Books and video games are inextricably intertwined, with many popular games directly or indirectly inspired by some of the book literature authors offer.
A good book adaptation is often successful because the games benefit from already existing mythos, worlds, and characters, even if the original author isn’t too involved.
This preexisting information gives the developer freedom and structure while creating these video game adaptations of novels, often resulting in creations that every book and game fan should check out.
While there are a lot of adaptations to choose from, here are our top 10 choices.
The Witcher 3
Book Title: The Witcher
Author: Andrzej Sapkowski
Lead Writer: Marcin Blacha
The Witcher 3 is the quintessential video game adaptation of a novel series. The game is based on The Witcher novel series from Andrzej Sapkowski, and adapts the series’ latter novels while forging its own path with original storytelling. The Witcher 3 and its expansions are considered CD Projekt Red’s take on the characters Geralt of Rivia, Ciri, Yennefer, and more. After all, the player chooses how Geralt romances, how storylines conclude, and who survives the tale. They act as an author in their own right.
Many fans consider the Witcher games to be a separate universe from the Witcher books because the Witcher trilogy had little input from the original author, which culminated his general dislike of the ganes and a lawsuit regarding royalties. Despite Sapkowski’s feelings about the game, Blancha transformed the novels into a world brimming with lore and history, offering the right mix of medieval fantasy with the supernatural. The ability to explore vast open landscapes and some of the most stunningly well-written side quests in gaming make this a must-play RPG based on a book.
Buy The Witcher 3
Metro: Last Light
Book Title: Metro
Author: Dmitry Glukhovsky
Lead Writer: Dmitry Glukhovsky, Andrew Prokhorov, Paul De Meo
The original Metro book series follows a protagonist named Artyom after a nuclear war results in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in much of the world. This theme plays well into Metro: Last Light, the best of the three video game adaptations, with its atmospheric locations, horror elements and brilliant writing.
Much of the exceptional writing comes from direct involvement from the book series author Dmitry Glukhovsky, who served as one of the lead writers on Metro: Last Light, letting this game act as a separate sequel to some of the books and games rather than a straightforward adaptation. The intense action of the gameplay, coupled with the immersive storyline, shows how solid a game can be when the original author gets involved.
Buy Metro: Last Light
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Book Title: The Lord of the Rings
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Lead Writer: Christian Cantamessa
Many video game adaptations of the genre-defining fantasy series The Lord of the Rings exist, but Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor stands tall as the best among them. Tolkien’s death in 1973 meant the game didn’t directly involve him or his family, but it has official licensing from Middle-earth Enterprises.
Shadow of Mordor made the smart move to do its standalone storyline set between The Hobbit and the core of The Lord of the Rings books. This timeline lets the plot play fast and loose with the characters and storylines while providing excellent gameplay simultaneously. Fans praised the open-world recreation of Middle-Earth, which is stunning and varied, plus the orcs’ Nemesis System, which created iconic recurring villains for players to face.
Buy Shadow of war
Dune: Spice Wars
Book Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Lead Designer: Franck Delfortrie
So many video game adaptations of books try to be as story and character-heavy as the original material, but Dune: Spice Wars opts for a different approach. This real-time strategy game takes the world from the late author Frank Herbert and cleverly adapts it for a highly tactical experience.
The greater focus on gameplay allows this title to benefit from the world of Dune but not be bogged down too much by the politics of it all. It still captures the feel of the sandy world and its obsession with Spice, which plays a huge part in how the player progresses through the RTS game. This approach allows for a lighter take on the Dune franchise that acts as a neat supplement, not a replacement, for the core books.
buy dune: Spice wars
Shin Megami Tensei Series
Book Title: Digital Devil Story
Author: Aya Nish*tani
Lead Writer: Ryutaro Ito, Kazunari Suzuki
The Shin Megami Tensei Japanese role-playing game franchise has one of the most unique approaches to adapting a book. The original games modified the idea of the novel Digital Devil Story, about a teenage boy who creates a demon-summoning program to get revenge.
As new entries came out, the series kept the idea of summoning, collecting, and fusing demons across these games and the spin-off Persona series but now has little connection to the source material. This fascinating approach means players can check out these wonderfully deep and engrossing JRPGs without ever needing to know anything about the books, which the games arguably have surpassed by now.
The games and thier plots are written well enough to enthrall the author of the original book series, Aya Nish*tani. He may not be involved with the games coming out these days, such as Shin Megami Tensei V, but he is a massive fan of the series and plays nearly all of them with his seal of approval.
Buy Shin Megami Tensei V
Conan Exiles
Book Title: Conan the Barbarian
Author: Robert E. Howard
Director: Joel Bylos
Like Dune: Spice Wars, Conan Exiles opts for a gameplay-heavy video game adaptation of the massive Conan the Barbarian universe. It features iconic characters fans know and love, including the titular barbarian himself but it trades storytelling and writing for immersion and intense survival gameplay in the Hyborian Age.
Conan Exiles is the type of experience that can appeal to anyone, no matter their knowledge and familiarity with the original books, magazines, and comics. It is a rich survival game that tasks the player with starting from nothing and working their way up to craft and build a home for themselves. The source material from the late Robert E. Howard has better storytelling; there is no match for the interactivity Conan Exiles offers, which has a broad appeal with its multiplayer survival genre.
buy conan exiles
Parasite Eve
Book Title: Parasite Eve
Author: Hideaki Sena
Lead Writer: Hideaki Sena, Takashi Tokita
The original Parasite Eve novel by Hideaki Sena told the story of a Japanese woman whose mitochondria cells were possessed by an ancient woman named Eve. Interestingly, the first Parasite Eve video game from Squaresoft adapted the book but built a narrative sequel focusing on a new character, Aya Brea.
In this way, the Parasite Eve JRPGs pay homage to the world created by Hideaki Sena while forging its sequel storyline. Fortunately, the games are open enough for fans who don’t read the books to get involved and enjoy the strange modern-day horror series while immersing themselves in the world.
Hideaki Sena put his seal of approval on the game series, even involving himself in a consultancy role as a writer for the first game.
Hogwarts Legacy
Book Title: Harry Potter Series
Author: J.K. Rowling
Lead Writer: Adrian Ropp, Moira Squier, Genese Davis, Cade Johnson, Loreen Nariari, Shane Lewis, Adam Koford, Natalie Gray
The renowned Harry Potter series is one of the most magical book franchises in the world, with an equally loved set of films. Few video games have captured the movies or books quite like Hogwarts Legacy did. It makes the smart move to set itself far away from the story of Harry Potter by setting itself in the late 19th century.
Hogwarts Legacy may not quite reach the heights of the original novels and comes with a lot of social baggage because of J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans statements, but it is the first and only game thus far to let players fully go to class, explore a gorgeous rendition of the world, and meet fascinating new characters like Sebastian Sallow.
buy hogwarts legacy
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Book Title: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Author: Harlan Ellison
Lead Writer: Harlan Ellison, David Sears
Harlan Ellison wrote the infamous and award-winning science fiction short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream in a single night in 1966. Its tale of the last five people on Earth after an AI caused the extinction of humanity received a fascinating point-and-click adventure adaptation in 1995.
This legendary remake of the short story involved Ellison co-writing the entire script from scratch and even voicing the AI “AM” himself. To this day, the video game version of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is by far the best way to experience the tale. It has the heart of what Ellison made in 1966 but with expanded plot sequences and the grip of being an interactive narrative adventure while still dealing with some tough subjects like genocide and mental health.
buy i have no mouth
Dante’s Inferno
Book Title: Inferno (Divine Comedy)
Author: Dante Alighieri
Lead Writer: Jonathan Knight, Will Rokos
The Divine Comedy from Dante Alighieri is one of the most fabled epics in medieval literature. It tells the story of the road to God in three parts. The first part, Inferno, was adapted into a gruesome and riveting hack-and-slash action game known as Dante’s Inferno by developer Visceral Games of Dead Space fame.
Dante’s Inferno loosely adapts the first hymn of the Divine Comedy, carrying the same idea of a man traveling through the nine circles of Hell, but with a heavy emotional twist in his mission to rescue his wife from Lucifer. The fast-paced combat and detailed supernatural imagery make this an underrated game that action-adventure fans who love the novel should experience.
While not quite on the storytelling level of the original epic, it has a fascinating and more dramatic take on a well-beloved tale.
