Intro
The Church's representation in modern media is a fickle thing. But it's also everyone's favorite scapegoat for a corrupt world power, old-fuddy-duddy traditionalists OR conspiracy.
As a Catholic you have to accept and follow this rather unpopular religious system and its rather colorful history. For some fun I found a few examples.
Assassin's Creed (Brotherhood)- Alternative History Sorta
I played this game 2 hours as a rental. I liked the setting (I LOVE ITALY!!), I liked the characters, I liked the voice acting, and I really liked the gameplay. (The Prince of Persia style building climbs and such.) And I liked some of the story, like the concept of the memories and the chair thing. But I could not keep playing because the Church and Templars were the villains. And not very well developed villains either. Their motivation was to control the free-will of mankind. Even for a villain that just doesn't seem like a good motive and smacks of fanatic conspiracy theory. Or the TV Trope Conspiracy Kitchen Sink.
All in all it reflects the Church in a very negative light in its alternate history storyline. Part of it historically true, we has some really terrible Popes in those days that had a LOT more political influence than religious. (Thus a LARGE number of Saints were alive in these times. They were seriously needed.)
Tales of Symphonia - Anime Church
Set in the fantasy world, with Angels and Popes. Wait, Popes? Really. Okay so this is a fantasy church with some very heavy and obvious influences of Catholic Clergy. This story also casts the Church as "the bad guys" since the angels are "bad guys".
All in all it falls into the TV Trope: Anime Catholicism.
Dragon Age Series - Obvious Church Influence
There are many reasons why I fan-heart this game series so much. The writing and world building are done very well in my opinion. Not perfect and heavily influenced, but well it is influenced by some of my favorite things. And I really appreciate that their "church" or chantry is not cast as the evil villains. Nothing is so black and white or decided for you. There are people in the chantry that are corrupt and do bad things. At the same time there are good, faithful people doing good things.
One of my favorite characters as a religious type character is Sebastien from Dragon Age 2. While his romance dialog kind of sucks his banter is interesting. He's not terribly preachy...not more than anyone else in the game.
It is still a fantasy religion and a fantasy church but the influence is incredibly Catholic all the way to having a schism with two Popes.Well, the only big difference is the sex of the clergy, but fantasy world. The story managed to immerse me enough and NOT insult my professed religion to allow me to explore it further.
Conclusion
Dealing with a religion in your narrative or game can bring depth. Like most double edge swords, it can cut off a portion of the potential audience. For me the first two examples, it was singling out a single religion and drenching it with negative conspiracies. The Catholic Church is the most visually present and obvious Christian Church to poke at. We are very distinct in our outward symbols and many are familiar with the Church's bloody, fallen history. So, it's low hanging fruit for conspiracy theorists, negative narratives or even villainy.
I could get through Tales because it was Anime Church and so much of it was 'wrong' that I could pass it off as a fantasy church. But I couldn't sit through another conspiracy drama involving a corrupt church and templars in Assassins Creed (especially after playing a LOT of Dragon Age. I'm so sick of Templars.). Despite the fact I REALLY loved the gameplay and some of the funny DNA memories, I can't get into the story in the same way I can't get into the Da Vinci Code.
