Want Some Romance in Your Games? Try These 6 Titles

From the early attempts of Metal Gear Solid on the original PlayStation to the more refined movie-like feel of Uncharted 4, story-driven games have been a pillar of the gaming industry. These games use storytelling to build an emotional attachment to the characters, and the better a character is written and presented, the stronger the bond.

This not only puts more at stake when veering into danger with your protagonist’s sidekicks, but it could also spark up some deeper feelings towards the characters, leaving you to anxiously hope that your protagonist makes a move and confess to the character what are, essentially, your feelings.

Most games tend to follow a pre-written narrative. So, if it’s not in the script for your protagonist to develop feelings toward another character or act upon them then it won’t happen. However, some games place that responsibility in your hands, as the player. So, you can venture into any romantic avenue you want.

On this list, I’ll be suggesting some games with a romantic option that should, hopefully, satisfy that hopeless romantic inside of you.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

CD Projekt’s latest installment into The Witcher series, The Witcher 3 continues on the trend of romance-driven narratives, much like its predecessors. Albeit, this time, it’s slightly more mundane and repetitive, but I’ll get to that shortly.

To our delight, this game inherits all of the deep RPG mechanics present in The Witcher 2, maintained within a gigantic open world that can leave you a bit overwhelmed, due to its sheer size. As you extend your stay in it, however, you’ll come to appreciate its beauty and denseness, as you’ll come across massive landscapes and fantastical scenery that firmly grips your attention.

In spite of the clear influence from The Witcher 2, slight alterations were made to the RPG mechanics. Certain aspects were simplified, such as potions and how you utilize them, whilst some were made more complex, such as the new skill system.

Combat also saw some improvements in the form of more intuitive and responsive combat that caters to all playing styles, thanks to the much-enhanced magic play, offering you more viable combat approaches.

At last, the story. Your only task is to search for your protagonist’s long-lost lover and daughter (NOT THE SAME PERSON!). The story, unfortunately, doesn’t develop into anything more, which does become a bit stale, especially considering the repetitiveness of the missions, which generally consist of running errands for people in exchange for information on your lover’s whereabouts.

More importantly, you’re granted full control over your protagonist’s romantic pursuits, allowing you to dictate who he sparks romances with. Outside of the two main love interests, Yennefer and Triss, you’re allowed to seduce and eventually bed one of eight other casual partners. Also, if you can’t choose between Yennefer and Triss then why not pursue both? That’s also a viable option, should you play your cards right.

You could seriously sink hours upon hours traversing the beautiful open world and taking on side quests. And above all, you can enjoy the climax of your protagonist’s romantic pursuit of his lovers and casual partners.

The Sims 4

The Sims franchise has been a gaming staple for over 20 years. We’ve all undoubtedly spent hours on end forming families, building houses, and then inevitably burning them down over a badly cooked lasagne and a broken fire alarm.

Upon its initial release, The Sims 4 was rightfully met with disappointment, as it left a lot to be desired due to EA stripping away many of the features and details that made The Sims 3 the infamous game it was in its heyday.

Since then, EA has brought back many of those missing features through free updates. They also brought aboard many new features and tweaked some stagnant issues that plagued the game since its release. And on a more superficial note, many new customization options when creating a sim were added, among other features to further distinguish itself from its predecessor.

Owing to the talented modding community, you can now add anything your mind can muster to the game. If modding is not your forte, however, EA has released several paid expansion packs that add an extensive amount of content to the game. The elephant in the room, however, is the steep pricing of these expansions.

Relationships are a vital gameplay mechanic in the Sims franchise, and Sims 4 is no different, offering an even deeper romance system, further aided by a flurry of smooth animations and interaction options. Whilst in control of a sim, you can romance anyone you want, but make sure to say and do the right things at the right time. Your sim’s romantic progress will be neatly displayed on a pink bar, visualizing the affection between the two sims.

Interactions aren’t limited to face-to-face conversations and flirting, as you can go on dates and eventually ask them to be your girlfriend/boyfriend, get engaged, or get married. Assuming all goes well, you can then have kids together and form a family. Alternatively, you can divorce them and start again from scratch with someone else.

All in all, the current state of The Sims 4 is far cry from the underdeveloped shadow of a game we got eight odd years ago, owing to EA’s frequent updates and the talented modding community behind it.

Mass Effect 2

Released in 2010, Mass Effect 2 is arguably BioWare’s greatest ever release, despite their extensive catalog of premium titles. It received critical acclaim, upon its release and was awarded numerous accolades for its writing, characters, and even soundtrack.

As is the nature of BioWare games, Mass Effect 2 features expertly-written characters, enriched with comprehensive arcs and backstories that significantly add to their overall depth. It is, in my humble opinion, BioWare’s most valiant attempt at building a solid bond to the characters, with none overlooked or ignored.

Characters were further humanized with the aid of a star-studded cast of voice and motion capture actors that breathed life into the characters and increased their believability, upping the player’s emotional attachment to them.

Thanks to the bond manifested with the characters, the story is made to feel more immersive with a lot at stake. Your progression through the story is driven by the attachments you develop to certain characters, and your actions and choices play a great part in the direction of your story. Every decision, big or small, can derail you off the beaten path.

Gameplay-wise, Mass Effect 2 focuses on bringing a streamlined gaming experience, with plenty of action to keep you engaged, and an intuitive upgrading system that’s further aided by a simple and easy-to-grasp user interface.

On to the bit you’ve been longing for, the romance. Mass Effect 2 allows you to explore numerous romantic avenues with several potential love interests, depending on the chosen gender of your protagonist. You could pursue one of the three main love interests. However, you’re afforded more freedom in pursuing your love interest out of a pool of nine possible candidates.

Following your first encounter with a character, you’re offered the option to flirt with them, after which, you can choose to either commit to the relationship or back out of it. The game even allows you to have headache-inducing love triangles.

Since the release of Mass Effect 2, BioWare has struggled to develop a scintillating game like Mass Effect 2 or replicate its success, despite their best efforts. So, here’s hoping that they get back to their best and deliver yet another masterpiece.

Cyberpunk 2077

It would be an understatement to say that Cyberpunk 2077’s release went catastrophically wrong, thanks to the train of hype around the game leading up to its eventual release. The bug-riddled game was missing features, sporting some questionable design flaws and unavoidable technical issues that greatly hampered the game’s experience and left gamers feeling as though they’d been sold a lie.

CD Projekt RED reacted quickly to the fallout and has been dishing out consistent updates and patches, alongside a native version of the game for next-gen consoles, in an effort to recover from the aftermath of the game’s disastrous release and regain their prior status as a reputable game developer.

A year from the game’s release, Cyberpunk 2077 is now crash-free on most platforms. Albeit, that’s barely an achievement for a developer of their stature. It’s relatively stable, should you ignore the rare instances of characters t-posing or unexpectedly spawning in front of you.

Graphically, the game is stunning, with impressive visuals that utilize the latest and greatest in rendering techniques, to deliver the most photorealistic game on the market. Do keep in mind that certain graphical settings, such as ray tracing, do come at the expense of an FPS tax.

Cyberpunk 2077’s saving grace is its story, riddled with well-written characters, a rich storyline, and worthwhile side quests. Whilst it doesn’t hold a candle to Mass Effect 2’s choice-driven story, it does task you with making decisions that do affect the direction of your story to some degree.

Finally, your protagonist, V, can pursue a number of love interests, only four of which can form a relationship with V. Each potential love interest has superficial requirements, and although gender isn’t considered, gender-based preferences, such as having a feminine voice or a masculine body, are present. One-time love interests are labeled as “romance encounters”, characters whom you can only romance once. Your choice of partner will affect the course of your story and eventually, your ending. So, choose wisely.

In essence, Cyberpunk 2077 was and still is a far cry from what we were promised in the build-up to its release. However, if No Man’s Sky is anything to go by, perhaps CD Projekt RED can still deliver on its promises at some point in the near future.

Dragon Age: Origins

BioWare is no stranger to iconic video game franchises, as evident by their two other titles on this list. Their Dragon Age franchise certainly doesn’t disappoint, offering a plethora of iconic installments. For the purposes of this list, I’ve gone with Dragon Age: Origins.

Like most of BioWare’s game library, Dragon Age: Origins delivers an expertly-written story and a vast array of deep characters, with thorough character arcs, resulting in a strong bond and an emotional attachment to some of the characters. The story is tantalizingly gripping, with many twists along the way. Without spoiling the story, do expect the deaths of some close characters, as you near the ending of the story.

Upon starting the game, you’ll be met with a character creation screen, chock full of customization options, and story-related options, such as your character’s race and class, which influence the story and the way people perceive you.

Gameplay-wise, Dragon Age: Origins relies heavily on man-management during combat, with an equally strong focus on action-packed gameplay. Your choices and interactions with other characters greatly affect your story and the state of your relationships with them.

Visually, the game holds up fairly well, despite its age. The game’s atmosphere is further improved by the excellent voice acting and neatly procured soundtrack.

Speaking of relationships, you can develop intimate relationships with four potential love interests, two of which are dependent on your chosen gender. Bedding a character on this game is a fairly straightforward affair, and nowhere near as deep or nuanced as The Sims or Mass Effect. However, it is equally satisfying.

Just to note, I’d heavily advise that you play this game on PC rather than console, as it runs and looks infinitely better on PC, even with backward compatibility on new-gen consoles.

Overall, Dragon Age: Origins is a deep game that you can sink hours upon hours into, thanks to the myriad of things to do in the game, outside of the main story. More importantly, it offers multiple romantic avenues for you to pursue, each with a differing level of variety.

Stardew Valley

Compared to the previous entries, Stardew Valley is a rather simple-looking survival RPG game. Don’t let its simple looks deceive you, though, as it boasts a broad range of intricate game mechanics and gameplay possibilities.

The simple premise of the story is that your protagonist inherits a piece of land, void of any life, and you have to revitalize the land, sustain it and turn it into a thriving home. You achieve that with the aid of well-written characters, each equipped with individual backstories. These characters are the bulk of the game as you interact with them, aid them on their quests, and work together to solve the mysteries of the world you’re in.

Beyond the farming aspect of the game, you can embark on a multitude of activities outside of farming, such as fishing, mining and even sparking romance with one of your fellow residents and potentially tying the knot.

Speaking of which, a potential dozen romantic avenues are open for you to pursue, each with vastly different personalities and a varying difficulty to charm and spark a romance with. These differences make for a unique scenario to play out with each character. The only common factor between all of them is the end goal, which is to move in together and potentially get married.

Visually, the game sports a very charming art style, with a top-down perspective reminiscent of games such as Animal Crossing. Alongside other visual and gameplay elements, such as the different sets of items, seasonal environmental changes, and random events.

Stardew Valley is available on all modern platforms, macOS, Linux, and even mobile devices. Plus, it sells for a very affordable price with frequent promotional discounts.

To sum up, Stardew Valley is an interesting interpretation of the survival game genre, as it mixes it with several other genres, resulting in a homogenous blend of genres. Perhaps, most impressively, is the character depth present in the game, which certainly punches high above its weight.