It’s been a decade since Telltale’s The Walking Dead set the game world on fire. Despite the fact that there was a popular version of the story on television at the time, the game pulled from the comic series instead for the sad and depressing world it presented. Comics have been taking over the movie and TV world, but it would be nice to see more comics get big, Walking Dead-quality video games projects.
Here are five recent horror comics that would make great adaptations.
DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH
Writer James Tynion has been on a roll with a series of spooky creator-owned comics, and his hit Image title Department of Truth is the one that’s best suited for the medium of video games. Set in the world of shadowy government agencies and conspiracy theories, the book follows the agents of the titular department as they learn the ways in which belief can shape reality. The breadth of topics covered in the series, ranging from UFOs to cryptozoology, make it perfect for an adaptation.
One mission could have you trying to save someone lost in the woods while being stalked by Bigfoot, and another could see you investigating a case of Satanic Ritual Abuse. To emphasize the impact the player has on the world, things would change based on how well you cover things up afterwards. Don’t clean up the evidence of reptilians? Belief in them increases and they show up more in the future. The theme ties so perfectly into a dynamic game narrative, and it would be satisfying to see play out.
HOME SICK PILOTS
Haunted houses and giant robots are two things that don’t normally get mentioned in the same breath, but Home Sick Pilots, by Dan Watters and Caspar Wijngaard, finds a way to combine them. After a punk rock show at the Old James House, high schooler Ami has been bound to it, cursed to help hunt down haunted items that have been taken from the ghosts within. Oh, and the house sometimes gets up and walks like a person. Add in some teen counterculture spice to that already interesting blend and you’ve got one of the most unique horror books on the stands.
I could see two different modes of gameplay working well for this: haunted house investigations where you’re searching through strange areas for the lost items, followed by giant mecha battles that play out like a fighting game. The power and abilities of your haunted house mech could be tied to what items you find, giving the player an extra reason to scour the spooky environments to press their luck for the chance of improving their abilities. Horror games thrive when they can figure out how to alternate feelings of being helpless with cathartic scenes of power, and Home Sick Pilots would give you a perfect opportunity for both.
SNOW ANGELS
Survival and horror go hand in hand, and the world presented in Jeff Lemire and Jock’s Snow Angels is one in which survival is as challenging as it gets. The world has been frozen over, and all humans, that you know of at least, have been relegated to a seemingly endless trench dug into the snow and ice. To make matters worse, the two sibling main characters are being stalked by the mysterious and deadly Snowman, a mythic unstoppable killer. The bleak and scratchy drawings of Jock bring the world of Snow Angels to life in painstaking detail, with desperation bleeding into every panel.
I imagine this setup being perfect for an Alien: Isolation-like stalker enemy that would unpredictably attack you as you explore the wasteland scrounging for resources and trying to figure out what’s going on in this cold and desperate world. If you wanted to add another layer of uniqueness to the game, you could make it a mandatory co-op game, a la A Way Out or It Takes Two, and force each player to be one of the siblings working together to make it out of the horrifying situation.
FARMHAND
Not all horror titles have to be gloom and doom. Farmhand focuses on a goofier side of the genre, with a little body horror mixed in. The title, written and drawn by Rob Guillory, features a small town where the Jenkins Family Farm grows a strange crop: replacement human organs. Obviously growing human organs isn’t a natural thing, so there are sinister mysteries afoot that adds tension to a small-scale family drama that’s at the heart of the action.
This setting seems like fertile ground (pun intended) for a bizarre little business sim where you have to manage your odd crops while dealing with everything from corporate espionage to brainwashed cults. Imagine trying to maintain your crops of replacement ears while being sure to allocate enough resources to security to keep rivals from coming in and stealing your seeds. I’m all for adding horror twists to genres that don’t usually have them, and this seems like a perfect opportunity.
NOCTERRA
Scott Snyder became a household name with his runs on Batman and Justice League, but his comics career has deep roots in the horror genre. He’s responsible for such titles as American Vampire and Wytches, but it’s one of his more recent books, with art by Tony Daniel, that would make for a perfect game setting. Nocterra combines elements of Pitch Black and Mad Max, set in a world where the sun has vanished and the dark mutates people and animals into horrific creatures. To traverse the everlasting night, drivers known as ferrymen transport people between outposts in eighteen-wheelers lit up like Christmas trees.
It would be great to use this setup for a vehicular action game that had a heavy emphasis on survivor horror-style resource management. Driving down a stretch of road fighting off horrible beasts in the dark, only to have to pull over to scavenge for batteries at an abandoned station before the next wave of monsters comes down on you would make for a thrilling scenario. Having a rotating cast of passengers would give you a wide variety of stories to help fill in the world and add depth to the mystery of the disaster that led to it. Daniels’ art provides a perfect template for a gorgeous world that will be absolutely terrifying to explore.
Are you reading any comics you think would make for a great horror game? Sound off in the comments below!
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