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The best story-driven games based on movies and TV shows do more than attach a familiar name to ordinary gameplay. The Last of Us Part I is the strongest choice for a focused, emotional journey; The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection is the pick for decisions that reshape relationships; and Alien: Isolation delivers the most faithful film-style horror. For larger universe stories, choose Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Warriors, or Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
This guide separates direct adaptations from prequels, interquels, and original stories set inside a licensed universe, then matches each game to the kind of narrative experience it actually provides.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
The Last of Us Part I – PlayStation 5 | $39.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
Sony Interactive Entertainment The Last of Us Part 1 Standard PlayStation 5 | $45.06 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
The Last of Us: Part I and Part II Scripts | $31.06 | Buy on Amazon |
Quick picks
| Game | Best for | Story relationship | Core gameplay | Documented current access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Last of Us Part I | A linear, character-led drama | Faithful game story that inspired the HBO adaptation | Third-person action, stealth and exploration | PlayStation 5 and PC; complete story and Left Behind chapter |
| The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection | Branching choices and episodic TV pacing | Original television-style story in the comic/TV universe | Dialogue choices, investigation and timed decisions | PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; 19-episode collection |
| Alien: Isolation | Sustained, film-faithful survival horror | Original story set in the Alien universe | Stealth, scavenging and evasion | PS5, PS4, PS3, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, Switch, iOS and Android |
| Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | A large role-playing saga | Original prequel-era story thousands of years before the films | Party-based role-playing and branching decisions | Platform availability varies by edition and storefront |
| The Warriors | A substantial expansion of a cult film | Adaptation that adds backstory and events around the 1979 film | Third-person brawling, missions and gang management | Availability varies by platform and release |
| Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | A new adventure between two films | Interquel between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade | First-person exploration, puzzles, stealth and action | Current platform availability should be checked by region and edition |
The table is a starting point, not a ranking based on review scores or sales. The useful question is which type of story agency, canon connection and gameplay rhythm you want.
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What makes a movie- or TV-based game genuinely story-driven?
A licensed game can use a film’s characters and still have almost no meaningful narrative. The strongest examples make the license affect the structure of play: dialogue choices change relationships, stealth reproduces the source’s tension, or role-playing systems let you inhabit a new period of the universe.
#1 Best Overall
- Enhanced visuals: Completely rebuilt from the ground up using Naughty Dog’s latest PS5 engine technology to improve every visual detail, The Last of Us experience has been faithfully enhanced with more realistic lighting and atmosphere, more intricate environments and creative reimaginings of familiar spaces.
- Fast loading: Initial loading times are near instant, and seamless after the first instance thanks to the PS5 console’s SSD – so you can pick up where you left off in the story and load specific encounters and chapters more quickly.
- Haptic feedback: DualSense wireless controller haptic feedback support for every weapon elevates combat encounters, and environments are brought to life through DualSense wireless controller haptic sensations of subtle falling rain, the crunch of stepping on snow and more.
- Adaptive triggers: All The Last of Us iconic weapons, including Joel’s revolver and Ellie’s bow, now deliver dynamic DualSense wireless controller trigger resistance and kickback on firing for deeper combat immersion.
- 3D Audio: Designed to make use of the PS5 console’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, Naughty Dog’s newly upgraded audio engine delivers richer soundscapes, bigger explosive moments and more visceral gameplay through compatible stereo headphones (analogue or USB) or TV speakers.
Narrative agency
- Linear journey: The major events are authored in a set order, so pacing and character development can resemble a prestige drama.
- Branching role-playing story: You shape an original protagonist and make decisions that alter missions, alliances or the ending.
- Choice-and-consequence episodes: Dialogue and timed actions create immediate personal consequences, while the season retains television-style cliffhangers.
Canon relationship
A direct adaptation retells or closely follows a known story. A prequel moves earlier in the timeline, an interquel fills a gap between established films, and an original-universe story uses the setting without replaying a screen plot. The last three approaches usually give writers more room to surprise you.
Tone and gameplay balance
Faithful tone is not the same as copying scenes. A horror game can feel like its film because of sound, pacing and vulnerability; an adventure game can feel like its hero through puzzles, improvisation and movement. Look for systems that support the story instead of interrupting it with unrelated progression.
The Last of Us Part I: the best focused cinematic drama
Choose it if: you want a carefully paced, emotionally intense single-player campaign with modern controls and extensive accessibility options.
Why the story works
PlayStation’s premise follows Joel, who is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a quarantine zone in a ravaged civilization. What begins as a job becomes a brutal cross-country journey built around trust, grief and the cost of protecting another person. The game’s emotional focus comes from the relationship at its center rather than from a large cast of interchangeable missions.
The PS5 edition contains the complete single-player story and the Left Behind prequel chapter. It released on September 2, 2022, and PlayStation says the game inspired the HBO show. That makes it an especially good answer to “What should I play after watching The Last of Us?”: you are returning to the source game’s version of the characters and events, not playing a separate licensed tie-in.
How it plays
Third-person shooting, stealth, scavenging and environmental exploration are arranged to reinforce vulnerability. Supplies are limited enough to make preparation meaningful, while encounters allow more than one approach. The campaign remains authored and linear, so your decisions affect how you survive a situation rather than which main plot branch you receive.
Edition and platform notes
The official product page documents PS5 and PC versions, including a standard PS5 edition and physical Blu-ray availability. PlayStation describes the game as having won more than 200 Game of the Year awards. That figure is the publisher’s current product-page claim, not a new independent survey, so treat it as context rather than a guarantee that its tone will suit every player.
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The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection: the strongest TV-style choice
Choose it if: you want your decisions, loyalties and mistakes to be the story’s main engine.
What is in the collection
Rotten Tomatoes lists the collection for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, released on December 5, 2017. It bundles all three seasons, 400 Days and Michonne, for 19 episodes in total. The package is therefore closer to owning several seasons of an interactive drama than to buying one short adaptation.
Why the format feels like television
Episodes establish a conflict, force you to decide who to trust, and end with consequences that carry forward. Dialogue prompts and timed actions make you commit before you can inspect every option. Relationships are not decorative: what you say, whom you help and what you leave unsaid shape later scenes and the way characters treat one another.
Rank #2
- Flexible design
- High-quality material
- Durable
The game is less about mastering combat than about reading people under pressure. If you prefer a tightly authored action campaign, its pauses for conversation may feel slow. If you want to debate every decision with friends after an episode, it is the clearest choice on this list.
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- Play episodes in release order so that the collection’s callbacks and character arcs land as intended.
- Accept that there is no universally correct decision. The point is to see the consequences of your version of the story.
- Avoid restarting immediately after an uncomfortable result. The tension comes from carrying a decision forward.
Alien: Isolation: the most faithful film-horror experience
Choose it if: you want atmosphere, stealth and sustained fear rather than branching dialogue.
Its place in the universe
The campaign follows Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, as she explores the Sevastopol station. The Xenomorph is the central source of danger, and the game builds tension around learning its behavior without turning it into a routine target.
Why it feels like an Alien film
Isolation uses industrial production design, sparse resources, motion tracking and sound to recreate the original film’s sense of being hunted. You are often deciding whether to hide, distract the creature or risk moving through an exposed corridor. That rhythm gives the license value: the story is communicated through spaces, logs and escalating encounters as much as through cutscenes.
Platforms and expectations
GamesRadar lists a 2014 release on PS5, PS4, PS3, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, Switch, iOS and Android. Exact features and performance can differ between versions. It is a poor fit if you want constant action or a power fantasy; its design deliberately makes survival uncertain.
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Choose it if: you want to create a character, assemble a party and make consequential choices in a period largely free from the films’ plot.
A prequel with room to surprise
BioWare’s role-playing game is set thousands of years before the films. That distance allows original characters, new conflicts and a branching narrative rather than a retelling of a familiar screenplay. It uses the recognizable moral and political foundations of the universe while giving your character room to determine how to respond.
Why the structure suits long-form storytelling
Party relationships, side quests and alignment decisions create a broader arc than a two-hour film can support. Your choices affect how companions view you and how certain situations resolve. The game also contains a major plot twist; going in without searching for spoilers preserves its impact.
Who should start here?
Pick it over a linear adaptation if you enjoy dialogue trees, exploration and role-playing systems that take time to develop. Its older design may feel less immediate than modern action games, but that deliberate pace is part of how it establishes a galactic-scale story.
The Warriors: an adaptation that turns a film into a full campaign
Choose it if: you want a game to expand a movie’s world instead of simply replaying its scenes.
Rank #3
How much it adds
Rockstar’s adaptation is based on the 1979 cult film and adds backstory for every gang member. SpawnPoint describes the result as a roughly 15-hour campaign built around a film that runs about 90 minutes. The added material gives the gang’s rivalries, recruitment and survival a longer dramatic runway while preserving the setting and characters that define the source.
Gameplay and story connection
Third-person brawling and mission-based progression make the gang’s movement through New York playable rather than merely observed. The campaign’s value is not only the fights; it is the context around why each member is there and how the group functions under pressure.
When to choose it
This is the best fit for players who already like the film’s street-level world and want more time inside it. It is less suitable if you are looking for a quiet, dialogue-heavy drama or a modern open-world sandbox.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: the best film interquel
Choose it if: you want a brand-new Indiana Jones adventure that feels inserted into the film timeline.
Where it sits in canon
SpawnPoint places the game between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Because it is an interquel, it can use the established version of Indiana Jones without asking you to repeat a movie’s plot.
Adventure-first design
The first-person format supports close inspection of ruins, artifacts and clues. Puzzles, exploration, stealth and action are used to reproduce the rhythm of an archaeological adventure: investigate a mystery, enter a dangerous location, improvise when the plan fails, and escape with a new piece of knowledge.
Why it belongs on a story list
The appeal is not just the license or the character’s likeness. Its puzzle focus and recreation of Indiana Jones’s tone make the act of discovery part of the narrative. You are not watching the hero solve a problem; you are examining the evidence and deciding how to proceed.
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How the six games compare
| Question | Best match | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Do I want a fixed emotional arc? | The Last of Us Part I | Authored scenes and a linear journey where performance and survival support the relationship at the center. |
| Do my choices need visible consequences? | The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection | Dialogue and timed decisions that alter relationships and later situations across episodes. |
| Do I want to feel hunted? | Alien: Isolation | Stealth, scarcity and an unpredictable Xenomorph rather than a branching conversation system. |
| Do I want to build my own role-playing identity? | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | Party management, moral choices and an original story far before the films. |
| Do I want a movie expanded substantially? | The Warriors | New backstory and missions around the 1979 film’s gang members. |
| Do I want a lost chapter between films? | Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | A first-person puzzle adventure positioned between two established movies. |
Choosing the right game in five steps
- Decide how much agency you want. Select The Last of Us Part I for a controlled arc, The Walking Dead for explicit consequences, or Knights of the Old Republic for role-playing freedom.
- Identify your preferred tone. Choose intimate post-apocalyptic drama, bleak survival horror, gang conflict, space opera or archaeological adventure.
- Check whether you want a retelling. None of the six requires you to replay an entire movie. The Last of Us is the closest to a screen adaptation in emotional shape, while the other recommendations primarily expand or occupy their universes.
- Match mechanics to patience. Stealth horror asks you to wait and observe; episodic drama asks you to read and decide; role-playing asks you to manage systems; puzzle adventure asks you to inspect environments.
- Verify your edition before buying. Platform support, physical availability, included episodes and storefront versions differ. The documented platform lists above are not a promise that every edition is sold in every region in 2026.
Current and future licensed-story context
Licensed games continue to move beyond direct film adaptations. Lucasfilm’s current catalog highlights Star Wars Zero Company, Star Wars Eclipse and Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic as narrative projects. Lucasfilm describes Star Wars Eclipse as an “intricately branching action-adventure game” in which players control the destinies of multiple playable characters. These are watch-list projects, not released recommendations in this guide; availability, final features and launch timing can change.
PlayStation Blog has also announced an untitled John Wick AAA game for PS5. Game director Jesus Iglesias said, “The story is being created in collaboration with our writers, Chad Stahelski, and Lionsgate.” The announcement did not provide a final title or release date, so there is not enough confirmed information to judge its story or recommend it as a current purchase.
Buying and access considerations
Live prices, stock and regional storefront listings change too quickly to treat a single figure as permanent. Check the store for your country, confirm the platform generation, and read exactly what an edition includes before checkout.
Quick Recap
- For The Last of Us Part I, verify whether you want the PS5 physical Blu-ray or a PC release and confirm that Left Behind is included.
- For The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection, look for the complete collection rather than an individual season if you want all 19 episodes and the additional stories.
- For Alien: Isolation, compare the edition’s platform and control support, especially when choosing between console, PC and mobile versions.
- For older games such as Knights of the Old Republic and The Warriors, check which edition is officially available in your region; listings and compatibility can differ from the original release.
- For Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, confirm the current platform list and whether the edition you are viewing includes any advertised extras.
Final recommendations by reader type
- “I want a game that feels like playing a prestige TV drama.” Start with The Last of Us Part I.
- “I want my decisions to change the relationships.” Choose The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection.
- “I want the closest thing to being trapped in a horror movie.” Play Alien: Isolation.
- “I want a huge original story using a famous film universe.” Choose Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
- “I want a movie adaptation with much more story than the film.” Play The Warriors.
- “I want a new chapter that could sit between two movies.” Choose Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
