You might have read a few of the spin-off comics and book series from games – we'd personally recommend the Gears of War books and the new Hotline Miami comic – but we wonder how many of you knew that tons of games are based on existing literature.

We've turned the right pages and stroked many an analogue stick to find 13 of the best games based on books.

1. THE WITCHER SERIES

Many of you may know that the entire Witcher series is based on an extremely popular Polish fiction series with the same title written by Andrzej Sapkowski. After Sapkowski's original short story The Witcher (or "Wiedmin" in Polish, which translates literally as "Hexer") won a Polish competition back in the 1980s, the collection of short stories and novels went on to be one of the country's post popular series ever, but also inspired CD Projekt Red's The Witcher games.

The books, just like the games, follow Geralt of Rivia as he defeats demons, bandits and other beasties throughout the land, and beds a few ladies along the way too.

Both the books and the games focus on moral grey areas, but of course in the game it's up to you what actions you take and how they affect the world.

2. EDGE OF NOWHERE

Much of popular culture draws influence from HP Lovecraft's novels, but the game that immediately screamed NYARLATHOTEP! to us was Edge of Nowhere.

One of the best Oculus Rift games – and VR games full stop – it sees you play as 1930s explorer Victor Howard, who finds himself in Antartica looking for his fiancé Ava Thorne. But, as you'd expect from a horror game, everything starts to go a bit wrong especially when the monsters start appearing, including some that look remarkably like the tentacled, mind-zapping Great Old Ones from Lovecraft.

The Arctic city you find yourself in is also from a Lovecraft book called At the Mountains of Madness.

3. BIOSHOCK

The excellent BioShock series is based on the novels and philosophy of Ayn Rand – the original game in particular.

The character Andrew Ryan is an obvious nod to the author's name, and Ryan creates his own city, Rapture, to explore his own ideas of the world, just like the recreation of Atlantis in Galt's Gulch in the novel Atlas Shrugged.

Then there's the philosphy to consider. Ayn Rand's own philosophy, Objectivism, is the idea that you should follow your own self-interest and profit from your own abilities and ambitions while being uninhibited by others. Which is just the kind of thinking behind Ryan's Rapture and the creation of the various Plasmids.

4. STALKER: SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl is based on the 1972 novel Roadside Picnic by brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The book details the story of stalker Redrick "Red" Schuhart, who goes into the restricted Zones to nab some valuable artefacts left behind by aliens. The Zones are very dangerous because the aliens also left behind supernatural elements.

Of course, the Stalker games are also influenced by the film of the same name, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, which is also based on Roadside Picnic.

5. I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM

Excellent 1995 indie title I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is actually based on the post-apocalyptic sci-fi short novel of the same name by Harlan Ellison.

The award-winning novel sets the scene of what would happen 109 years after the complete destruction of humankind. The Cold War escalated into a world war, but then three warring nations each created a super-computer more capable of running the war. But one day, one of them becomes self-aware, absorbs the other two computers and kills off everyone else bar four men and one woman.

The point-and-click adventure game sees you play as these five, who find themselves being subjected to a new "game" by AM the super-computer after 109 years of torture (don't question the timeline, guys).

The game's expanded storyline was actually co-authored by Ellison himself, and he also wrote a lot of the game's dialogue despite not being a fan of computer games and not owning a PC at the time.

6. METRO 2033

The fantastically atmospheric survival-horror shooter, Metro 2033 is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Russian author Dimitry Glukhovsky.

Both the book and the game are set in the subway system beneath a post-apocalyptic Moscow, which has been nearly flattened by a nuclear holocaust.

You play as Artyom, who is the same chap you follow in the book. and euthor Glukhovsky is credited for writing both the book and the game.

7. BLOODBORNE

Another game, another Lovecraftian influence. Bloodborne adapts much of Lovecraft's trademark horror. Like Edge of Nowhere, Bloodborne takes influence from Lovecraft's library as a whole, borrowing Lovecraftian horrors and beasties in place of the standard Gothic horror you'd expect walking through Yharnam.

8. SPEC OPS: THE LINE

Although it's not a direct retelling of the book, Spec Ops: The Line is based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

It takes the story (of a company rep travelling upriver into Africa in search of a colleague gone rogue) and sets it in an entirely different era and setting, which is basically what the movie Apocalypse Now did with the same story.

Specs Ops: The Line is set in a sandstorm-wrecked Dubai in the near future, while Heart of Darkness is set in the Congo in the 19th century. And of course Apocalypse Now is during the 1969 Vietnam War.

9. 80 DAYS

We thought we'd throw a mobile game into the mix with 80 Days. As you might have guess from the title, the stunning mobile title is loosely based on the novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.

It's 1872 and you're Phileas Fogg. You've just bet that you can travel around the world in 80 days or less – whether you're reading the book or playing the game.

The game is narrated by Fogg's manservant Passepartout, but the actions and decisions are made by you. You always leave from London, but you choose your own route around the world, travelling from city to city and discovering tons of unique narrative content along your journey.

So you can plot the book's journey, or choose your own.

10. ASSASSIN'S CREED

The Assassin's Creed series has often been praised for its historical accuracy, minus the sci-fi elements of course. But that's apparently because the game series was based on a work of literature focused on a specific historical event.

According to the series producer Jade Raymond, the original Assassin's Creed game was inspired by a novel called Alamut written in 1938 by Vladimir Bartol.

The novel is set in Alamut, a Persian fortress around 60 miles from what is now Tehran. Back in the 11th century, the fortress was controlled by a missionary called Hassan-i Sabbah and his merry band of assassins.

All the historical facts and details found in that novel were there adapted into what became the Assassin's Creed series.

11. AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE

Who thought that when Alice tumbled down the rabbit hole she'd end up becoming an arsonist and a murderer? Well, in American McGee's Alice that's exactly what happens.

The game is the unofficial sequel to the Lewis Caroll Alice in Wonderland novels. It's set six years after the events of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and stars a much darker Alice than we've ever seen before.

She's set fire to her home, accidentally killed her entire family and her mind is slowly unravelling. Alice is sent to Rutledge Asylum, but ten years later she finds herself back in Wonderland, but it's radically altered along with all its famous inhabitants.

12. PARASITE EVE

A bit like American Mcgee's Alice, Parasite Eve is actually the sequel to the book it's based on. The book Parasite Eve emerged in 1995, written by pharmacologist Hideaki Sena. It was a mix of super boring medical terminology and horror that could make you fear your own biology.

Its slightly disturbing exploration of human cells obviously struck a chord with game developer Squaresoft, because Parasite Eve the game carried on what Sena started.

Think biochemical horrors that can create monsters out of mitochondria, spontaneously combusting humans and an "Ultimate Being".

Sena didn't know about the game's plot until it was completed, because it was created by Squaresoft and Sena's own publisher.

13. THE BINDING OF ISAAC REBIRTH

Lastly, we have a game based on the most popular book in history. Yes, the strange Binding of Isaac Rebirth is based on The Bible – or one story from it anyway.

There's a story from the Hebrew bible called The Binding of Isaac or just The Binding where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

But just before the sacrifice, an angel of God comes down and stops Abraham, saying, "Now I know you fear God". Abraham instead sacrifices a ram he finds in a nearby bush – luckily for Isaac.

In the game, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, you play as a young boy called Isaac whose mother strips him of all his clothes and possessions, before locking him in his room, believing she's doing God's work.

His mother is about to sacrifice him, so he escapes to the basement to fight through various dungeons using his tears as bullets to combat demonic enemies including poops and eventually his own mother.

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