10 Videogames Based on Movies You Can Play While You Wait For Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

With the release of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora just around the corner, the trailer reminded me of the 2009 movie tie-in that was better than the film, in my opinion. Videogames based on movies aren't a new thing; even this year, there's been a tonne of them. However, the game isn't specifically going to follow the films directly but rather be another story from the universe. So, why not list 10 videogames based on movies that don't follow the plotlines directly?

Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo

Developed by Pendulo Studios and published by Microids, Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo is an adventure game loosely based on the films of the acclaimed American director Alfred Hitchcock, vaguely following the story of the titular Vertigo. In it, you play as Ed Miller, a man in therapy to help with side effects from a car crash, as well as two other people. Claiming his wife and daughter are missing, last seen in the car wreck, Ed must uncover the mystery by solving puzzles, all spiralling down into a climactic conclusion.

This adventure game is available now to play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows.

RoboCop: Rogue City

Return to the crime-riddled streets of Detroit to dish out law and order in RoboCop: Rogue City. Developed by Teyon and published by Nacon, and based on the '80s sci-fi cult series, the game takes place between RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, with Peter Weller reprising his role as RoboCop. With a mayoral election just weeks away, a new face has entered the crime syndicate of Detroit, sending all the gangs into a drug-fuelled frenzy to get his attention.

The only people preventing the city from turning into a hellhole are the Detroit police department (funded by OCP) and its model police officer, RoboCop, aka Alex Murphy. Armed with his trusty service weapon, the Auto-9, gameplay can go from gratuitous blood and gore — reminiscent of the first film directed by the infamous director Paul Verhoeven — as RoboCop guns down armed assailants, all the way to upholding public peace by issuing parking tickets and interacting with the community. RoboCop: Rogue City is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows.

Starship Troopers: Extermination

From one Verhoeven movie to another, get ready to crush some bugs with friends in Starship Troopers: Extermination. Based on the film (based on the novel written by Robert A. Heinlein), you play as a member of a special squad in the "Mobile Infantry" called the "Deep Space Vanguard", as you're deployed in a group of 16 to set up a military position on the planet Valaka, infested by an alien species known as "Arachnids".

Choosing from a range of classes with specific equipment, each mission has you and your team get dropped into the fray via a drop-pod to complete objectives like constructing refineries and defences against the bug menace or retaking derelict bases to be rebuilt. However, the Arachnids will come in hordes to hunt you all down.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is currently in Steam Early Access. Would you like to know more?

Dune: Spice Wars

Based on the epic book series Dune by Frank Herbert, Dune: Spice Wars is an RTS where you play the role of the leader of one of the five factions: House Atreides, House Harkonen, House Corrino, The Smugglers, and the native of Arrakis known as the Fremen. In the far distant future, humanity relies on a glistening powder to travel the stars. The powder Spice can only be found on one planet, Arrakis. He who controls the Spice controls everything in the empire.

Taking design and aesthetic inspiration from the 2021 adaptation of the first novel, the desert of Arrakis is turned into a war of might and manipulation. With the ability to move soldiers into occupied villages and spies into the ranks of the other houses, your faction must hold dominion or crumble in the heat. But beware of the series of iconic Sandworms that will swallow up anything in their maws whole. Dune: Spice Wars is available on Xbox Series X|S and Windows.

Alien: Isolation

Another entry based on a sci-fi franchise from the 1980s, Alien: Isolation, is a first-person horror game set in the Alien franchise. The game takes place between the films Alien and Aliens, where Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amanda Ripley, learns that a space station has information about Ellen's location. Once at the station, things quickly turn disastrous. Throughout the game, you will attempt to get information about your mother while helping people, avoiding malfunctioning androids, and hiding from the iconic Xenomorph.

Alien: Isolation is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows.

Mad Max

Mad Max is a third-person action-adventure videogame with vehicular and QTE-based combat. Loosely based on the Mad Max series, the videogame shares the protagonist, setting, and vehicle design from Mad Max: Fury Road in a chaotic display of carnage and burning oil. Playing as the man himself, Max Rockatansky, after being robbed and nearly killed by a warband, you work with Chumbucket (mechanic and harpoon-wielder) and his dog to create Chumbucket's dream car, the Magnum Opus.

Mad Max is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.

Blair Witch

Joining a search party for a missing boy, you play as Ellis Lynch as he enters Black Hills Forest where the film took place. The gameplay is similar to games like Outlast, the player is armed with a video recorder to see the game through. Besides Ellis' equipment, his dog, Bullet, accompanies you throughout the game. Like the movies the videogame is based on, the gameplay consists of a lot of walking, reading, and reacting to jump scares.

There's more to the disappearance and the forest than meets the eye. Blair Witch is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.

Jurassic World Evolution

Jurassic World Evolution is a park management simulator akin to Planet Coaster (because both games are from the same company, Frontier Developments). Based on the Jurassic Park franchise, and not the books, the game consists of running a theme park/zoo filled with different types of dinosaurs; located on the Las Cinco Muertes Archipelago. As the park manager, you use genes and DNA of fossils to revive 40 different dinosaurs to then cage and show off to guests — like in 2015's Jurassic World.

While the point of the game is to keep the park running and the dinos and people separate, the real fun comes from letting the two meet in a display of natural selection. Jurassic Park Evolution is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

After Gun Interactive lost the licence for the title Friday the 13th, it learnt from its mistake and began working with Sumo Digital to make another adaptation of a horror classic. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a multiplayer game of cat and mouse. Three people play as members of the Sawyer family, while the rest are soon-to-be victims attempting to escape.

One of the maps on offer is the Sawyer family home, eerily detailed from the outskirts of the property to the interior design, which is a shot-for-shot recreation. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows. Let's just hope Gun Interactive doesn't have any more trouble with licensing.

Terminator: Resistance

A prequel to the first Terminator film, Terminator: Resistance is an FPS set in the middle of the Future War as the sentient Skynet is eradicating humanity from remembering Terminator: Salvation — just kidding. But the playable character, Jacob Rivers, is working with the resistance to take down Skynet and win the war. Between walking through a devastated wasteland scoured by man-killing robots and running dangerous missions to keep people alive, you create a rapport with your teammates that helps in the late game.

Terminator: Resistance is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.

What games do you think should have been on this list? Do you like this type of content? Let us know in the comment section.