Three of the best (and worst) romances in video games

With Valentine's Day here, it seems like an appropriate time to take stock of the relationships portrayed in video games. There is definitely a variety of games out there with a variety of relationship depicted. We'll keep ourselves limited to just discussing some of the most interesting successes and failures we've seen in recent years. Here's our list of some of the best and worst romances in video games:

Mass Effect, for our money, did relationships reasonably well. Mass Effect 1 was one of the earliest games to include an interesting relationship component that was fully optional (though your options in Mass Effect 1 were somewhat limited). That this relationship culminated in a physical relationship gave many in the media the vapors, but to us it felt like a natural extension of the relationship that built across the story. Like most folks, I chose Liara the first time through, which made the original Mass Effect 2 somewhat painful to play. Liara only briefly appears and is so preoccupied with the Shadow Broker that she barely registers. In the excellent DLC, you are given an option to rekindle a relationship with her, and then she plays a much larger role in the final game. I played Shepard as a difficult person, and the softer Liara was an excellent counterpoint to her. Maybe that's why the game works so well; it let's you make the relationship what you want it to be.

A lot of websites list Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman as the greatest couple in video games. Not us. Not because we don't like Alyx, we really do. For our money, she's about the best single-player coop partner (EDITOR'S NOTE: there has to be an abbreviation for this) out there. Alyx takes the perfect Halflife 2 and makes it somehow even better. Our complaint is that there is no Gordon Freeman. Freeman never speaks, he never acts outside of the player's influence. Even Master Chief got to have an occasional quip, but Gordon Freeman does not exist outside of the player. So we love Alyx as a character, but as a couple, she could do better.

Geralt and Triss in the Witcher 2 (we haven't tried the Witcher 1) are a fascinating couple. Geralt is suffering memory loss and is trying to rescue Yennefer, who may be the true love of his life. Triss is in love with Geralt and friends with Yennefer. Triss and Geralt have a physical connection but whether Geralt and Triss are romantically attached or just friends-with-benefits is a question left up to you as the player. Their love story could follow several paths: friends with an attraction trying to save Yennefer, friends who fall in love on this larger quest, two warriors taking whatever pleasure they can in a brutal world. The Witcher 3 should wrap this story up this year and I'll be interested to see how it ends.

Ethan Rain and Madison also have a very adult relationship, but it is nearly the opposite of Triss and Geralt. Ethan and Madison meet up later in Ethan's story as he's searching for his missing son. Oddly, Ethan has the option of having a physical relationship with Madison during the course of his investigation, meaning he is literally hooking up with a virtual stranger rather than trying to find his son. The overall game is pretty great and we enjoy Quantic Dreams' games a great deal, but this relationship felt forced and the physical encounter was exceedingly awkward, even for video games.

We can understand the argument that the minimalist relationship between Ico and Yorda is hardly a great relationship, but we'd argue that the greatness of the relationship depends on the type of game. Ico itself is a mysterious adventure through the ruins of a castle. You (Ico) and Yorda have both been imprisoned there for reasons that are not made entirely clear. Once you free Yorda, though, you spend the bulk of the game rescuing her from shadowy monsters as you two find your way out of the castle. So why does this game makes our list? Because of the last act, where you are forcibly separated from Yorda and left to climb out of a dungeon to rescue her. That feeling you get when the couple is separated and the motivation you have to see them reunited is the measure of a romance story. And when you reach Act 3, you won't put the controller down until the end.

Monkey and Trip, the characters in Enslaved, are similarly bound together throughout their journey. The two are survivors of a spaceship crash in a post-apocalyptic Earth; Trip was one of the invaders and Monkey one of the captured residents. Early in the game, Trip attaches a device to Monkey that will kill him if he leaves her or if she dies in order to ensure his assistance as they make their way across the treacherous jungle. It's a good setup, and the game is fun to play, but the relationship kind of creeps us out. This is particularly true late in the game when (spoilers) Trip gives Monkey the option to remove the collar and he insists on keeping it. We get it, he loves her, but shouldn't that love mean he doesn't need the collar anymore, not that he is desperate to keep it? Maybe there's a deeper message here, but to our shallow minds it sounds like the game is arguing that love is enslaving rather than liberating.