Free-roamers, or "GTA clones" to the jaded masses, are open-ended video games that progress in a non-linear fashion while giving you wide expansive areas to play in or just explore. In some of them you are a grim and gritty urban gangster type that goes around jacking cars (ie Grand Theft Auto, True Crime, Saints Row) in some of them you are super-powered (ie Infamous, Prototype or the half-dozen Spider-Man games). Or else you can be an alien (Destroy All Humans), a mercenary (Mercenaries) or just a kid trying to survive prep school (Bully). Many popular franchises (such as The Godfather, The Simpsons or the aforementioned Spider-Man) have been developed into free-roamer video games. Even Jaws got one. Here's a quick list of some that haven't and should:
1. The Prisoner. Nuff said. This would be more like Bully where you mostly traverse a smaller area on foot, since the only vehicles worth jacking in The Village would be those little golf cart things. And of course that bicycle. Probably story mode would entail some new Prisoner (Number 114?) who has been kidnapped to The Village, taking various missions (some from those who want to escape, some assigned by Number Two) while trying to escape. The good ending? You escape. The evil ending? You become the new Number Two.
2. Snake Plissken. Another no-brainer. Set it in a new futuristic post-apocalyptic wasted city (like Detroit or something) and set Snake loose in it. Some macguffin of a plot where the government sends Snake in to the city to retrieve something. Lots of side missions. Most of the amoral character-types that protagonize these games are third generation carbon copies of Snake Plissken's badassness anyway.
3. Ghostbusters. This one is so obvious that I can't believe a Ghostbusters game just came out and it's not a free-roamer. You're the new Ghostbuster recruit, drive around town in your Ecto vehicle and bust random ghost events. Story mode would be something suitably apocalyptic.
4. Batman. Spider-Man got a bunch of free-roamers. Superman got a (terrible) free-roamer. The Hulk's even had a couple. Batman's the only major superhero left. And what cooler city to free-roam in than Gotham? What cooler car to drive than the Batmobile? Zip into the sky on bat-lines, glide around with your cape, this practically writes itself.
5. Philip Marlowe. Set in 1940s Los Angeles. Written in the same over-boiled neo-noir style of Max Payne. The main story mode would involve the big convoluted case that Marlowe is in over his head in. Side missions would be smaller detective jobs to pay the bills and interesting mini-games. Travel around the city in taxis and try to avoid being doublecrossed by beautiful femme fatales.
It isn't a franchise or a property but I also have a great idea for a free-roamer called Law Abiding Citizen. I'll save that for another time though.
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