13 Best English Video Games for Learners

Gamers, we have good news.

We’ve played and selected 13 of the best English video games so you can improve your English skills and have fun at the same time.

If you turn your language settings to English, many video games will also have you practicing all your English skills in loads of different contexts.

So grab that controller and get playing!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

1. “Fable” 

Level: Intermediate

Genre: Role playing, fantasy 

Available on: Steam | Xbox

This is the Anniversary version of the classic game that was originally released in 2004. It’s meant for all those players who love fantasy and a good story. 

In this game, you play as a boy whose whole village is burned in an attack by bandits. After the boy runs away to a warrior’s guild, he’s trained to become a hero who has the task of defeating the villains in the region.

Throughout the game, you can choose whether to do good deeds and whether to help people around you. Based on your choices, your reputation and your character is built from childhood.

Every character on the street makes some comment or greets you, making you feel that you’re in a real village. The voice acting is one of the high points of the game and is excellent for learning British English.

2. “Civilization VI”

Level: Intermediate

Genre: Strategy, world history

Available on: Steam | PlayStation 4 | Website 

In every “Civilization” game you’re the ruler of a civilization who has to compete with others in the world. You start from the Stone Age and then reach the current times in terms of technology and science.

You have to maintain your city, build relationships with foreign nations, create an army, spy on your competitors and also make a spaceship before others.

Whenever you discover a new technology, a screen pops up with a quote and lots of information about what it allows you to do and even its actual history. 

This game is definitely more suitable for reading than listening. Unlike most of the other games on this list, you can play all “Civilization” games with no speakers or audio.

3. “Deponia”

Level: Intermediate

Genre: Point-and-click adventure game

Available on: Steam | Xbox | PlayStation 4 | Nintendo Switch 

Deponia is a world covered in junk and the main character, Rufus, desperately wants to escape it. Although this might seem very heavy and sad, the game is actually quite funny. 

The story is basically a tale about the romance between him and a girl called Goal. Even though Goal is never awake in the game, Rufus decides that she needs help and in the process, he uncovers a grand conspiracy (secret plan) that he tries to stop.

For learners, you can click almost anything and you’ll see witty descriptions about it that move the game forward.

There are also voiceovers that make the game more interesting along with giving learners content to improve their informal English speaking and listening skills.

4. “Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: Simulation, dystopian

Available on: Steam | iOS | Android 

George Orwell was a famous English writer. His novel “1984” described a scary dictatorship where everyone was being observed by the government 24 hours a day. 

Using this frightening vision of mass surveillance (close observation by the government) the game puts you in the shoes of the observer.

You play a character whose job is to collect information on suspects related to some crime. You can choose to share or withhold any information you want.

This game is designed to put you in tricky moral situations, forcing you to make tough decisions. The game is all about reading personal mail, chats, articles and other information. It’s best for taking your reading skills to the next level.

5. “Fallout 3”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: Role playing, post-apocalyptic

Available on: Steam | Xbox 

Have you ever wondered what will happen if a nuclear war destroys the world? Perhaps you have, but most probably it’s nothing like the “Fallout” series.

There are several games in this series, but “Fallout 3” is widely considered the one with the best narrative. 

In “Fallout 3,” you play as a character who travels throughout Washington D.C. looking for your father. Along with shooting mutants, creating weapons and buying new things, you get to interact with a diverse set of characters.

You’ll hear various American accents and some British ones. “Fallout 3” is famous for having the most realistic dialogues and conversation flow. For an example of an in-game conversation, watch this video.

The game is excellent for listening as well as reading practice since all the dialogues appear as text on the screen along with the recorded audio.

6. “BioShock”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: First-person shooter, science fiction

Available on: Steam | Xbox | PlayStation 4

After a horrible plane crash, you find yourself in an underwater city called Rapture. You need to fight huge scary robots, rescue little girls and uncover the history of the place, which was originally designed to be a utopia.

Just like in “Fallout,” you have to follow a story and make various moral choices that determine your abilities in the game. You get to hear many recordings, have conversations, overhear people talking and also talk to some characters.

Most people speak with a British accent in the game, although some characters use an Irish accent. There are also several games in this series, including a remastered version. 

7. “Tropico 6”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: Strategy, international politics

Available on: Steam | Xbox

This game puts you in the shoes of a dictator who has to rule an island.

It’s set during four eras: The Colonial Era, the World Wars era, Cold War era and the modern era. You have to manage international relations with the two superpowers, along with keeping the various factions on your island happy as well.

Learners will get to know the basic world history of the recent past. Throughout the game, you get various notifications from your advisers, leaders of different factions and ambassadors of many countries.

This can be used as a convenient tool to learn and read English, since all messages are accompanied by voice playbacks.

Learners should keep in mind that since the game is located in the Caribbean, the accents are very different from American or British speakers. 

8. “Firewatch”

Level: Advanced

Genre: Adventure, mystery

Available on: Steam | Xbox | PlayStation 4 | Nintendo Switch

You play as a man named Henry, who’s in the middle of the Wyoming forest in the U.S. to look out for fires. Throughout the game, your supervisor, Delilah, talks to you through the radio.

As the story progresses, the two of you get closer and discover some dark secrets about each other and also about the forest.

This game won a BAFTA and has a story that could’ve easily been made into a movie. The script and the voice acting are done by people who usually work with extremely popular TV series, like “The Walking Dead.”

Since the game is all about conversations between two people, it’s obviously ideal for English listening practice. However, the jokes and sarcasm in the game might be hard for beginners to understand.

9. “21 Days”

Level: Beginner to intermediate

Genre: Role-playing, international politics

Available on: Steam

This game tries to make the player experience what a typical refugee has to go through every single day. In it, you play a Syrian refugee who’s trying to survive in another land.

The game is short, which makes it ideal for English practice. It’s purely text-based, which means that it can only be used to improve your reading skills.

The language is quite informal and also has some Arabic phrases mixed into it since you play as a Syrian. The sentence structures are quite simple in the game and the dialogues are close to realistic, making it very useful for beginners.

10. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare”

Level: Upper-intermediate to advanced

Genre: First-person shooter 

Available on: Steam | Xbox | PlayStation 4 | Website

The “Call of Duty” series includes some of the most popular action games of all time. In these games, you play the role of a soldier, where you and your team work together to defeat the other team.

The “Call of Duty” games also come with a voice chat feature where you can chat, make jokes and come up with strategies with your teammates—or have conversations with anyone before and after a game starts.

This is a great opportunity to practice English skills that you might not get from the classroom, like listening to different English accents, including accents of other second-language speakers, or learning informal English and slang.

One of the most popular games in the series is “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” which was so popular that they released this remastered version of it. But there are so many games that if this is not the one for you, you can choose from another couple dozen!

11. “League of Legends”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: Multiplayer online battle arena, fantasy, role playing

Available on: Website

“League of Legends” is another hugely popular free adventure game where teams work together to complete various quests. There have been several spin-offs, including other games and a Netflix show, “Arcane”. 

The game has a built-in chat feature, where you can talk to people using text, and is only available to play on your computer. 

Since a large portion of the game requires communicating with your teammates, a lot of people like supplementing the game with voice chat programs like Discord or TeamSpeak to talk to one another.

If your friends already have a Discord channel, simply ask them for the address to join. Otherwise, you can create your own by downloading the program and following the easy-to-understand instructions and then link them to your chatroom.

Unlike most games in our list, “League of Legends” is not available on Steam, so make sure you double-check where you can download it. 

12. “VRChat”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: Multiplayer, role playing

Available on: Steam | Website 

“VRChat” isn’t like any other game that you’ve ever played before. In fact, it’s more like a chatroom with a video game world built into it—you even help create the world!

Simply choose your avatar or character and chat with thousands of people from across the world using text or voice chat. You’ll get to explore more than 25,000 virtual worlds and talk with new people while doing so.

Most of the worlds are created by the users themselves. You can explore alien worlds, old abandoned theme parks, shrines and temples, and absolutely anything else you can imagine with your character! 

13. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Genre: Role playing, fantasy, action

Available on: Steam | Xbox | PlayStation 4 | Nintendo Switch

Do you enjoy having supernatural powers and visiting beautiful lands while fighting enemies and improving your English? Try one of the “The Witcher” games. 

Out of the many games in the series, “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” has been praised for its storyline and graphics, so you might want to check this one out. 

It’s available in 17 languages, and many of them have had the full audio translated, which means you have subtitles, full dialogues and even songs translated!

There are several ways you can use “The Witcher” to learn English, apart from chatting with other players. For starters, you can choose to play the game in your native language (if it’s available) and switch on the English subtitles.

You can also go for a total immersion experience and set the audio to English as well, so all you’ll hear is English throughout the whole game.

Why Use Video Games to Practice English

Wondering why you should be playing video games to practice your English? Here are a few of the best reasons.

They’re interactive.

Unlike videos or songs, your own actions influence the game in important ways. This active involvement helps you pay deeper attention to the material and understand it better.

They mimic real-life situations.

Almost every game seeks to be a simulation. In other words, every game tries to imitate reality or make you feel that what’s happening in the game is really happening to you.

This helps you practice your skills in a setting that’s closer to daily life and makes similar demands of you.

They’re addictive.

Because games invite you to act and then reward or punish you based on your actions, they can quickly become addictive.

Of course, if it gets out of control, this can be dangerous. But in moderation (not too much) games can transform boring language lessons into enjoyable activities that you want to do regularly.

You can choose different responses in the same situation.

The element of choice is one of the most important features of any game. This is especially true for in-game conversations where every choice you make alters the whole outcome.

You can always go back and play the game differently to get different reactions and practice using different vocabulary.

You play at your own pace.

Except for some time-based games, most video games nowadays let you explore, absorb and discover things at your own speed.

Before choosing any game be sure to watch a “gameplay” video online so that you know what kind of English is used in it and how. Only after you think that it’s going to help you understand English better should you start playing it.

And if you find yourself enjoying these, you can find more games to play on gaming news websites like Game Informer or by watching game trailers.

For instance, watch the trailer for the popular multiplayer hit “Overwatch” for a quick look at what the game is about.

To get more out of your learning, you can watch it through a language learning program such as FluentU.

 

Almost every game in this list takes some time to complete, so be sure to select the most appropriate one according to your learning level. 

Now go out there and have fun while playing video games in English!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)