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access_time July 15, 2014 at 1:11 PM in Features by Tyler Colp

What male video game characters could be female?

EllieTheLastofUs

There was a lot of support for the news of the Thor Marvel comic series switching to a female lead. Earlier this month, we saw the new look for Batgirl, which got a similar response. And True Detective fans know that next season will star two female leads.

My save file name for Divinity: Original Sin is called “true detective season 2” because I’m rolling with two women instead of the game’s suggested male and female duo. While playing, I’ve been thinking about what games could be interesting if their male hero was swapped with a female.

For some games, like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed, it would be surprising to see a blockbuster game’s take on having you play as a woman. Compared to the male heroes, there’s been very few females we get to play as. For most people, when they think of popular video game heroines of the last few years, they think Lara Croft from Tomb Raider or maybe Samus Aran in Metroid.

I’d like to see some change, like Marvel has done with Thor. There are roles in games that could be switched with females.

I think a Call of Duty with a female lead could be an interesting dichotomy to the male bravado the series is known for, and it could provide a similar, but very different perspective that wouldn’t change the entire game. The game’s already switch main characters during the campaign, so it doesn’t seem very wild to have at least one of them be female.

Sony had done okay when it comes to having women in its games. Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us both feature playable females, but we could still see more. What if the next Uncharted you play as Chloe or Elena for the whole game or at least a portion of the time? It would be the first time we could really see Nathan Drake as someone other than him. He is a ruthless murderer, by the way. If this is really the end of Drake’s adventures, that would be an important angle to cover before we say goodbye.

This one’s a bit of stretch, but I want to see a Halo game where the Master Chief is female. Master Chief is actually a title, so, like Thor, it could be a woman in the same role as John in the current games. Maybe this time Cortana and a female Master Chief have to go save John. Maybe John decides to retire comic book style and give the mantle to the new character.

There’s tons of games that could make the switch and tell awesome stories with their new characters. We need more women in games anyway and this would be a good way to start doing that. After the refreshing feeling of this week’s news, and seeing how familiar franchises aren’t afraid of going in new directions, I don’t think it’s out of the question to see something similar come to games.

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