HBO seriesWestworld starts in a small, enclosed world of a Western-themed role-playing park staffed by robots and their handlers. As one character notes, the farther out you go into the park, the more difficult the experience gets — kind of like in a video game. TV fans can see the expanding-world formula applied in sprawling Game of Thrones, the current season of The Walking Dead (according to executive producer Gale Anne Hurd), and an increasing number of other shows.
For TV viewers who enjoy that dynamic, it might be worth trying out a video game to fill the void when your favorite shows go on mid-season break, are in between seasons, or get canceled. Here are a few recommendations. If you’d like to add your own suggestions, tell us in the comments.
Fan Of:Westworld (HBO)
Game Options: Try Red Dead Redemption if you like Westworld’s wide open spaces and cowboy gear (RDR 2 arrives in fall 2017), or Fallout 4 if you ponder sentient A.I. and robot civil rights.
Fan Of:Game of Thrones (HBO)
Game Options: If fictionalized Renaissance-era drama-adventure excites you and you miss these canceled series, the just-released bundle Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection (Assassin’s Creed 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations) can provide a 16th-century fantasy fix.
Fan Of:Turn: Washington’s Spies (AMC)
Game Option: Until Turn returns next year for its fourth and final season, let Assassin’s Creed 3 transport you to the American Revolution.
Fan Of:Black Sails (Starz)
Game Option:Black Sails returns for its final season on Jan. 29, 2017. Pass time until then with Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, which enables players to pirate their way through the 18th-century.
Fan Of:The Expanse (Syfy)
Game Options: While The Expanse — which returns for a second season on Feb. 1, 2017 — hasn’t shown signs of the Mass Effect series’ sentient robot Geth army, the insect-like Collectors, or ravaging Reapers, the planet hopping and space politics will feel familiar. New game in the series Mass Effect: Andromeda is due out in early 2017. Fun fact: The Expanse began as a video game idea, but became a book series (and then TV series) instead.
Fan Of:Vikings (History)
Game Option:Vikings comes back for three more season 4 episodes on Nov. 30, then fans must endure a Viking void until the next season. For more hearty shirtless men swinging swords at each other, try Skyrim.
Fan Of:The Man in the High Castle (Amazon)
Game Option: Like Man in the High Castle, which returns for a second season Dec. 16, Wolfenstein: The New Order also features an alt-world in which the Nazis won World War II.
Fan Of:Timeless
Game Option: If time travel is your bag, try Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? You might have to travel through time to play it — the game was released in 1989 for Apple II, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and others — or you can try the playable DOS archive web version.
Fan Of:The Walking Dead (AMC)
