In the past, video games were primarily aimed at relatively young audiences – particularly teenage boys. Currently, things are very different. People of all ages and genders are enjoying video games, and game developers need to come up with themes and storylines that appeal to all sectors of this market.
One of the ways in which game developers have tried to do this is by capitalising on the popularity of certain movies and producing video games with popular movies as their themes. However, until quite recently, the majority of these movie-themed games have failed to appeal to consumers in anything like the same way as the movies on which they’re based.
Today developers are using the movie to provide the context or backdrop for games with unique and exciting new storylines. Playing one of these newer games is completely immersive and absorbing: you get so caught up that you hardly notice the time passing. Now you don’t need to be inside a video arcade, or even one of the online ones, such as Casumo online casino, for example, to experience that same immersive intensity. You can get the experience wherever you can play the game on one of your devices.
Here is a bit more info on two of our favourite movie-based video games, Alien: Isolation and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Alien: Isolation
Alien, produced in 1979 by 20th Century Studios, was a resounding success, as were the five other movies in the series. The three sequels were Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection, with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant comprising a prequel series. Alien is now a franchise, incorporating various comics, novels, and video games based on the movie.
In the Alien movie, a spacecraft is returning to earth when it picks up a signal from an alien craft on a small, unknown planetoid. Investigating further, the spacecraft’s crew find thousands of objects resembling eggs, one of which hatches. When the hatchling attaches itself to the face of one of the crew members, he’s rendered unconscious. The rest of the crew helps him, and everything seems to be fine. He recovers consciousness.
However, an alien organism soon erupts from the crewman’s chest. It grows rapidly bigger and defeats all the crews’ attempts to kill it. In the process of trying to kill the alien, the spaceship is destroyed, leaving the star protagonist, warrant officer Ellen Ripley, as the only survivor (in a small survival craft like a lifeboat).
Alien: Isolation is set 15 years after the flight depicted in the Alien movie. In the character of Officer Ripley’s daughter, your mission is to retrieve a flight recorder from the ill-fated spacecraft. The game perfectly captures the spirit of the movie as you sneak around, anxiously glancing over your shoulder, expecting at any moment to see the monster creeping up behind you.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Another very popular movie franchise that lends itself very well to video games is Star Wars. The original movie (1977) led to the sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Sixteen years after the original trilogy of movies, a prequel trilogy was produced: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. An additional sequel trilogy of films (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker) was released in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
The Star Wars storyline focuses on the Skywalker family, as their lives revolve around trying to vanquish the evil Sith Lord Darth Sidious. In the prequel trilogy, the protagonist is Anakin Skywalker; he trains as a Jedi but eventually falls in the struggle. In the original trilogy, Luke and Leia, Anakin and his wife Padmé’s children, continue to battle dark forces. Finally, in the sequel trilogy, it’s the grandchildren of the original protagonists who feature in the storyline, as the dark side finally triumphs.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is set after the end of Episode III and Episode IV of the sequel trilogy. Players assume the role of Cal Kestis, a Jedi knight (Jedi knights are the heroic protagonists in Star Wars, undertaking academic, monastic, military, and peacekeeping work).
A particularly appealing feature of this Star Wars game is that players assume the role of actual Jedis and are equipped with the Jedis’ powers and weapons. The game takes you to different planets, where you can choose which paths to take and which battles to fight.
Final Word
Spending time playing a video game that takes place inside the world of a favourite movie can be very rewarding when the game is well designed, but be warned, many movie-themed games are very poor quality! In addition to the two games featured in this article, we also enjoyed:
- King Kong
- Jurassic: World Evolution
- Goldeneye 007
- Spider-Man 2
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
- Shadow of Mordor