Being a big fan of dialogue-rich graphic adventures as a kid, especially those with tongue-in-cheek humour (e.g., Monkey Island, Sierra, Lucasarts), I can see myself easily immersing in hours of target language audio and text in stolen moments for fun. Even looking up and saving new words doesn't feel like too much of a chore when it serves the immediate purpose of solving some new puzzle in an ongoing adventure and saving the world.
Hence I think it would be really useful to build a simple computer games repository here on the forum that would be suitable to a host of language learners across a variety of platforms. So I'd like to ask if anyone here could recommend any good computer games, sites, or apps that offer plenty of audio and/or text in a second language (educational or otherwise)?
Here are our recommendations so far:
Title | Platforms | Languages | Audio/Text | Suggested By |
Animal Crossing: New Leaf | es | Spoonary | ||
AR-K | en, es | Tati | ||
Assassin's Creed series | en, fr, de, it, ja, pt, ru, es | Soclydeza, Yuurei | ||
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 | en, fr, it, de, es, pl | t123, Zireael, ownerzeff | ||
Banner Saga series (1, 2, and 3) | de, fr, it, es, ru, pl, cs, pt, zh, ja, ko | themethod | ||
Baphomets Fluch | de | Doitsujin | ||
Baphomets Fluch 2.5 | en, de, es, it, pl, hr, pt, ru | Doitsujin | ||
Beholder | de, fr, es, it, ru, pl, pt, nl, zh, ja, ko | themethod | ||
Broken Age | en, de | AlexTG | ||
Broken Sword 1 & 2 | en, de, fr, es, It | daegga, Doitsujin, emk, Cavesa | ||
Child of Light | de, fr, it, ru, pt, ja | themethod | ||
Criminal Case | en, es, pt, it, fr, de, tr, zh, id | Serpent | ||
Crusader Kings II | en, fr, de, es, pl | Zireael, Alphathon | ||
Cyberpunk 2077* | en, fr, it, de, es, ja, ko, pl, pt, ru, zh; ar, cz, hu, es, th, yue, tu | T0NIN0 | ||
Darkwood | de, fr, es, it, pl, ru, hu, pt, tr, zh | themethod | ||
Das Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe | de | Teango | ||
Diablo III | en, fr, de, es, zh | Aozu | ||
Dračí historie | cs, en | Cavesa | ||
Dragon Age 2 | fr | Yuurei | ||
Dragon Age Origins | en, fr, de, pl, ru | Henkkles | ||
Dreamfall | de, en, no | Cavesa | ||
Ein rätselhafter Auftrag | de | Teango | ||
Fatal Frame 5 | ja | ninuno | ||
Football Manager series (languages for 2020 release) | da, de, en, es, fr, it, nl, no, pl, pt, sv, tr, el, ru, zh | kelvin921019 | ||
FTL | de, fr, es, it, ru, pl, pt, zh | themethod | ||
Godville | en, ru | Via Diva | ||
Gothic series | de | eginhard | ||
Grim Fandango | en, de, es | AlexTG | ||
Gylt* | en, fr, de, it, es | Keys | ||
Hatoful Boyfriend | ja, en | kyukumber | ||
Homescope | en, fr, de, es, it, ru, zh, ja, ko | ninuno | ||
Icewind Dale | en, fr, it, de, es, pl | t123 | ||
Imperia Online | en, sw | NIKOLIĆ, Elenia | ||
Inner World | de | Teango | ||
King's Quest | en, fr, de | Teango | ||
Learn Spanish with Ruby Rei | es | Teango | ||
Mafia | cs | Cavesa | ||
Mafia 2 | en, fr, de, it, es, cs, ru | T0NIN0 | ||
Mass Effect games | en, fr, de | steyyan | ||
Metro (2033, Last Light, Exodus) series | ru, de, fr, es, it, uk | themethod | ||
Might & Magic: Heroes Online | cs, nl, en, fr, de, it, pl, pt, ro, ru, es | NIKOLIĆ | ||
Monkey Island 1-4 | en, de, fr, it | AlexTG, daegga, rdreaman, garyb | ||
OFF* | fr, en, ru, es, pt, pl, de | lysi | ||
Pathologic (Мор утопия) | ru | ninuno | ||
The Pillars of the Earth (Die Säulen der Erde) | de | ninuno | ||
Polda 1 | cs | Cavesa | ||
Play-Asia | Ja | AlexTG, cathrynm | ||
Pokemon series (last 4) | de, fr, es, ko, ja | WalkingAlone14 | ||
Randal's Monday | de, en, es, fr, it, ru | Tati | ||
ScummVM (various games) | en, de | daegga | ||
Remember Me (Souvenez-vous de Moi) | fr | ninuno | ||
Runescape | en, de, fr | jmar257 | ||
Simon the Sorceror 1 & 2 | de, en, fr | Cavesa | ||
Skyrim | en, es | jmar257 | ||
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series (Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, Call of Pripyat) | ru, de, fr, es, it, pl | themethod | ||
Stardew Valley | en, de, es, fr, it, pt ru, hu, tr, ja, zh, ko | themethod | ||
Syberia series | de, fr, es, it, ru, pl | themethod | ||
The Elder Scrolls series | en, fr, de, hu, ja, es, ru | Meyers, Keys, Yuurei, Henkkles | ||
The Longest Journey series | en, de, fr, it, no, ru, sv | Doitsujin | ||
This War of Mine | de, fr, es, it, ru, pl, tr, pt, zh, ko, ja | themethod | ||
The Witcher series | ja, de, pt, ru, en, fr, pl, es | Cavesa, steyyan, Wurstmann, cathrynm | ||
Tropico 4 | es | jmar257 | ||
Uncharted 3 | fr, nl, es, pl | Yuurei | ||
Vampire's Fall Origins | en, ms, de, fr, it, pl, ro, ru, uk, zh, tr, el, cs, es, hi, ko, pt, th, fil, vi, ja, hu, ar | Cavesa | ||
World of Warcraft | en, es, zh, it | 1e4e6, Aozu, ddich | ||
XCOM 1 & 2 | de, fr, es, it, ru, pl | themethod |
Updates:
Following up on your suggestions, I've hopefully made our list a bit clearer and more accessible by converting it to a new table format (based on Alphathon's suggested template, but limited to basic HTML on the forum's user interface). This includes links where provided, available languages, and member credits; platforms and audio/text fields, however, will need to be filled in. As I don't have time to check through all the links and data, please feel free to suggest any notes, amendments, or additions (as well as let me know if there are any glaring errors), and I'll try to include these during the next update.
Language abbreviations (ISO 639-1 codes):
ar=Arabic, cs=Czech, de=German, el=Greek, en=English, es=Spanish, fil=Filipino, fr=French, hi=Hindi, hu=Hungarian, hr=Croatian, id=Indonesian, it=Italian, ja=Japanese, ko=Korean, ms=Malay, no=Norwegian, nl=Dutch, pl=Polish, pt=Portuguese, ro=Romanian, ru=Russian, sw=Swahili, sv=Swedish, th=Thai, tr=Turkish, uk=Ukrainian, vi=Vietnamese, yue=Cantonese, zh=Chinese.
With games in at least 30 languages, we've already amassed an interesting collection here together. A big thanks to everyone who has contributed to the growing list and the ongoing discussion so far, and let's keep these suggestions rolling in!! ~ Teango
Last update: 3 September, 2021 (3 new games added to the list - temporarily marked with an asterisk *).