Skip to main content
Tech Radar Tech Radar TechRadar The source for Tech Buying Advice
Subscribe
RSS
Asia
flag of Singapore
Singapore
Europe
flag of Danmark
Danmark
flag of Suomi
Suomi
flag of Norge
Norge
flag of Sverige
Sverige
flag of UK
UK
flag of Italia
Italia
flag of Nederland
Nederland
flag of België (Nederlands)
België (Nederlands)
flag of France
France
flag of Deutschland
Deutschland
flag of España
España
North America
flag of US (English)
US (English)
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of México
México
Australasia
flag of Australia
Australia
flag of New Zealand
New Zealand
Technology Magazines
Technology Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviews
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12.99
View
  • News
  • Best
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
  • How To
  • Deals
  • More
    • Versus
    • Appliances
    • Audiovisual
    • Cameras
    • Car Tech
    • Computing
    • Coupons
    • Downloads
    • Entertainment
    • Fitness
    • Laptops
    • Phones
    • Smart Home
    • Tablets
    • TVs
    • Wearables
    • About Us
Tech Radar Pro
Tech Radar Gaming
Trending
  • Memorial Day sales
  • iPhone 15
  • Google Pixel Fold
  • ChatGPT
  • Wordle hints
  • Best VPN

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Gaming

Here are 19 games from E3 2015 with awesome women

By Lily Prasuethsut
published 23 June 2015

E3 2015 marks the beginning for more female player ones

The badass women of E3 2015

The badass women of E3 2015

With last year's E3 a bit of a mess for several reasons, it's nice to see that E3 2015 began and ended on high notes.

One recurring, stand-out trend was the amount of women present in not one, not two and not three titles, but in 19 games. Eight of these titles featured female protagonists, two offering up options to play the lead as a woman, seven with multiplayer female characters and two had strong women who play an important part of the story.

This, folks, is a huge step forward from last year's Assassin's Creed fiasco where "women were too difficult to animate" and thus not included as a playable option. But there's still a long way to go.

The games industry is largely dominated by men catering to a male audience, but it feels like this has been changing, slowly but surely, for awhile now. There's been a lot of constructive discussions surrounding the treatment of women in games, their physical portrayal and of course controversy about female gamers and games journalists who are women.

You can't talk to a single games writer who doesn't know about the head-scratching, backwards philosophy of GamerGaters or the women who have been the group's targets of abuse.

It will take time, but hopefully this hatred and misogyny will disappear into the nether where it belongs as developers continue to create amazing games with women front and center as essential characters.

With this year's share of better female representation, and the positive response surrounding it, perhaps we'll continue to see more titles crop up to show that yes, women are integral in the gaming world, and yes, both genders will still buy games with female characters even if they're not scantily clad props.

That said, let's take a look at the leading women in their respective games.

Page 1 of 12
Page 1 of 12
Lara Croft - Rise of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft - Rise of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft is the most familiar and beloved of the bunch because she's been around a long time. Questionable outfits aside - who can scale a snowy mountain in short shorts comfortably?! - Lara was iconic for being a tomb raider before Nathan Drake was even born. She's the ultimate survivor and in Rise of the Tomb Raider for PS4, Xbox One and PC, I'm sure she'll continue to amaze us with her skills.

Page 2 of 12
Page 2 of 12
Emily Kaldwin - Dishonored 2

Emily Kaldwin - Dishonored 2

Emily Kaldwin from Dishonored 2 is a welcome addition to the world of Steampunk and assassin plots gone wrong. The little girl from Dishonored is gone and replaced with a deadly killer, expertly trained with magic and crazy Steampunk tech. Emily's skill and intelligence really shone through in the trailer as she quickly dismantled a murderous robot. She's also dressed to the nines in an outfit perfectly tailored for future cosplayers to emulate.

Page 3 of 12
Page 3 of 12
Faith Connors - Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Faith Connors - Mirror's Edge Catalyst

After Heavenly Sword was released in 2007 with the kickass, sword-wielding Nariko, 2008 introduced us to Mirror's Edge and Faith Connors. Fast forward seven years, and Faith is getting another title in the form of Mirror's Edge: Catalyst. The hardcore, parkouring lady is back to show us a bit more about who she really is.

DICE senior producer Sara Jansson highlighted nearly a week ago that Catalyst won't just be a sequel. Instead, Jansson promised a game that will push the "boundaries of first person movement and diving deeper into the story behind our heroine Faith."

Page 4 of 12
Page 4 of 12
Evie Frye - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

Evie Frye - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

Assassin's Creed is a long-loved series with a rotating cast of figures from throughout history. Aveline was one of the few women to show up as a playable character, but alas, it was only a DLC. Evie, however, gets to be a part of the Syndicate world as one of the main characters. It's nice to know that Ubisoft is paying attention and figuring out how to better animate female characters.

Page 5 of 12
Page 5 of 12
Aloy - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Aloy - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Perhaps one of the more mysterious women seen at E3, Aloy looks fierce and fully capable of putting 10 arrows in your face, if you're a giant machine, that is. Horizon: Zero Dawn was one of the most exciting games to come out of the show thanks to its combination of lush wilderness, feral-looking people and mechanical beasts roaming the land. Aloy is not only a master hunter, she's also a master crafter. You'll employ both of these skills quite a lot in this upcoming RPG action game.

Page 6 of 12
Page 6 of 12
Joule - ReCore

Joule - ReCore

ReCore's trailer is just as enigmatic as Horizon: Zero Dawn because we don't even learn the name of the woman from Microsoft's press conference trailer. It was only later that we found out the robot engineer is named Joule, a spry and smart person trying to find out what happened to civilization. We don't know much else except the fact she's roaming the desert with her robot dog, Mack, but it's enough to get us excited.

Page 7 of 12
Page 7 of 12
Rae - Beyond Eyes

Rae - Beyond Eyes

Smaller indie titles are pretty good at showcasing female protagonists, such as last year's - Child of Light. This year, we saw another beautiful title added to the indie mix. Beyond Eyes centers on a blind girl trying to find her cat. Dutch developer Sherida Halatoe even spoke about her title during the PC Gaming Show, describing how she started working on the game in college to test out her colleagues' senses and perception.

Page 8 of 12
Page 8 of 12
Amy Ferrier - Tacoma

Amy Ferrier - Tacoma

The Fullbright studio is no stranger to creating games with female protagonists. Just like Gone Home, Tacoma is slightly creepy and eerily quiet as Amy wanders the space station trying to figure out what happened to her missing crew. Space with a female astronaut and a hunt for missing people? Sounds like a good time.

Page 9 of 12
Page 9 of 12
Fallout 4

Fallout 4

Bethesda already lets you create both male and female protagonists in Fallout 3, so it makes sense you get to do it again in Fallout 4. The demo on stage during the company's E3 press conference even emphasized the variations of people you can create to play the already packed game. November 10 can't come soon enough!

Page 10 of 12
Page 10 of 12
Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Another game notable for memorable characters? BioWare's Mass Effect series. Who can forget Jennifer Hale's incredible voice acting work as Commander Shepard? We're hoping the next N7 soldier will have the same impact. Actually, we're sure she will.

The next Mass Effect will see our systems "holiday 2016."

Page 11 of 12
Page 11 of 12
Women can fight too

Women can fight too

First person shooters have gotten better over the years at incorporating women into their repertoire of characters. Halo 5: Guardians, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Rainbow Six Siege, The Division and Star Wars: Battlefront are the main games from E3 2015 that offer options to play as a woman during multiplayer matches.

FIFA is also now letting you choose women's soccer teams for the very first time where Forza Motorsport 6 is employing female drivers as an option.

Gear of War 4 also showed off Kait, an intimidating ally and perhaps potentially playable character, though we won't know for sure until more details are released. The Gears franchise has included playable women before, so it wouldn't be a longshot to assume one playable female will be an option.

Of course, who could forget the magnificent Angela Bassett? Her role as Agent Six in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is not someone to be trifled with.

This was the first E3 to prominently feature women in almost every game as player one. What's more, even in games where a woman wasn't the protagonist, female characters were featured. It's not much, but we'll take even the smallest victories where we can find them. Let's hope this continues into E3 2016 and beyond.

  • Here's our take on the top 10 moments from this year's E3
Page 12 of 12
Page 12 of 12
Lily Prasuethsut
Social Links Navigation
See more Gaming news
More about gaming
Good morning, New Donk City.

Nintendo explains the decision behind blocking release of Dolphin emulator

Rode X XDM-100

Best microphones for streaming in 2023

Latest
Bryan Fury's entry animation for Tekken 8

Bryan Fury has been announced for Tekken 8, unannounced and then announced again

See more latest ►
Most Popular
5 things I can't wait to see at Computex 2023

By Michelle Rae UyMay 29, 2023

Most CEOs now see cybersecurity as more important than economic performance

By Sead FadilpašićMay 29, 2023

Spotify festival: how to generate your dream festival lineup poster

By David NieldMay 29, 2023

Bigger iPhone 16 Pro sizes are rumored to be making room for camera upgrades

By David NieldMay 29, 2023

Microsoft Defender Antivirus is getting a new performance mode, but you probably won't ever see it

By Sead FadilpašićMay 29, 2023

Tekken 8 release date, platforms, roster, gameplay, and news

By Kara PhillipsMay 29, 2023

Apple shuts My Photo Stream on July 26, so make sure you don't lose your photos

By David NieldMay 29, 2023

This new malware hijacks Windows WordPad to avoid detection

By Sead FadilpašićMay 29, 2023

Quordle today - hints and answers for Monday, May 29 (game #490)

By Marc McLarenMay 29, 2023

This tiny laptop charger has a 1TB SSD and automatic backup functionality

By Desire AthowMay 29, 2023

Nvidia Computex 2023 Keynote Live: On the ground at Computex 2023

By John LoefflerMay 29, 2023

  1. A man sitting in front of his laptop with his hands outstretched and a big smile on his face.
    1
    Microsoft is finally introducing the feature that’ll make me upgrade to Windows 11
  2. 2
    Don’t panic: there’s a reason your iPhone’s battery is draining faster than usual
  3. 3
    Windows 11 Moment 3 update is packed with cool features – here are 5
  4. 4
    I tried smart AR running sunglasses that show me a heads-up-display like Iron Man
  5. 5
    Many remote workers are unhappy with their company culture
  1. A young AI-created humanoid touches a robot in The Creator
    1
    The Creator looks like The Last of Us, Terminator, and Star Wars rolled into one
  2. 2
    I tried smart AR running sunglasses that show me a heads-up-display like Iron Man
  3. 3
    I made crispy air fryer chickpeas and it's made snacking healthy
  4. 4
    5 things I want to see on the rumored MacBook Air
  5. 5
    New iPhone 15 Pro Max specs leak hints at what's not changing this year
Technology Magazines
  • ●
Technology Magazines
  • The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviews
From$12.99
View

TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Web notifications
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.