Games and Books

I've always found it strange when people on gaming forms proudly proclaim they don't read books.  To me, it's like saying you never watch movies or listen to music.  There are a lot of interesting things written in books (both fictional and non-fictional).  Some novels have a surprising number of similarities to particular games.  Lets look at a few examples:

If you've ever played Myst, Riven or more recently Obduction you've probably noticed they all have a distinct vibe.  Unsurprising, considering these three titles are the products of the Miller brothers and their studio Cyan Worlds.  What do you think of when you look back on your experiences with these games?  Battered journals?  Classical architecture?  Strange statues?  How about cryptic messages or seaside locations?  "Piranesi" has all these things in spades.  Obviously, it has nothing to do video games in a direct sense...but I would be surprised to hear that Susanna Clarke has never seen or played any of these games.  At the very least this story feels inspired by Myst, if not an unofficial novel set in the same universe...or perhaps more appropriately - the same mental space.  Regardless, I would recommend "Piranesi" to anyone who is a fan of the Miller brother's games or likes setting they take place in, but doesn't want to have to deal with a myriad of puzzles.

The Dark Pictures Anthology is an episodic series of unrelated horror adventures with gameplay similar to what you would find in a Telltale title.  House of Ashes is the third of a planned tetralogy of such games.  The developers specifically mentioned H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" as a major inspiration, but if I were to guess at a source it would have been "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" by John Langan.  Why?  Both game and novel - well, it's not really long enough to call it a novel...more like a novella or short story - have an uncanny commonality with (at least when view in terms of the broad strokes); Iraq war veterans fighting vampire bats from space!  Actually in the short story there's only one space vampire bat whereas the game has them packed into a cave up to the echolocators.  When you think about it though, that's pretty standard fare for video games.  The highest number of enemy aircraft any fighter pilot has shot down in a single sortie is about half-a-dozen.  By video game logic that's a poor showing in all but the most hardcore flight sims.   

Adam Nevill is, in his own words, a writer of supernatural horror.  Between numerous short stories and a bunch of full length novels, he's actually covered a variety of subgenres.  There are ghost stories by him, creature features, some slashers and even a little bit of sci-fi.  Adam Nevill has also penned the novel "Last Days" which is (somewhat amusingly) framed as a found footage style documentary with religious horror trappings.  In particular, the demonic entities in the novel are eerily similar to those found in Faith: The Unholy Trinity.  Granted, it could simply be a case of these two pieces of media taking ideas from the same sources.  Both stories also feature nefarious cults in the background, and protagonists of questionable mental stability.  Said protagonists must ultimately (in their respective stories) confront a seemingly undying antagonist in order to achieve resolution, though overall the situations both characters find themselves in are refreshingly small stakes compared to your average JRPG.