Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout live-action adaptation series is just around the corner and the latest trailer is hyping fans up to believe it could be one of the rare examples of a video game adaptation actually done right. There’s been a healthy upswing of these adaptations recently, mostly in animation with media like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. If Fallout can begin to usher in a wave of solid live-action video game TV shows, then there’s a list of IPs that would be ripe for some interesting onscreen storytelling.
5. Bloodborne
FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki’s games are always richly dense in their lore, but titles like Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne opt to let the story be more of an optional experience for players who want more context while allowing those who would much rather skip all of that and get to the part where they’re fighting a Lovecraftian nightmare beast with a sword and blunderbuss have what they want as well. That’s where a Bloodborne TV adaptation could really shine, by taking the oppressively burdened setting of Yharnam and delving into its stories that the game only hints at. There are so many moments in the game that pique curiosity, strange merchants, deformed enemies, and destitute NPCs. They have a way of making the player want to learn more about what happened, and a live-action series could delve further into that.
4. Far Cry
The Far Cry series has no shortage of exotic and dangerous destinations where a TV adaptation could be set. The Rambo-like premise of one man taking down an army, especially the ones led by the enthusiastic antagonists often seen in Far Cry games, would certainly make for just as enthralling of a show as it does a game. Whether it’s set in rural Montana, the peaks of the Himalayas, or the tropical Rook Islands, there’s a lot of potential for a good adaptation here.
3. Dishonored
Who doesn’t love a good revenge story? Arkane Studios tapped into a narrative with Dishonored that blended with its game mechanics perfectly, motivating the players to want the same vengeance that the protagonist wants, and truly making them consider their choices in who they kill and how they go about doing it. A Dishonored live-action adaptation could similarly delve into those tropes while being made unique by the various abilities Corvo wields that aren’t seen so often in a TV series covering this kind of story.
2. Outlast
If the various adaptations of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and House of the Dead say anything about the world of horror video games and TV/film colliding, then an Outlast series might not sound so appealing at first. There’s something uniquely dreadful about various settings Red Barrels creates in their games, however, highlighted by the unique use of simulated cameras in the games that are always pushed to creatively terrifying extremes. An Outlast live-action series would need a creative team that truly understands what makes the games stand out, but if it could manage to get that, then the show could be something special.
1. Bioshock
The Bioshock franchise has been unfortunately dormant on all fronts in recent years. No new video games or really any other kind of media to keep fans of the steampunk dystopian FPS satisfied. A new game would obviously be the best thing, but a show set in a world as unique, terrifying, and rich with lore as Bioshock could also be a massive success. Similar to Fallout, there really wouldn’t be any reason to set up a Bioshock adaptation around a particular character from the games, it just needs to use the underwater utopian setting so viewers can watch in live-action as it all goes wrong.
