Playing characters that we connect with is important, and that's what the best LGBT games recognize. Falling in love and forming deep relationships is just one facet of what makes us tick as humans, so when games allow players to form same-sex relationships as part of a riveting new story, it can make even the best RPGs feel that much more immersive.
Whether you're looking for a cheeky dating sim, an epic high fantasy adventure, or a gripping visual novel, we've collected 10 games where LGBT experiences are given the spotlight. Whether these romances are a fundamental gameplay aspect or are optional, yet depicted and facilitated with style, you're sure to find something exciting to explore below.
10. The Sims 4
Developer: Maxis
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One
Long before many, if any, other titles actively did queer inclusion, The Sims allowed its players' hearts to decide in creating relationships and families. This was a game that let men have babies (albeit as a result of alien abduction). But flash forward to present day and Create-A-Sim now has custom gender settings, allowing players to combine masculine and feminine attributes. These functions are still based on the gender binary – men have beards, women have breasts etc. – but at least male Sims only conceiving by extraterrestrial intervention is a thing of the past, and we hope to see further advancement in The Sims 5.
9. Life is Strange: True Colours
Developer: Deck Nine
Platform(s): PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch
The original Life is Strange wove a heart-crushing drama of the interconnected lives of three young queer women. That is, if the player went looking for it. Life is Strange: True Colours marked the franchise's first game release to make its protagonist canonically bisexual, rather than leaving it up to 'playersexual' preference. The player also makes an explicit decision whether empath Alex Chen romances adorkable D&D mastermind Steph. Alex's love, acceptance and forgiveness are the stuff of miracles, and can be wielded to break down toxic power constructs. Best of all, unlike previous Life is Strange games, there's no doom hanging over this queer relationship.
8. Gone Home
Developer: The Fullbright Company
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, iOS
In a similar vein to Life is Strange, Gone Home unpicks both the agony and life-affirming force that can come of young queer love. Don't be fooled by the signposting that points toward the 'bury your gays' trope. Here, as in Fullbright's 2018 title Tacoma, all the sadness and suffering is to be overcome. Wandering through a creaky old house in a storm, it's easy to be convinced something terrible has taken place. But the weather's only external, and the story the player unlocks (through exploration, attention to detail, and uncovering evidence) is one of joyous escape from the constraints of fear.
7. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Developer: Game Grumps
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Switch, Android, iOS
Dream Daddy could easily just have said "some dads date other dads and that's okay". Thankfully it explores more than how 'okay' it is to be a queer father juggling romantic relationships, parenting, and sometimes facing life-changing struggles. After Ernest's partner dies, you search for love while trying your best to support his daughter through her own grief. Queer parents can and do have lives and troubles outside of being 'that gay couple with a kid'. Speaking as half of one such couple, it means a lot that this story makes way for these dream dads to keep it real.
6. Tell Me Why
Developer: Dontnod
Platform(s): Xbox One, PC
Childhood trauma, fallible memory, and the complex pull of wounded family ties are central to the story of Alison and Tyler, her trans twin brother. They share a telepathic bond, but their connection's been put through the wringer of grief and a ten-year separation while Tyler was in juvie. In Tyler, Dontnod created a fully-realised character, consulting GLAAD to capture the plight of trans people recontextualising their home lives. Telepathy as a key function of gameplay becomes an intense metaphor for this struggle as, depending on player choice, it begins to either heal or fracture his bond with Alison.
5. Unpacking
Developer: Witch Beam
Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, Switch, PS4, PS5
Sometimes it's only while refitting our lives to move on, that things we've buried finally start to make sense. From a first-person perspective, you help the protagonist puzzle out 21 years of house moves, literally unpacking their life and finding ways to make it fit their space. Using colour and inconspicuous everyday objects as clues, you eventually piece together that the protagonist is bisexual – a fact that should have been obvious all along, or so it seems. But that's the beauty of Unpacking; it sympathises with identity not always being easy to identify and having those realisations in due time.
4. The Last of Us 2
Developer: Naughty Dog
Platform(s): PS4
The negative backlash to Ellie and Riley's kiss in Left Behind only reinforces how crucial these creative choices are in instigating greater inclusivity. This decision to let Ellie express and explore her sexuality paved the way to The Last of Us 2 further challenging action game norms, by making one of its two female leads lesbian. Even better, we get to see Ellie and Dina's relationship grow stronger because of their struggle to survive. We see them go from awkward lovers to building a family, however fragile. Queer love is front and centre in this AAA blockbuster, and that's something to celebrate.
3. Night in the Woods
Developers: Secret Lab, Infinite Fall
Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS
Mae leads a deceptively quiet small-town existence, where the truth comes out under cover of darkness. She's drawn into solving a Twin Peaksian mystery quite by accident, through her efforts to reintegrate with her old friends and neighbours as a college dropout recently moving back to her hometown. The LGBTQ+ characters of this modern cult classic often feel several steps behind in life, a painfully relatable state to people who were closeted, knowingly or otherwise, in their teens. Mae is pansexual with several queer friends, but this takes a realistic back seat to their search for purpose in suburban life.
2. Baldur's Gate 3
Developer: Larian Studios
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
When it comes to telling queer video game stories effectively, it can't get much better than Baldur's Gate 3. There are a variety of BG3 romance options you can embark upon, no matter your playable character's gender, and almost all of your Baldur's Gate 3 companions (and some NPCs) have the ability to fall in love with you too over the course of your rollicking fantasy adventure. The best thing about same-sex romance in Larian's high-stakes D&D game is that it's far from the most interesting thing about your character – you can be a dragonborn sorcerer with a deep dark secret who just happens to be dating a pansexual vampire, the literal daughter of a goddess who just happens to be dating a mortal woman, or a halfling barbarian in a cozy throuple with Halsin and Shadowheart. Baldur's Gate 3 is yours to shape, and the LGBT+ romance capabilities simply add to the game's dynamism in that regard.
1. Dragon Age: Inquisition
Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): P33, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
BioWare has been championing queer rep for two decades. But the release of its third Dragon Age instalment came wrapped in a big old rainbow with an extensive cast of unapologetically queer characters – including a sensitively created trans man. Such variety of lovingly characterised representation is yet to be matched by any AAA game (although we have high hopes for the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf). Its true power is that a story of a bunch of scrappy outcasts, carving their own path to community and personal power, has enabled real-life LGBTQ+ people to do the same on a mass scale through fandom.
Why not check out our pick of upcoming Xbox Series X games and upcoming PS5 games to see all the new games of 2024 and beyond.
