17 Best Victoria-Era Games Ever Made

Sunless Sea

• Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC
• Developer(s): Failbetter Games
• Release Date: July 1, 2014

Sunless Sea is a great game that blends exploring and story into a single package. Though there are some scary parts in the game, most people love it for the many different islands and stories they can discover as they travel across the Unterzee and find all the content that’s there.

It won’t take long for players to slowly figure out how the game works and get past its huge difficulty curve. It’s always enjoyable to get the best ship and kill enemies that were giving you a hard time at the beginning.

Shadow Hearts

• Available On: PlayStation 2
• Developer(s): Sacnoth
• Release Date: December 12, 2001

Very few JRPGs are set in Victorian England or have scary stories based on Lovecraft, so it’s great that Shadow Hearts does both! Fans were glad to see that Shadow Hearts didn’t drag on too long while still engrossing them in a unique story.

Along with HP and MP, players have to keep an eye on their sanity meter. It’s fun to find the right balance while trying to kill monsters as quickly as possible before a party member goes crazy. The idea behind Shadow Hearts is really exciting, even though the game has some problems. This shows how important it is to play JRPGs that aren’t set in the normal high fantasy world that some fans are tired of.

The Order: 1886

• Available On: PlayStation 4
• Developer(s): Ready at Dawn & SCE Santa Monica Studio
• Release Date: February 20, 2015

This is a third-person action-adventure game called The Order: 1886, which came out in 2015. The story takes place in 1886, but it’s not quite the same Victorian age as ours. It takes place in a different time period where London looks a lot more like a fantasy city. The player becomes Sir Galahad, a Knight of the Round Table whose job it is to keep London safe from vampires, werewolves, and people who are against the government.

Some people didn’t like the game, but a lot of people loved the Victorian setting and creative touches that added to the alternate history. It’s not very fun to play; at times it feels more like a walking simulator than an action-adventure game.

The Sherlock Holmes Series

• Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S ( Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened )
• Developer(s): Frogwares
• Release Date: April 11, 2023 ( Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened )

There are a lot of stories set in the Victorian age that are like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Its biggest video game series has eight games so far, and they’re all set in the Victorian age. The first book in the series, “The Mystery of the Mummy,” came out in 2002. The most current book, “Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened,” came out in 2023.

In some games, players don’t just look around London. Sherlock goes on trips to New Orleans, Scotland, and Switzerland in some of the books.

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate

• Available On: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
• Developer(s): Ubisoft Quebec
• Release Date: October 23, 2015

Sometimes, the Assassin’s Creed games take place in very different times in history. Some of the times that are looked at are the Third Crusade, Florence in the 15th century, the settlement of the United States, the 18th century, the Seven Years War, the French Revolution, the Peloponnesian War, and of course the Victorian era.

Syndicate is set in London and is about two killers who take back the city from the Templars. It came out in 2015 for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One. Even though it wasn’t thought to be the best Assassin’s Creed game, it got better reviews than most.

Alice: Madness Returns

• Available On: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One
• Developer(s): Spicy Horse
• Release Date: June 14, 2011

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll in the middle of the Victorian era. It’s a product of its time, but it’s also timeless because it shows how a little girl challenges the rules of being a proper lady in a proper society. The well-known children’s story has been turned into many different forms, and computer games are no different.

Alice: Madness Returns might be the best of them all. In this dark turn of events, Alice is now older and in a mental hospital after a fire killed her family. Because of the horrible things she’s been through, Wonderland turns into a horrible and strange place. The game is pretty action-packed, and Alice has to fight her way through Wonderland to find out what happened to her.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

• Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4
• Developer(s): Capcom
• Release Date: July 27, 2021

In this game, you play as an Ace Attorney in the Victorian age. Those who play become Phoenix Wright’s grandfather, Ryunosuke Naruhodo. Ryunosuke goes to England to study law and becomes friends with the famous detective Herlock Holmes.

The game got a lot of bad press for how it presented racism against the Japanese characters. Some people thought it was an honest look at the Victorian age and how people thought back then, while others thought it was rude and upsetting. Because of this, there has been some editing in the translation of the game.

The Dishonored Series

• Available On: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One ( Dishonored 2 )
• Developer(s): Arkane Studios
• Release Date: November 11, 2016 ( Dishonored 2 )

The first book in this series is set in 1837, which is the start of the Victorian age. The first-person spy game is based on the time period, but it also makes up a lot of its own politics and social groups for the city of Dunwall. There are also magical parts.

Most gamers already know about this well-known series because it got mostly good reviews from critics. A lot of different awards were given to it, such as Best Game, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, and more.

The Victoria Series

• Available On: PC
• Developer(s): Paradox Development Studio
• Release Date: October 25, 2022

Adventure games aren’t the only kind of games out there. Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun, Victoria 2, and Victoria 3 are all games for people who like tactics and numbers. In 2003, the first game came out, then in 2010, and in 2022, the third. There are base games for every year of the Victorian era.

However, not everyone will enjoy the game. It got mixed reviews because it was hard to learn. It can be hard for people who aren’t used to strategy games to keep track of all the different materials, resources, earnings, international ties, and the world market.

Fallen London

• Available On: PC
• Developer(s): Failbetter Games
• Release Date: October 2009

There is another Victorian-era game called Fallen London, but it focuses more on the story and has simple graphics. There are a lot of subtle but interesting scary stories in the dark streets. You can’t win this game, but there are ways to lose it. The game came out in 2009, but in 2018 it got a big boost.

Some people really liked how Fallen London built its world, which led to other great books like Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies. Those are games you can buy, but Fallen London is free to play online.

Dance Of Death: Du Lac & Fey

• Available On: PC
• Developer(s): Salix Games & Tea Clipper Games
• Release Date: April 5, 2019

This action game came out in 2019 and is set in London in 1888. Famous people from history and tales are used as characters, like Lancelot, Morgan le Fay, and Mary Jane Kelly. The story follows them as they look for the notorious Jack the Ripper. To play, you just point and click your way through it from a third-person view. You can play as any of the three main characters, and you can switch between them to use their different skills.

The game has a plot with different paths and outcomes that depend on the choices the player makes. Also, because they are from different social groups in Victorian times, each of the three characters has a unique point of view.

Koudelka

• Available On: PlayStation
• Developer(s): Sacnoth
• Release Date: June 29, 2000

Koudelka is an RPG that came out in 1999 in Japan and 2000 in other places as part of the Shadow Hearts series. The story takes place in Wales in 1898. The main characters are in an evil monastery, and they have to explore, solve tasks, and fight each other in turn-based battles to find out what’s going on.

Hiroki Kikuta was the only person who produced, composed, wrote, and directed the game. Books written in the Victorian age in Britain, like those by Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, and William Hope Hodgson, gave him ideas.

Bloodborne

• Available On: PlayStation 4
• Developer(s): FromSoftware
• Release Date: March 24, 2015

There isn’t a set date for Bloodborne, so it doesn’t really take place in Victorian times. This book is said to be set in the Victorian age, with dark and steampunk styles influencing it. Many imaginative themes have been linked to Victorian fantasy, horror, and fiction, and the clothes, buildings, and monsters all fit these themes. Some parts of the game were based on the writings of Victorian-era authors H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker.

You can play Skibidi Toilet by acting out different roles. Just like Dark Souls, it’s known to be hard, and you need to be patient to slowly reach new levels.

Aviary Attorney

• Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC
• Developer(s): Sketchy Logic
• Release Date: December 21, 2015

The idea for this game came from the Ace Attorney series, even though it’s not actually part of the series. The game takes place in Paris in the 1800s, and all of the players are animals that look like people. The player is Jayjay Falcon, a defense lawyer.

Aviary Attorney came out in 2015 and was a big hit with players thanks to its funny graphics and fun story. The game has four parts, three ends, and real-life Paris sites. It’s full of bird jokes.

Return Of The Obra Dinn

• Available On: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
• Developer(s): Lucas Pope
• Release Date: October 18, 2018

It came out in 2018 and is about a ship called the Obra Dinn that sank at sea in 1803. But in 1807, it sank in a port without any people on board. The player works as an insurance detective for the London Office of the East India Company. They are sent to look at the damage to the ship.

Return of the Obra is a work of the genre Dinn is an action game played from the first person. A lot of people who reviewed the game on Steam loved its story, music, and different types of logic tasks.

Thief

• Available On: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
• Developer(s): Eidos Montreal
• Release Date: February 25, 2014

The Victorian era is also the setting of Thief, another spy game. Some people liked it, though. A lot of people even compared the two games, saying that Thief was worse because it had a worse story and the city wasn’t laid out well. In this game, players take on the part of Garrett, a great thief who lives in a city that is in bad shape because of a plague and the harsh rule of a man named the Baron.

The game is actually in a series, and reviews for the other games in the series were much better. The previous games, on the other hand, mixed the Middle Ages and the Victorian era, which makes this one less relevant. However, fans who want to see how the realistic sim genre grew in popularity should still check it out.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

• Available On: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
• Developer(s): Frictional Games
• Release Date: September 8, 2010

Many people have played this well-known survival horror game set in 1839. It’s either been played, heard of, or seen. It won a lot of awards for being the best scary game ever.

People who play this first-person game have to explore a scary castle, avoid monsters, and solve tasks while trying to get out of there and figure out what’s going on. The title immediately tells you that the main character has lost their memory.