While popular as both a filming location and setting for hundreds of movies, the city of Savannah, GA is in shockingly few video games. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to determine exactly how many video games do feature Savannah as a setting, and even in that small handful only one, maybe two of them even look like Savannah at all. I’m not just talking about AAA games, either. Searching “savannah” on Steam or itch.io will deliver nothing but African Safari games – which is fine, but not what I’m looking for.
Savannah, GA is a lovely city, and I’m not the first person to suggest it would make an ideal location for a video game. This Reddit post from a year ago asks “what would a video game set in Savannah look like?”, and one of the commenters shared their unfinished indie project set in one of Savannah’s many graveyards. Considering Savannah’s claim as one of the most haunted cities in America, this is no big surprise. Given our cobblestone streets and open container laws, the responses of “Bloodborne” and “like GTA, but drunk” also track fairly well.
As someone who lives here, I’d just be happy to see any video game set in Savannah at all. I’m not interested in any 4X or strategy games, nothing that’s just a vague abstraction of a dot on the map. It doesn’t necessarily need to be spooky horror (and I’d honestly rather it wasn’t, although the alleys of River Street would make for an excellent setting for an anomaly hunt horror game) but it does need to effuse Savannah’s extremely specific ambiance. To start, let’s look at three different ways video games set in Savannah have depicted the city so far.
Savannah in MX vs. ATV Unleashed (2005)
This is probably my least favorite depiction of Savannah, Georgia in video games to date. It’s not representative of the city at all – this could literally be the interior of any stadium on Earth. Except for one in Savannah, of course, because back in 2005 the city didn’t have a domed stadium of that size. Look for yourself how generic it is:
At the time MX vs. ATV Unleashed launched, these events probably would have either taken place outdoors at the Historic Grayson Stadium (currently home of the Savannah Bananas) or inside the Martin Luther King Jr. Arena at the Johnny Mercer Civic Center. Today, it’s possible that this location could be mistaken for a poorly designed Enmarket Arena, but that’s just luck. Nothing about this setting says “Savannah” except for the word “Savannah,” and if you replaced it with the name of any other city no one would bat an eye.
Savannah in Left 4 Dead 2 (2009)
When I first heard that Left 4 Dead 2’s opening level would be set in Savannah, I was really excited. I shouldn’t have been. While the game does pass a little bit of the Savannah vibe check – foggy atmosphere, good lighting – there are too many generic streets and bridges for it to look like anything other than Generic Video Game Town. Not even the opening helicopter shot looks anything like the Savannah skyline.
There are a few things which are more egregious than others. One road players can traverse is clearly labeled as I-16 when there is only one section of I-16 that goes into Downtown Savannah, and it looks nothing like this. It definitely doesn’t have road signs for Atlanta, which in reality is 248 miles away. The worst thing about Savannah in Left 4 Dead 2 is the mall, however. This mall has way too many stories. Even in 2009, Savannah’s biggest mall (of which there were only two) is the appropriately named Savannah Mall, which is two stories tall and, today, mostly abandoned. At least Valve got that part right.
Savannah in Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season One
This is the best depiction of Savannah, GA in video games so far. The last two episodes of The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series‘ first season feature beautifully accurate renditions of Savannah, from the skyline to the downtown colonial homes to the depictions of Broughton and River Street themselves. Sure, River Street is a little off – we’re missing the Stone Stairs of Death and the actual topographical differences that necessitate them – but you can also blame the story-relevant zombie apocalypse defenses for some of that.
Honestly, the biggest thing that bothers me about how Savannah looks in The Walking Dead game (besides the location of the hospital, which is inaccurate) is that The Marshall House has been renamed The Marsh House for some reason. This must be a copyright or licensing issue, as The Marshall House is an iconic downtown Savannah hotel, the oldest in the city. It’s also possible that the developers never contacted The Marshall House at all – I haven’t been able to find any proof of contact in my research for this issue of Ludology Now!, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
What Savannah Offers Video Games
It’s a shame that, of the best two depictions of Savannah in video games I could find, both of them are zombie games. Yes, Savannah is often called “the most haunted city in America,” but we have more to offer than just spooky stories. Allow me to present just a few real-life stories and locations in and around Savannah, GA which would make for excellent video game levels, worlds, missions, or inspiration:
The Missing Tybee Island Nuclear Bomb
In 1958, a B-47 bomber collided with an F-86 fighter jet off the coast of Georgia, and in an effort to prevent the “7,600 Mark 15 hydrogen thermonuclear bomb, which has an explosive yield of up to 3.8 megaton, about 10 times more powerful than the Fat Man bomb that destroyed Nagasaki” from exploding on impact, the pilot jettisoned the bomb into waters around Wassaw Sound. The bomb is still there today, over 60 years later, and was completely lost until a 2001 hydrographic survey revealed “the bomb was buried under five to 15 feet of silt.” While the Air Force has stated “if the bomb were still intact, the explosive in the bomb would pose no hazard,” I would argue that a lost thermonuclear bomb sounds like exactly the type of device a video game’s villain might want to get hold of.
Downtown Savannah’s Underground Tunnels
Partly fact, partly fiction, and partly unclear, the stories of Savannah’s underground tunnel network are undoubtedly both captivating and disturbing. While some of these tales are provably false – no one was smuggling rum through Savannah’s tunnels at the Pirate’s House, for instance, that’s all marketing nonsense made up by the owners to capitalize on the location – there is lots of factual evidence that dozens, if not hundreds, of underground tunnels did exist in the city at some point. What they were used for likely varies with each location, but the pattern of residual air holes in the floor of the First African Baptist Church, which “form an African prayer symbol known as a Congolese Cosmogram,” leaves little to the imagination. While likely used for inhumane, illegal, and immoral reasons for the majority of their existence, exploring the tunnels under Savannah would undoubtedly make for an intriguing historical gameplay experience.
Fort Pulaski National Monument
I’m not just saying this because I finally finished Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 last night, but I’ve always wanted to explore Fort Pulaski in a video game setting. Located between Savannah and Tybee, Fort Pulaski’s construction was completed in 1847 but remained fairly dormant until 1860-1861, when the secession of both South Carolina and Georgia from the Union forced the fort to be filled with Confederate soldiers. However, just over a year later, after the Confederates abandoned their position on Tybee Island, Union troops were able to establish more of a handle on the situation.
On April 10, 1862, the Union asked for the surrender of Fort Pulaski “to prevent the needless loss of life.” This offer was rejected by Colonel Olmstead, commander of the Confederate fort, who then suffered through roughly 30 hours of bombardments from long-range rifled cannons before surrendering at 2:30 PM the next day. Maybe it’s just because I’ve read too many C. S. Forester books in my life, but I would absolutely love to play through a properly depicted naval bombardment of a fort in a video game. There’s also all that empty space between the time Fort Pulaski was built to the time it was taken over by the Confederates, in which any number of stories could take place. There’s hidden tunnels here too, after all, along with lots of bunkers to explore.
Cool Buildings & Modes of Travel in Savannah (various)
There are a ton of interesting places that would make for great video game locations in Savannah. There’s the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, a massive French Gothic building with beautiful stained glass windows. There’s the iconic Georgia Queen Savannah Riverboat which goes up and down the Savannah River, along with the ferries that go back and forth from River Street to Hutchinson Island. There’s the American Prohibition Museum and the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, there’s Savannah’s Old Town Trolley Tours, Forsyth Park, Lake Mayer, The Olde Pink House. Starland Yard seems custom-built for a Call of Duty multiplayer map, and there’s a lot of fun you could have at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, where a sinkhole has recently opened on the road out to Onslow Island, apparently.
This is ignoring all of the places you regularly associate with Savannah, of course. I didn’t mention Bonaventure Cemetary on purpose because we’ve all seen enough of it, and the same with downtown’s famous squares. Please Lord, if we do get another video game set in Savannah, please don’t let it be a horror game about ghosts set in Bonaventure. We can do better than that, at least have them haunt the graves buried under the runway at the Savannah Airport or something.
Capturing the Vibes of Savannah
In addition to simply emulating locations and events, any video game set in Savannah, GA should also do its best to capture the vibes of the city. That could mean all kinds of things, of course, from characters eating pralines and complaining about the smell of horse urine on the streets to the constant buzzing of mosquitoes and cicadas in the air. It’s difficult to display humidity in a video game – I think Red Dead Redemption 2 has come the closest so far, we’ll see how GTA 6 gets on – but steaming roads after an afternoon rain do a lot to set the mood. Lots of trees, obviously. No skyscrapers here, we have laws against that sort of thing.
At the time of writing, South of Midnight releases in just a few days. It is, by all accounts, a very Southern game, with great depictions of that Louisiana/Mississippi atmosphere. As someone who also lived in Louisiana briefly this is great to hear, but it also makes me jealous. Louisiana, as a location, already has some pretty spot-on game adaptations, whether it’s that Alone in the Dark remake, Resident Evil 7, or, most accurately (vibes-wise), Mafia III. I want it to be our turn.
I’d love to jump off the Talmadge Bridge into the Savannah River in a video game, even though I have no desire to do so in real life. I’d love to take a speedboat all the way up the Savannah River, which I have done in real life and quite enjoyed. Above all, I just don’t want another game set in New York or Los Angeles or London. Even when they’re post-apocalyptic, it all just starts to look the same. Put Savannah, GA in more video games, put more googly eyes on statues, and embrace variety.
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDED MEDIA:
- [READ] Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences by Ursula K. Le Guin.
- [WATCH] This ongoing Dwarf Fortress documentary series by Noclip is excellent and worth watching even if you are like me and don’t play or really care about Dwarf Fortress.
- [WATCH] The season finale of The Pitt is this Thursday at 21:00 ET / 18:00 PT on HBO. The Pitt is the best medical show I have seen in decades and absolutely deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.
- [LEARN] More people should know about D6 Learning, an online school for video game development. It’s relatively new but incredibly organized, and offers a lot of extremely focused programs for both beginners and professionals. I’ve taken multiple classes from them myself and highly suggest anyone looking for a more affordable way to get hands-on, one-on-one mentorship in the video game industry should check them out.
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