With Christopher Nolan’s movie launching worldwide, a reader asks why video games are so slow to borrow from classic Greek myths and other famous stories.
I’m currently very excited about the idea of watching The Odyssey. I’ve seen the reviews, I’ve got my tickets, and by the time you read this I will have seen it. I’m expecting something special but even if it’s a disappointment it doesn’t matter. It’s The Odyssey, there’s been adaptations and riffs on it since film was invented, so there’ll be another along sooner or later. It’s an almost 3,000 year old story that, to quote Soul Blade, is eternally retold. Except in video games.
I actually looked it up and the only video game I can find that is anywhere close to a proper adaptation is a PC game from 2000 that I’ve never heard of and I’m pretty sure was not a hit (or very big budget). This is not much of a surprise as video games, at least in the West, are very bad at making use of public domain characters. Although Japan and China are forever making games based on their myths and famous stories all we ever get over here is the odd low budget Sherlock Holmes game.
There’re no decent King Arthur or Robin Hood games and while there’s plenty of games with Dracula or Frankenstein in it there’s none that are both good and based on the original stories. And most strangely to me, there’s very little based specifically on Greek and Roman myth. Sure, you get lots of generic fantasy games that pick and choose from them but almost nothing that’s trying to be in any way authentic.
The one exception is God Of War but while it does feature more of the mythos than most other games, and is definitely big budget, it’s not very accurate and Kratos is an entirely made-up character. So while I like parts of it, it’s such a mean-spirited and old-fashioned game I can’t say I’ve ever really liked it. The reboot games are much better but unfortunately they don’t have anything to do with Greece.
The thing about the Odyssey is that it’d actually make a perfect video game. It’s got a very clear goal (get home) and tons of monsters and random battles breaking out all the time. It’s very episodic, so it’s already cut up into levels that have distinct themes, like travelling into Hades or being trapped by Calypso, as well as what’s going on with Penelope and Telemachus.
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Given what a massive hit The Odyssey looks like being, lots of people are going to become very familiar with the story and characters soon, but of course video games take so long to make nowadays that even if you started now it’d be old hat by the time it came out. Or at least the film would, obviously the story itself is immortal.
But this is why I don’t understand why it’s not been done before. It’s not like you’re adapting Shakespeare or anything. There’s depth to the story but a lot of it is just an action adventure, fighting a man-eating cyclops and avoiding the Laestrygonians and the six-headed Scylla. That’s the kind of stuff God Of War does well, and it was super popular, so why haven’t other companies tried to copy it in the 25-odd years it’s been out?
Companies waste millions buying the licenses to Star Wars and Marvel characters, when they could just make up their own stories. But of course everyone wants a recognisable IP, so they pay the money. But Homer isn’t going to sue you if you make a game based on the Odyssey or the Iliad. It’s free, just like King Arthur or Dracula.
The only time I can think of anyone doing this sort of thing is when EA made a game based on Dante’s Inferno. It was a blatant God Of War clone, so they’d obviously followed the logic I was just trying to lay out. But for some reason they chose an epic poem with zero action and, worst of all, they made a bad game.
I’m not sure that Christopher Nolan has ever spoken about video games, although I know a lot of people thought Inception seemed a bit of Call Of Duty influenced. He’s probably not interested in organising a tie-in to his Odyssey film but if that’s what it takes to kick things off I’m fine with that. Although the irony is that the publisher would have to pay for the licence, whereas if it was just based on the original text there’d be no fee at all.
By reader Rooster
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