With the upcoming release of Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights, there are plenty of games that harness the potential of pre-existing worlds to forge (hopefully) compelling storytelling and entertaining gameplay. The first explores an environment that has gone largely unnoticed in the AAA sphere, as Hogwarts and the surrounding areas are ripe for further storytelling, and few games have really taken advantage of it. Another example of such a location is Panem, the remnants of the United States where the beloved hunger games books and movies.
The hunger Games is a trilogy of books by author Suzanne Collins, which quickly caught the public eye after the first was made into a movie in 2012 starring Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth. The title event is a tournament where each of the twelve districts in Panem offers two children to compete in a winner-takes-all fight to the death. It has been replicated in the will of Minecraft, although there hasn’t been a single major video game adaptation of Collins’s crowning achievement yet. This should change as the property has a handful of features that would be perfect for gaming.
Panem is the home of The Hunger Games
Immersive open worlds are a dozen by 2022, and many have created environments that are a treat to just exist in. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto 5, it is becoming commonplace to invent or reinvent pre-existing places where a full AAA game can take place. Panem has the potential to sit next to such institutions as it is steeped in history that has shaped many of its customs and laws. The uprising of District 13, the oppressive nature of the Capitol, and the smaller, more intricate stories in each of the recognized districts that the Capitol relies so heavily on are all tantalizing elements that can serve to amplify a fantastic story.
Building a world is very important, and having a significant threat to make every step feel like a consequence can help make the characters’ journey all the more heroic. The Capitol is an oppressive, self-centered, interdependent and deeply conceited gang of anything and everything, and the districts around it are only really there to make the lives of the lucky ones even better. Like Midgar in Final Fantasy 7, Panem is a setting at the mercy of a higher power that has no interest in improving the lives of those it rules. This is a formula the world has proven in video game building, but The hunger Games has yet to enter the industry with any real success.
The Battle Royale genre is ripe for The Hunger Games
While the third book in the trilogy deals with the ever-looming threat of the Capitol and the oppression it enforces, the first two novels center around the titular Hunger Games. With 24 ‘tributes’ and a limited rulebook when it comes to taking out the other fighters, the format is far from new. Movies like battle royale even Highlander offer a similar philosophy, and the influx of like-minded games is something the industry just can’t ignore. Fortnite and Player unknown: Battlefields took over the world, and Call of Duty: Warzone did well to improve on the foregoing.
It’s exciting to be in the last few of a battle royale game, and while the consequences of losing a game in Fortnite are much less than they are The hunger GamesThe feeling of being on the verge of victory is something that is both satisfying and terrifying. A hunger games title would piggyback on a genre that’s showing no signs of stopping, while also potentially putting fans of the property in a genre they’re otherwise unfamiliar with. On a mechanical level, The hunger Games is perfectly suited to video games, and an AAA title within the franchise could use many of its own elements, such as the harvest and opening ceremonies to make it stand out.
Anyone can be a hero in The Hunger Games
Katniss Everdeen, while proficient with a bow, is a thoroughly average person at the start of The hunger Games, though she slowly becomes something exceptional as the story progresses. The same can be said of Peeta, Finnick and Haymitch, the latter carrying his character flaws long after his success with the Second Quarter Quell. Must be a hunger games title take the same route Hogwarts Legacy does with its custom characters, it would be easy to fit players’ creations into a story, evolving them from relative obscurity to a victor of the Games or even the savior of Panem himself.
Character development could be seamless, and RPG elements like a player-created protagonist with a pre-selected backstory would fit in perfectly. It could have been anyone in Katniss’ shoes, and every passing event of the Hunger Games turns normal people into heroes. The first book is set during the 74th Games, so aside from a few that are linked with other side characters, there are several years that can be central to the story. The ballad of songbirds and snakes fills some gaps in President Snow’s childhood, but there’s a lot more history to explore in a game that’s hard to see why it hasn’t been done yet.
There’s more to great game design than just intricate combat mechanics. Many titles in the AAA world depend on the settings they make and the innovations they bring at the environmental and presentation level, as well as gameplay. The hunger Games is one of the few properties that is severely underrepresented in gaming relative to the potential it has, so the fact that there has yet to be a high-budget project in Panem is very frustrating for fans of the IP, as it could deprive the medium of something special.
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