There have been countless movies that have been turn into games by now. From James Bond to almost every superhero movie, tons of them have become video games, and a great number of these have reportedly been great games too. Yet, I can never get into a single one. Even Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which so many people got obsessive over because it’s “so great,” I just couldn’t fall in line. I played for a maximum of five hours, and I will likely never pick it up again.
For many of these games, I tried to make the argument to myself that it’s probably just been a coincidence; my favorites games are fantasy RPGs after all, and most of the games based off movies I’ve played don’t fall into the genre. But I will always have The Lord of the Rings’ PS2 trilogy looming in the back of my mind.
The PS2 Lord of the Rings trilogy were great games by most standards, including my own. I did enjoy trying to parry my way into “perfect mode” to try to get as many perfect kills as possible by the end of each level, and I also loved using the bow. Some of the levels were nerve-wracking, yet fun, such as the one in which you must stay out of the light as much as possible, otherwise the Nazgûl riding the Fell beast would kill you. This was all great, yet I was constantly bothered and wishing that the game I was playing had the same mechanics but wasn’t The Lord of the Rings.
Trying to figure out what the hell my problem is has been extremely frustrating. I’ve felt like I’m always missing out on great games that other people get really into, and I’m missing some kind of magic that everyone else is experiencing.
As it turns out, I’m kind of just a snobby gamer in this one way.
What’s interesting is that discrepancies between books to movies and TV shows do not bother me, with some exceptions (looking at you, Game of Thrones and Eragon). I’ve never had a problem with differences between those mediums, it’s only when it’s between two visual mediums that I can’t seem to get past it. When you read a book, you get a more vague idea in your mind about what the characters look or sound like and a distant picture of the environment. Because these images are so indistinct, I typically don’t feel betrayed when I see the characters come to life on screen (with another exception of the entire cast of Twilight).
But show me a slightly off version of Legolas appearing in scenes where he isn’t supposed to, after I’ve experienced the masterpiece that is The Lord of the Rings film trilogy? Forget it. If I’ve already gotten a perfect visual representation of characters and places I love, anything that comes after and tries to do the same thing in a different way just feels wrong. I would go so far as to say that I’ve experienced a creepy, uncanny sort of feel when playing games that are based off movies or shows, and that uncomfortable experience is one that I generally avoid when I can.
I’ve even purposely avoided ever seeing a Resident Evil movie, just to make sure it never ruins the video games series for me. It’s more than likely that it would be the other way around, since I’ve played the games first, but god forbid I do anything to risk thoroughly enjoying Village when it comes out in May.
At the end of the day, this is likely more of a “me problem” than a widely experienced phenomenon. That said, there must be others somewhere out there like me, and to you—I am sorry that you can’t be a part of the same hype.