If you hadn’t already heard, there’s a weird, spiky monolith in the Mojave Desert. Adorned with a massive eye-like orb and a legion of demonic creatures, it’s a hint at something due to be revealed as part of The Game Awards 2025. And, following the registration of a few new trademarks, it seems like we already have the answer as to what it is: a brand new game from Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios called “Divinity”.

If you are one of the millions of players who first learned of Larian through the gargantuan success of Baldur’s Gate 3, then the word Divinity may not mean much to you. Fans of the studio, however, will tell you that BG3’s success is rooted in Divinity, a series of six games that Larian worked on almost exclusively between 2002 and 2017. If this monolith and trademark leak really do point towards Divinity, then the Belgian studio is returning to its original fantasy universe… and likely bringing a whole new fanbase along with it.

If such a currently-very-much-hypothetical game would mark your first foray into the Divinity universe, then you may want a quick primer on what to expect. Let us be your guide to Divinity, and be the first to (very pre-emptively) say…

Welcome to Rivellon

Much like how Baldur’s Gate takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of the Forgotten Realms, Divinity has its own rich, original setting: the world of Rivellon. There are broad similarities between the two; both are rooted in Tolkienesque fantasy tropes, with classically styled medieval landscapes and locations. There are multiple races; like in D&D, you can expect to meet humans, elves, dwarves, lizard-like beings, and the living dead. Magic is commonplace in Rivellon, although sorcery is considered more dangerous and is more heavily regulated there than it is on D&D’s Sword Coast.

Like Baldur’s Gate, Divinity also features a number of more esoteric elements, from steampunk to sci-fi and beyond, that make its world a little quirkier than the lands explored in more traditional fantasy like The Lord of the Rings. Rivellon can also often be a very silly place, and the influence of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels has frequently been felt in Divinity’s writing. In fact, Terry’s daughter, Rhianna Pratchett, even wrote a tie-in novella for the second game. But that’s not to say Rivellon is frivolous – there’s a deep vein of fascinating lore that has been mined over the series’ six installments.

In short, Rivellon is the stage for stories similar to those you enjoyed in Baldur’s Gate 3, but is beholden only to Larian’s rules, rather than those set by the owners of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast.

What is Divinity?

Divinity is an RPG series, but its evolution has been far from usual. Take a quick look at each of the six games, and you’ll find at least four different approaches. Divine Divinity, the very first game in the series, and its sequel, Beyond Divinity, are Diablo-influenced action RPGs. Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, meanwhile, is a third-person RPG that feels a little closer to the likes of Dragon Age and The Witcher. Divinity: Dragon Commander is a slightly Total War-flavoured strategy game, and the Original Sin duology – the most recent games in the series – are classic-style RPGs that bear the most resemblance to Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian has experimented wildly over the years, and so there’s no clear indication as to what format the next game in the series will use (although considering the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the sensible bet would be on something similar).

Another unusual element is its approach to the timeline. While Rivellon does have a coherent history and storylines that are threaded across the series, each game is set years (sometimes even centuries) apart, meaning each one is something of a standalone experience. Similar to how Baldur’s Gate 3 demands no experience of the series but has plenty of nods to the two earlier games, you can play Divinity: Original Sin 2 without any experience of its predecessors. I suspect any future game in the series would continue this tradition, especially since Larian now has a legion of new fans who are unfamiliar with the studio’s previous work. If the leaked trademark is to be believed, this new project is simply called “Divinity” – a name that has likely been chosen since it comes with no suggestion that you need to have played multiple other games.

What Does “Divinity” Mean?

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is pick a goal and move towards it. You might have no idea how to get where you wanna go; you might have no idea where you are when it comes to accomplishing it; and you might not have much outside help, but you’ll do it anyway. What other choice is there? Just keep moving forward, and maybe something good will happen. That philosophy guided me through my three hours with Outward 2, a video game that mostly wanted me dead and was very good about making it happen. Everybody needs goals, right?

After making a character in Outward 2’s fairly (at least right now) limited character creator and choosing different elements of my backstory, which altered my starting stats – the RPG standard Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, and Willpower – my journey started in the city of Haboob, which has been recently reclaimed from the Scourge. I don’t know what that means, exactly, but it sounded good. Anyway, my recently arrived character won the housing lottery when a guy named Sebastian decided to move. Here I was, less than five minutes into the game and already a homeowner. Talk about a fantasy. We chatted before he left, and he seemed nice enough, and then I headed out to explore the city.

Haboob is gorgeous – a multilayered city of stone, with these giant rotating fans (there’s one in my house, near the bed) and I enjoy walking around it for a bit, grabbing an “on the house” (pun intended) drink at the local tea shop, and enjoying the vibe. Outward 2 isn’t the most visually sophisticated game out there – the character models kinda look like they stepped out of an Xbox 360-era Bethesda RPG – but its environments are pretty grand. After wandering around for a bit and speaking to the local Chamberlord, who hands over the deed to my new house, I call it a night. There’s not much else to do.

I’m awoken when a guard breaks in and tries to rob me (rude!) and whacks me in the head with a mace. Sebastian shows up to kill him, takes whatever it is, and then places the pistol he used to take care of the guard in my hand. At least he looks sorry about it, but because all the evidence of the murder points to me, I’m exiled with little more than what’s in my possession. The Chamberlord suggests I find Sebastian to prove my innocence.

Back to Square One

Outward 2 is a survival game, which means I need to find, craft, or buy my supplies. Out in the world, there’s nothing to guide you. I had no map and no leads. The only thing around was a big, dead bird under what looked like some sort of mystical lamp post. I decided to head east. Always into the east. I got into a couple fights, one of which was against a dude that really didn’t seem to want to be there. Outward’s combat isn’t going to blow anyone away, but it’s weighty and generally pretty solid. I’m doing all right even though I only have an ice pick and a bow I picked up in the city until I fall into a small, rocky hole. I can’t walk or roll out of it and Outward 2 has no jump button. I end up starting a new run. I ran into a lot of bugs in my time with my preview build of Outward 2 – items would duplicate or not be usable, characters would float in mid-air, and so on – but that’s to be expected of something this early.

I tried to use it as an opportunity. This time, I spent more time in Haboob because I knew I was going to get kicked out, found some new people to talk to, and was generally better equipped when I was framed for murder. Again. I just bought a house in real life, so I was particularly upset about this. How dare this dude? Who does he think he is?

But I was lucky in other ways. Remember that dead bird from last time? In its place, I found a woman named Oliele who helped me out by offering me some supplies, including a tent and a map, and told me where I might find Sebastian. There were a couple possibilities. I opted to head northeast to the True Levantines. Even with my supplies, life wasn’t easier. Drinking river water made me sick to my stomach, and my ice pick wasn’t a force in combat. I scavenged enough wood to build a shield and mostly tried to avoid fights. Even the map wasn’t much help. Oh, yeah, it was nice to see what the region looked like, but the map doesn’t track where you are, so… you know, it works like a real map. Outward 2 is willing to let you get lost, and I appreciated that.

Second Chances

This time, I didn’t fall into a hole, but I did run into other problems. Combat was risky, and when I camped for the night because my character was exhausted, I got attacked and… I couldn’t fight back. I could move, but I couldn’t swing my weapons. I opted to die, thinking that would be the end of it. Instead, I got a special little sequence because I died near a river, and washed up on its banks, my gear close by. Minus my tent.

Soon after, I spotted a weird ghost and tried to pick a fight. That was a bad idea. Not only could I barely hurt him with my ice pick, he never stopped following me when I tried to run away, so I followed the path I was on, the spectre hot on my heels, until I just happened to run into the True Levantine settlement and the guards finished him off for me. No sign of Sebastian, but I had a lead: south. Okay.

Then I got back on the road and died a whole bunch. I died to a big bird. I died to a weird bat thing. I fell over once and died. I died because I bled out. Each time I was rescued. Sometimes by a nice guy named Gep who I never met but left me a drink at his campfire. Sometimes by the healers at the True Levantine camp. Eventually, I decided it was time to buy a sword. I sold what little I had, and from there, things got easier. I made progress south. I found a weird tower where everything wanted to kill me. I killed an exiled mercenary and stole *his* tent. Ha! I explored a weird little cave and did some mining.

At this point I was rolling, and I figured I’d keep going until I died. Then I ran into one of those weird bat things again, and that was that. Three hours had flown by. Outward 2 doesn’t hold your hand, and I admire that. Exploring its gorgeous world is a lot of fun. I wish it was a little less buggy, and I wish that there was a bit more to do in a world that can sometimes feel big and empty – gathering materials in the areas I explored was difficult, and I didn’t get to craft as much as I wanted; I really wanted some linen, and I could not find or buy any of me for the life of me – but I did enjoying just picking a direction, setting off into the world, and seeing what I could see. There’s something special in that, and if the full release of Outward 2 can capture it, it might just make you want to go for a stroll.

Ah, the licensed video game. Once a collection of underwhelming retellings of big-screen blockbusters, littered with haunting polygonal nightmares (Hagrid, that’s you) and aimless Atari attempts (yes, E.T., that’s you), we’ve seen an uptick in actually good adaptations in recent years, with the upcoming Terminator 2D: No Fate looking like a promising attempt at turning James Cameron’s classic into some enjoyable retro action. So, we thought we’d pick out the best of the bunch.

We do have a few little rules, though, that stop just any old film-adjacent game from making the list. They need to either be:

• A direct translation or adaptation of a feature film
• An official movie sequel or prequel.
• Or a game that attempts to continue the story or provide backstory and additional canonical lore.

So, for example, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man is not eligible as it takes place in a Marvel universe separate from the movies and is much more rooted in the original comic books, but the PS2’s Spider-Man 2 would be allowed due to it being directly based on the Sam Raimi film of the same name. Make sense? I hope so. Let’s rank the top 10 best licensed games based on movies.

10. Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

Console launch games come with the power to stun thanks to the leap in technology they inherently are unlocked by. The Xbox 360’s Peter Jackson’s King Kong definitely benefited from this, as the Lord of the Rings’ director’s epic retelling of the classic monster movie made a huge splash at the dawn of gaming’s HD era. With Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil creator Michel Ancel helming it at Ubisoft Montpellier, King Kong felt more than a standard movie tie-in thanks to its many interesting and novel ideas. You had the freedom to explore its vast jungle spaces, which offered an unprecedented sense of cinematic immersion and was a breathtaking contrast against the previous generation’s more limiting, corridor-like spaces. King Kong not only ushered in a whole new generation of hardware but also a new way of thinking about how licensed games could be approached.

9. Scarface: The World is Yours

Scarface: The World is Yours has balls. Not only does a “Balls Meter” fill up as Tony Montana causes mayhem across an open-world ‘80s Miami, allowing for him to slow down time, enter first-person mode, and gain infinite ammo as he guns down as many gang rivals as possible, but it also has an audacity to position itself as a sequel to a film in which its protagonist dies at the end. In this alternative universe, Al Pacino’s antihero coke fiend survives the ambush at his mansion thanks to a certain little friend and escapes out of the back door, free to continue building his drug-running empire. Yes, it’s largely a GTA-clone, as was commonplace in the era — see the also actually quite good The Godfather adaptation for further evidence — but its wild concept alone is enough for it to deserve a place on this list.

8. Rockstar’s The Warriors

In terms of creating immersive worlds and capturing a tone, not many do it quite like Rockstar. The Warriors comes from an era when we’d get more than one game a decade from the developer, and sometimes multiple in one year. A much smaller-scale project than the likes of GTA: San Andreas or Vice City, The Warriors acts as both a prequel and a retelling of the cult ‘70s thriller of the same name, focusing on the titular New York gang. Taking the form of a beat ’em up, it successfully drenches you in the seedy underworld alleyways that its characters inhabit, as Rockstar once again displayed their world-class world-building credentials. And that grimy tone is what The Warriors achieves most successfully, making it an adaptation that shouldn’t be overlooked, even when compared to the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption studio’s other headline-stealing projects.

7. Mad Max

Avalanche Studios’ Mad Max is the perfect example of taking the essence of a film series and turning that into the driving force behind a video game adaptation. In this case, it’s the exhilarating car combat witnessed all the way back in the original 1979 movie, through Road Warrior, and into Fury Road’s landmark action. When Max is on foot in the 2015 game, it’s perfectly good as it apes the successful melee formula concocted by Warner Bros. stablemate Rocksteady for its Batman Arkham series, but it’s when the Australian drifter gets those hands out of raiders’ jawbones and behind the wheel of his iconic Interceptor that it really comes to life. Now a cult favourite, much like the original film that inspires it, Mad Max is one of a kind and a fantastic translation of George Miller’s vision in video game form.

6. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Years before the Rocksteady Batman: Arkham and Insomniac Marvel’s Spider-Man games, the prospect of a successful comic book game was bleak. Even rarer was the thought of a genuinely fun movie tie-in. Treyarch’s Spider-Man 2, based on the Sam Raimi film of the same name, flew in the face of both those ideas. An incredibly detailed New York City (for the time, at least) felt like a revelation to swing around in, and Peter Parker’s web-slinging provided a whole new way to explore the sort of 3D open world that the PS2’s Grand Theft Auto games had pioneered. In a legitimately impressive technical revelation, Treyarch’s Spidey actually attached his webs to buildings rather than empty skyboxes. Flying between skyscrapers and thumping petty criminals was a thrilling sensation back in 2004, and, while it has since been far eclipsed by more modern Peter Parker and Miles Morales adventures, it certainly paved the way for those to exist.

5. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

It’s difficult to think of a movie series that’s had more games to its name than Star Wars. Classics such as TIE Fighter and Rogue Leader were contenders for this pick, but we just think there’s nothing like the fulfillment of the Force fantasy that is delivered by Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Bridging the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, this 2023 action-adventure is part of the official canon, with references to Order 66 and clashes with Darth Vader fuelling Cal Kestis’ story, but with an originality that doesn’t just lean on Star Wars cliches. An improvement in pretty much every way over its predecessor, Fallen Order, it’s an easy pick for our representative of the most famous of film universes.

4. GoldenEye 007

It may not be the best to play now, but there’s just no denying the impact that GoldenEye 007 had when it arrived in 1997 on the Nintendo 64. Perfect Dark, shortly after, would go on to expand on the ideas established in its campaign, and games like TimeSplitters would borrow from its revolutionary approach to FPS multiplayer, making it so much more than just a movie adaptation. Yes, it featured a whole host of famous James Bond heroes and villains — including a truly broken Oddjob, who takes the term “sharply dressed” to its extreme —- and successfully captured the globetrotting exploits of 007 as much as a console with the limited power of the N64 could at the time, but it also shaped the next three decades of online shooters. This makes it so much more than just a movie tie-in, and something developer Rare should never be forgotten for achieving.

3. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

A video game prequel to the 2000 Vin Diesel vehicle, Pitch Black, has no right to be as good as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, yet here we are. Taking a heap of Half-Life campaign design and a healthy dose of Thief-like stealth, the Swedish Starbreeze Studios and Vin Diesel’s own Tigon Studios transformed a perfectly decent film series into a genuinely great video game, and one that many believe surpasses its source material. Its smart level design is enhanced by intelligent translations of Riddick’s abilities from the film, such as his trademark “eyeshine”, which lets you see in the dark, and a healthy amount of improvised blunt and sharp weaponry that fits perfectly with the movie’s grimy aesthetic. The plot’s premise — a prison escape — is fundamentally cinematic, but it’s the ways in which Butcher Bay asks you to play intelligently in its world that pushes it beyond the big screen and into a truly great game.

2. Alien Isolation

The original Alien film from 1979 is a haunted house movie in space, with lone survivor of the Nostromo, Ripley, aiming to survive its dark corridors and the roaming Xenomorph threat until the credits hit. As such, it would become a natural inspiration for many survival horror greats, from Dead Space’s infested spaceship, to SOMA’s unnerving futurism, and, of course, Resident Evil 2’s stalking Mr X threat. So, naturally, when the time came for yet another Alien game to be made, survival horror seemed a logical choice for developer Creative Assembly, who would be the next in a long line to take up the challenge of translating the unique atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s original film.

What the studio made was beyond what could have been expected, as it evolved the idea of RE 2’s Tyrant into an ever-present danger that scuttled along the map’s sprawling web of vents. The Xenomorph, and the tech powering it, are the jewel at the centre of Isolation’s crown, and are what make it such a faithful recreation of Alien. By stepping into her daughter’s shoes and sneaking around the Sevastopol, you get as close a feeling as to what it would’ve been like to be Ripley and walk those Nostromo hallways yourself. It may not quite make the number one spot on our list, but it is the entry that most successfully captures the overall tone of its source material, embracing its terror to astonishing effect.

1. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

We wouldn’t have the likes of Tomb Raider or Uncharted without Indiana Jones, and in 2024, the king came back to claim his throne. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle took everything that made the original trilogy of Steven Spielberg films so special and managed to translate it into a lovingly designed video game from Wolfenstein developer MachineGames — perhaps not so coincidentally, a studio formed by former Escape from Butcher Bay developers. Not only is The Great Circle a fantastic, stealthy, puzzle-filled action-adventure that really places an emphasis on the adventure part, but it borrows all of the archaeological intrigue and, crucially, humour that makes the likes of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade so special. So much, in fact, that the story told here would slot in nicely between them and act as a superior third of that trilogy than Temple of Doom ever did.

Throw in a fantastic pitch-perfect Harrison Ford impression from Troy Baker, a suitably swarmy performance from Marios Gavrilis for the villainous Emmerich Voss, and a healthy amount of Nazi punching, whipping, and shovel-smacking, and you’ve got all of the ingredients you need. But it’s so much more than just a playable film, instead grounding itself in flexible immersive-sim-esque gameplay systems that emphasise using brain over brawn. Violence is rarely considered a first option, and gained knowledge is always a much sharper weapon. It makes for a truly fantastic game in its own right, but one that is as referential as it is transformative, and a true-to-life version of what the Indiana Jones character is — a doctor, not a soldier. The Great Circle is as thought-out a licensed game based on a movie as you could wish for, and a perfect fit for the top of our list.

And those are our picks for the best games based on movies. What game that you love didn’t make the cut? Let us know in the comments! And for more licensed games, check out our list of the best Marvel games of all time.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.