I think they nailed it (Fan Creations)

by Beorn , <End of Failed Timeline>, Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 22:26 (684 days ago) @ Kermit

My only complaint about the show so far is that the soundtrack seems muted and not as effective. It was integral to the experience of the game. The famous traumatic scene before the title card in the game didn't affect me in the show (it might've had I not expected it), but the same scene in the game still affects me--the difference is the soundtrack.

Finally got to watch the episode tonight. I don't know what to tell you two, but that scene hit me in the gut just as hard as it did in the game. That's one of the few scenes that they had to nail, and I think they pulled it off. To me, the music was balanced pretty well… didn't drown out the scene, but was there. I watch with headphones, so maybe that helped.

One other thing is that you've seen it before with almost the exact same imagery. They are straight up lifting literal shots from the game and putting them in the TV show. Not gonna hit the same when it's a literal 1:1 translation of something you've already seen.

I have absolutely no problem with them mimicking the shots. It was exceptionally well-crafted the first time, and I think that in that particular scene, fucking with things as little as possible is the best approach. Otherwise it's just making change for change's sake, and when the source material is as good as it is, that's a dangerous gambit. Also, in a character-building scene that is important to a character's future motivations, shot mimicking helps create a common experience for the two audiences: the people who have played the game and the people who are new to the story. I suspect it's important to give everyone a common foundation so that when the characters do things later on in the story, we don't have a schism in how the viewership experiences the scenes.

Anyway, I'm hooked. Between this and Andor, I feel like maybe some of the studios are figuring out that writing is important to this medium.