Five awesome black female characters featured in big franchise video games

Male characters don’t only rule video games. Today, there is a slew of leading black women taking games by storm. These characters are also featuring in some of the biggest franchises the gaming world has to offer. Such without further ado, here are some of the most fearless leading ladies currently ruling the gaming world.

Sheva Alomar (Resident Evil 5)

Resident Evil is a game about flesh-eating zombies, and Sheva Alomar stood up to the challenge by fighting her enemies with superb combat skills and quick thinking. Without her, Chris Redfield (her partner in the franchise) wouldn't have survived, that’s for sure. Thus, Sheva Alomar will always be one of the toughest, most inspirational black female characters in a video game. 

Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2)

Alyx Vance is more than just a companion in the critically-acclaimed Half-LIfe 2. She is known for her wits and stinging personality that can keep anyone who objectifies her at bay. Without Alyx, Gorden Freeman is sitting duck throughout the Half Life series.

Aveline (Assassins Creed: Liberation)

Aveline is the first ever female protagonist to grace the highly-successful Assassin's Creed series. She was voted the 6th greatest heroine in video game history in 2013, with a popular video games review site saying, "Aveline is such an envelope pusher: a black, female, French-speaking protagonist in this world of stereotypical white males, she represents a major step forward for diversity in games.” And she is a deadly assassin on top of all that!

Ro (Left 4 Dead 2)

Ro is one of the four playable survivors of Left 4 Dead 2. one of the oldest first-person shooters that still has a huge fanbase. Ro is strong, powerful, and can easily counter any banter thrown her way. Before the outbreak began, she was a mild-mannered reporter but everything changed when doomsday hit and she was presented with an array of guns and blunt weapons to use at will. 

Barbara (Garden Dash)

Casual gamers know Barbara as the ​hardworking gardener from Garden Dash- a spinoff from the successful Diner Dash. She was stressed out from work, so her boss decided to help her by giving her a much-needed vacation. She agreed, and decided to do some gardening in order to attain Zen in her life. Barbara is tough, smart, and very professional wherever she applies herself, whether at her corporate office or in her garden. 

​With black female characters now coming to the fore in many leading video games, studies still show that triple A titles rarely feature women as their main characters. In fact, the figure stands at about 20% for females regardless of their ethnicity. However, today, things are beginning to change slowly, especially in terms of casual games. 

Aside from Barbara of Garden Dash, black female characters are prominent in many casual games. Often casual gamers are more diverse, strong black female characters are frequently part of side-scrolling and even slot machine titles. In the indie casual game Broken Age, a young black girl named Vella is actually the main protagonist of a timeless coming-of-age story.

On the other hand, the casual slot game Ali Baba, a title hosted on the Pocket Fruity gaming website, features a beautiful young black lady as part of the reel design. Casual games have clearly overcome the “gender” barrier based on statistics, and, hopefully, triple A titles will follow suit. 

Do you have a favorite black female video game character? Let your thoughts be heard in the comments section!

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