewolves, and a bunch of other Lovecraftian horror elements.

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4) Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

Tom Clancy's games have grown in popularity ever since publisher Ubisoft acquired Red Storm Entertainment. Since then, every Tom Clancy title has been nothing short of a fictional ride. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six is no exception to the growing list. Adapted from the novel of the same name ‘Rainbow Six’, the game showcases the rise of a fictional counter-terrorist group, where players are tasked with executing well-planned missions for success.

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5) Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu is another first-person shooter action-adventure horror survivor video game based on a 1981 tabletop game, where players need to use their attention to detail and intelligence to overcome obstacles and puzzles along the way.

Call of Cthulu is yet another prime example of video games heavily inspired by the Lovecraft horror novels, which were first published in the pulp magazine version called "Weird Tales" in February 1928.

In the 2018 edition of Call of Cthulhu, players take on the role of a veteran private investigator named Edward Price tasked with solving the mysterious death of the Hawkins family, who all died in a horrible fire incident.

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There are so many more such video games

The above-mentioned personalized list mentions only a handful of the best story-driven video games that were adapted or borrowed heavily from novels. There are, of course, a ton of other video games that have been adapted from books. The Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings titles are the usual suspects.

In addition, games from Sherlock Holmes, The Godfather, The Walking Dead, China’s famous romance of Three Kingdoms, and Amnesia the Dark Descent, are all heavily inspired by books.