As with Hollywood blockbusters, game makers plotting their video game opuses in the real world tend to favour New York, San Francisco, and Washington over anything on this side of the Atlantic.
But a team of modders are hoping to relocate the action of 2015’s Fallout 4 across the ocean, 3,269 miles away, to London. Set in 2237, Fallout London is going to provide the same post-apocalyptic vibes players have come to expect from the series — just with a British vibe and familiar landmarks amidst the rubble.
Set for release on PC only, it’s an ambitious project covering a “condensed version of London that focuses around the main boroughs”. You can expect a map that’s a similar size to that of Fallout 4, and you’ll be able to take a stroll all the way from Hackney to Croydon.
It’s currently set to come out later this year, but if you’re itching for a bit of digital London while you wait, we’ve rounded up a whole host of games that’ll let you take in the virtual sites from the comfort of your gaming chair.
10 games set in London
Watch Dogs: Legion
Release year: 2020
Era: “Near future”
Metacritic rating: 70%
Ubisoft has done an excellent job of recreating London, and it’s quite easy to navigate the streets based on your muscle memory despite its reduced size. As TechRadar highlights, it’s pretty well done considering the space considerations.
Unfortunately, as a game, it’s distinctly middling. And the Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins-style accents will grate after a couple of hours.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
Release year: 2015
Era: 1868
Metacritic rating: 76%
Five years before Watch Dogs: Legion (though at least 150 years before in terms of setting), Ubisoft had another London-based game — this time part of the Assassin’s Creed series.
It’s a more compact map, which probably works well given the whole “lack of cars” thing. But given the Assassin’s Creed series’ love of climbing, you’ll have a great time scaling Big Ben.
Vampyr
Release year: 2018
Era: 1918
Metacritic rating: 72%
Turning into a vampire would ruin anyone’s day — but it’s especially problematic when your thirst for blood interferes with your day job, as it does for protagonist Jonathan Reid. He’s a doctor working with Spanish Flu patients, and the whole blood-drinking habit really goes against the Hippocratic Oath.
It’s possible not to feast on innocents for the entire game, though it will weaken your powers. But if you’re just here for the tourism, you can enjoy the sights and sounds of twentieth-century Whitechapel, Temple, Lime House, and Southwark.
Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
Release year: 1997
Era: 1969, if the title wasn’t clear
Metacritic rating: N/A
Wait, a Grand Theft Auto game set in London? Yes, but probably not as you know it. This was an expansion pack for the original top-down GTA game for PC and the original PlayStation, released in 1997.
That means that any sights you do see on your travels will be both top-down and pixelated. But it’s still fun if you can get the game working, with references on everything from James Bond to the missing Lord Lucan, and plenty of cockney abuse to endure along the way.
The Getaway
Release year: 2003
Era: 2000s
Metacritic rating: 72%
Attempting to bring that 3D Grand Theft Auto game to life was The Getaway, a game that went on to become one of the PS2’s biggest hits despite getting mixed reviews.
Apparently built from over 500,000 reference images of London, a post celebrating the 15th anniversary of the game on the official PlayStation blog revealed that one of the team’s artists was banned from local planning offices for spending too much time there.
Hellgate: London
Release year: 2007
Era: 2038
Metacritic rating: 70%
Created by a bunch of the people behind the original Diablo, Hellgate: London was an ambitious attempt to bring the familiar killing and looting gameplay to a first-person perspective with… mixed results.
Still, as the title says, it’s set in London, and you can explore disused Tube lines and a surprisingly accurate depiction of Covent Garden (monsters aside).
The Order: 1886
Release year: 2015
Era: 1886, as the name suggests.
Metacritic rating: 63%
Although it’s set in the past, The Order: 1886 is pure fantasy from the get-go. You’re part of the Order of Knights, sworn to protect the world safe from half-breed monsters — animal/human hybrids with bestial traits.
It’s still a beautiful game to look at, but there’s not much there from a gameplay perspective. Still, at least it’s short, clocking in at around seven hours.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments
Release year: 2014
Era: 1894
Metacritic rating: 77%
It would be a bit weird for Sherlock Holmes not to be a resident of Baker Street, and sure enough, all of the cases in Crimes & Punishments take place in London and its surrounding suburbs.
It’s a surprisingly engaging game too, forcing players to analyse the evidence and reach their own conclusions via a deduction board. Yes, you absolutely can convict the wrong person if your logic is faulty — something Sir Arthur Conan Doyle probably didn’t envisage for his creation.
The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures
Release year: 2021
Era: Late 19th century
Metacritic rating: 86%
Sherlock Holmes also pops up in Ace Attorney: Adventures — albeit renamed Herlock Sholmes outside of Japan for legal reasons. In his third case, rookie lawyer Ryunosuke Naruhodo is defending clients on the mean streets of Victorian London.
If you’ve ever played the brilliant Phoenix Wright games on Nintendo DS, you’ll know what to expect. It’s an interactive courtroom drama where you pick the right evidence at the right time to defend your client. It’s very silly, and it’s sometimes more an anime book than a game, but it’s still rather good.
Zombi
Release year: 2012
Era: 2012
Metacritic rating: 71%
Originally released under the name ZombiU as a launch title for the doomed Wii U console, Zombi is an enjoyable first-person survival horror game set in a zombie-packed London. You play several survivors rather than a single protagonist, and when you die, there’s another survivor ready to go find your stuff and move on.
You only see small smatterings of London, rather than being able to wander around freely. But you do get to take in Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London, which would both be on most virtual sightseers’ bucket lists.
