[STEAM] If video game adaptations keep being unfaithful, we as fans should walk away from the relationship

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I'm getting pretty fed up with recent video game adaptations. Some of my favorites have hit the big screen in recent years, and while some are hits, they fail to convey themes, emotional impact, or hold onto the artistry from the original. There are adaptations that bring new fans into an already established fanbase, while others (though gross millions of

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seem to forget what made the original so bloody brilliant.

Now, you may have enjoyed the examples I'm going to bring up and rightly so, everyone's entitled to their opinion. By no means have I watched every video game adaptation, but I have noticed a pattern in recent years that is starting to exhaust me.

Where adaptations fail

Missing the point

If you go into one of these adaptations with knowledge of the original, it's safe to say that you're going to be disappointed. This seems to appear most frequently with horror movies.

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Screenshot via ONE Media Then there's Return to Silent Hill, and this one destroys me. How can you

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The town of Silent Hill takes on a resident's psyche, becoming the physical manifestation of their trauma. Yet, James's story and its impact is greatly reduced and dimmed, having its lore adjusted for a worser viewing.

The complexity of Silent Hill 2 is severely missed from this adaptation; where playing as a man, a human, a monster—guilt-ridden and forced to face his irreparable actions, is pitied by altering his relationship and actions so that we have no choice but to feel for James. The original managed the same effect but with masterful storytelling. This poor adaptation paints a world where an audience cannot grasp depth beyond "X is good, Y is bad."

The Hollywood Effect

Then we have the crime of terrible casting decisions that many recent video game adaptations have done. These masterpieces don't translate well on-screen because what made them special is that they are video games with impactful storytelling and meaningful characters. So when I heard The Last of Us (TLOU), Uncharted, and Silent Hill 2 (SH2) were getting adapted, I was so excited... until I saw the cast.

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Screenshot via Universal Pictures Henry Cavill left The Witcher at the end of season 3 due to

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to its source. Halo shows Master Chief's face which, though makes sense, is a jarring change for fans of the franchise who grew up with this legend. It's even stranger when someone like the Mandalorian is allowed to spend most of his screentime inside a helmet. There are drastic relationship changes in Five Nights at Freddy's which makes the movie all the more convoluted. Plus, there is nothing scary about FNAF's adaptation yet it features on-screen gore with a script that only five-year-olds can enjoy.

When video game adaptations work

Characters characters characters

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Image via

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Adaptations thrive when they study its characters. What made games like Until Dawn, Silent Hill, or TLOU difficult to put down is their characters. Satisfying arcs, personalities with dimension, questions of morality, humility, and the human condition are covered to showcase beautiful imperfections. We can see this in Arcane, Fallout, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

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Image via Nintendo Finally, there is a lot of entertainment value in movies, Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. While they're not for me, films like these are a good time because the original franchise doesn't take itself seriously. These are the perfect games to adapt for blockbusters as it doesn't need to go beyond the surface.

I'll end my rant on this question: If video game adaptations are fanservice, which fans are they serving? Certainly not me.

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