Video games are a great storytelling medium. That used to be in dispute, but it isn't anymore. We've reached the point where dissenters 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:like the author George R.R. Martin, who used to publicly argue that games did not constitute art, played an active role in constructing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring's lore.

Popular storytelling franchises are often expanded by tie-in novels. It's generally easier (not to mention many times cheaper) to write a novel than to make a movie or TV show, which makes it an easy way to add stories to an existing universe. This is where the majority of Star Wars lore comes from, and, as video games have come into their own as a form of storytelling, a lot of games have gotten tie-in novels as well. We're here today to point out and celebrate many of the best ones available.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:There are a ton of Halo novels. Dozens, with more coming out every year. They span the length of the Halo universe, from the distant past of the Forerunner trilogy to the era of the modern games. Picking just one for this list was difficult and painful, but if you're looking for an entry point into this expanded universe, there's no better place to start than the beginning.

Technically released before the first game, Halo:🎐 The Fall of Reach lays the foundations of the Halo universe. It tells the life story of Master Chief, beginning in his childhood, his augmentation and conscription as a child soldier, and continuing through to the events immediately prior to the first game. All of it is stellar. The morally ambiguous portrayal of the UNSC is surprisingly subversive for its time (a thread oth🐈er Halo novels, and eventually games, would expand on), and it does a great job turning Master Chief into a fleshed-out character.

Another backstory novel, this time about the tragic fall of a "utopian" vision that led to the husk of Rapture in which Bioshock takes place. Much of the story of Rapture's fall is already conveyed in the game, but it was scattered among disparate of audio logs and environmental storytelling. This was the right decision for the story as Bioshock was telling it, but it's nice to have those elements gathered, put in order, and expanded upon.

That's exactly what this book does. It chronicles the tragically inevitable failure of Rapture, and the corresponding fall of the man who created it. It's a bleakly wonderful story of how lofty ideals fall to human frailty.

We've already said it once, and we could say it again about many of the other items on this list: picking just one tie-in novel for many of these games was often painful. We've done our best to recommend the ideal entry points for those looking to explore the expanded universes of their favorite games, but that doesn't stop us from wishing we could include more.

Fortunately, this collection saves us from that dilemma for Assassin's Creed. This ten-book box set contains novelizations of most of the existing games in the Assassin's Creed series. These books do an excellent job retelling the stories of the games they're based on. If you love the stories of these games, you'll love them even more in their fleshed out form.

Some might object that we're cheating a bit with this one, and, well, yeah, maybe a little. The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski were the first form this story ever took, with the games being released later.

If these novels weren't as good as they are, that might have stopped us including them, but the fact is that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:they're some of the best fantasy novels ever written, comparable with great 🅷works lik🐬e A Song of Ice and Fire or Lord of the Rings. If you're looking for books that will expand on the lore of a video game you love, you could hardly do better than these masterpieces.

Though many of the novels on this list are deeply tied together with the universes they're based on, only the Mass Effect series can boast that it was written by the same author that gave the games their story.

Mass Effect: Revelation is the first of four novels written by D♑rew Karpyshyn, the lead writer of th💝e games. These novels fill in the space around and between the trilogy, with this first novel being an intriguing mystery that fleshes out the background of the first game.

It's probably not all that surprising that the games best suited to tie-in novels are the ones that are already story-oriented. That's certainly proven true on this list, every item on which has been tied into a game heavy in narrative. It's also why it's a shame there aren't more novels set in the Elder Scrolls universe.

Alas, this novel is one of only two such books. The titles form a duology that represents a follow-up to the then-recent Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and they tell a story that emerges quite naturally from the events of that gam𝄹e. We can only hope that other games in the same series will someday get a similar treatment.

FAQ

Which game have the most books been written for?

Out of all the video games we could find, Halo seems to have the most tie-in novels, with close to three dozen such books being available. Other series come close. Warcraft also has quite a few, but it's just a couple of books short. Novels have been a huge part of Halo since its beginning, with the first novel being released shortly before the first game, which is why we joked earlier that the book is technically the sou♍rce mate⭕rial.

What game is based on a book?

The Witcher series is definitely the most notabl⛄e game to be adapted stra꧃ight from a book or series of books, both in terms of quality and scope.