The Most Loved Video
Game Locations in the UK
Breathtaking scenery.
Bustling city streets.
Centuries of history.
Wizards.
War.
Roaring crowds and sporting legends.
The diverse landscapes of the UK are rich pickings for game designers. Full of beauty and history, not to mention fantastical legend by the cauldron-full, Great Britain is full of inspiration.
From the early days of personal home computers and chunky graphics, through to the interactive VR landscapes we immerse ourselves in today, the UK has inspired some of the most exciting games.
Grab a controller and load up as we take a trip around some of the best UK-based video games!
Get set – go!
The UK is a hotbed of sport, so it’s no surprise that so many sporting titles take their inspiration from the racetracks and stadia here. In fact, you can go all the way back to 1983 and one of the first ever driving simulators to find Silverstone Circuit recreated onscreen. Home of the British Grand Prix, it appeared in Chequered Flag, a tape-loading racing game by Psion for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in 1983. Also featured in the game was Brands Hatch and although the graphics of the time were limited, the game did its best to put you in the driving seat and include every curve and chicane of the action. Nowadays these racetracks take centre-stage in the Gran Turismo series.
Burning rubber
The early home computer games in the UK were played on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Launched in 1982 with a then astonishing 48K of memory (modern smartphones or tablets contain over 160,000 times this!) it was a hit up and down the country, selling by the million. Gameplay came courtesy of audio cassettes that would often take over ten minutes to load, while your game control came from the keys of the rubber-buttoned keyboard!
Game.
Set.
Match.
From thrilling races to football fever, video games give you the opportunity to play like your sporting heroes in the theatres of dreams. The release dates of FIFA games are just as important as the FA Cup Final when it comes to the sporting calendar, even under their new EA Sports FC branding. Recent titles such as EA Sports FC 24 feature incredibly detailed recreations of UK stadiums such as Anfield (Liverpool), Old Trafford (Manchester United), Emirates Stadium (Arsenal), and Stamford Bridge (Chelsea) – along with football’s spiritual home – Wembley Stadium in London.
Meanwhile you can race your way across the UK and experience breathtaking lakes, forests, valleys and castles in stunning detail with games like Forza Horizon 4. Although it’s a fictionalised version of Great Britain, you’re able to speed a variety of stunning cars through versions of Edinburgh, the Scottish Highlands, the Lake District, and the Cotswolds at full throttle.
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Big Ben
Games featured: Hellgate: London, Project Gotham Racing 2
Buckingham Palace
Games featured: ZombiU
The Shard
Games featured: Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Games featured: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Hellgate: London, Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft
Tower Bridge
Games featured: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Whitechapel
Games featured: Vampyr
West End
Games featured: Vampyr
King’s Cross Station
Games featured: Harry Potter Series
Bethnal Green
Games featured: The Getaway
221b Baker Street
Games featured: Sherlock Holmes Series
The London Underground
Games featured: Watch Dogs: Legion, Hellgate: London
Loftus Road, Shepherd’s Bush
Games featured: Grand Theft Auto Mission Pack#1: London 1969
RAF Bomber Command Memorial, Green Park
Games featured: Bomber Crew
London
calling
Packed with history and drama at every turn, London is a gamer’s haven when it comes to plot and location. From post-apocalyptic zombie hellscapes around Big Ben and Buckingham Palace(Hellgate: London and ZombiU) through to the criminal underworld of Bethnal Green (The Getaway) London is continually and vividly brought to digital life.
History plays its part too, with Victorian London’s rich storyland appearing in games like Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Here the player’s main enemy is a gang called the ‘Blighters’, while notable characters include Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, and Queen Victoria herself. Notable locations include St. Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge.
Post-WW1 London takes a turn for the bloodthirsty in Vampyr, which sees England’s capital overrun by vampires. The dark and often terrifying action unfolds in the cemeteries of Whitechapel, while other parts of the story take place in London’s West End.
Capital capers: 10 top video games set in London
- 1
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Victorian London-based action adventure
- 2
The Getaway
GTA-like geezer-gangster action
- 3
Watch Dogs: Legion
Adventure set in near-future dystopian London
- 4
Sherlock Holmes Series
Adventures featuring Holmes and Watson along with Jack the Ripper, Cthulhu and more
- 5
Hellgate: London
Dark fantasy hack n’ slash in 2038 London
- 6
ZombiU
Fight the zombie apocalypse with a cricket bat
- 7
London 2012: The Official Video Game
Running! Throwing! Jumping! Medals!
- 8
Vampyr
Drac-tastic action with a twist: you’re the vampire
- 9
Thief
Steampunk stealth in London-inspired settings
- 10
Harry Potter Series
Wizard antics at King’s Cross and Diagon Alley
GTA 60s-style
In 1999, a GTA expansion pack took players to the streets of Swinging London. Grand Theft Auto Mission Pack#1: London 1969 took the action to the capital’s streets, with red phone-boxes everywhere and even a mission to hi-jack the Queen’s Park Rangers team bus!
Defend these islands!
Historical war strategies such as Total War: Thrones of Britannia and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla feature Vikings and tribes from Wessex and Mercia fighting for Dark-Age supremacy of Britain.
More recent wars that have shaped the UK feature heavily in games too. Battlefield 1 includes expanded battle maps set in the North Sea during WWII, while Aces High is a flight simulator that takes place over the English Channel during the Battle of Britain. Meanwhile the real-time strategy game Bomber Crew features the now-defunct RAF base at Woodbridge in Suffolk where WWII Lancaster crews train and undertake bombing missions.
Respects paid
In Bomber Crew, once you’ve recruited your crew you’ll see them as marble statues in the menu screen. It’s a nod to the real-life RAF Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London, which was unveiled by The Queen in 2012.
Escape to the
country
Beyond the theatre of war, away from the sports stadia and the big cities, lies the beating heartland of Britain. The diverse and rugged landscapes of the countryside where life is lived at a different pace and so much is possible.
It all sounds idyllic – but is it enough to inspire great gameplay?
Well, yes, it is. Out beyond the capital and the crowds you find magical and mysterious places like Stonehenge, which is a key part of the gameplay in world-building strategy game Civilization VI. The wild and windswept Hebrides Isles are the backdrop for the adventure mystery Dear Esther, while the sun-swept coast of Cornwall is where gaming icon Lara Croft goes in search of Excalibur in Tomb Raider: Legend.
Lara is a Derby girl
It's a little-known fact but Lara Croft was born – or at least designed – in Derby. Core Design, who were based in the city, created the first Tomb Raider game which became a worldwide smash. More games and even films followed, and there is now a ‘Lara Croft Way’ in the city.
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Erdington – Wiltshire
Games featured: Total War: Thrones of Britannia
York – Yorkshire
Games featured: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Winchester – Hampshire
Games featured: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
The North Sea
Games featured: Battlefield 1
English Channel
Games featured: Aces High
Cardiff, Wales
Games featured: Doctor Who: Legacy
Cornwall, SW England
Games featured: Tomb Raider: Legend
Powys, Wales
Games featured: Dirt Rally 2.0
Hebrides, Scotland
Games featured: Dear Esther
Stonehenge – Wiltshire
Games featured: Civilization VI
Stonehenge – Wiltshire
Games featured: Civilization VI
RAF Woodbridge – Woodbridge, Suffolk
Games featured: Bomber Crew
Hadrian’s Wall – Northern England
Games featured: Total War: Thrones of Britannia
Manchester Cathedral – Manchester
Games featured: Resistance: Fall of Man
Shropshire
Games featured: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Derby, East Midlands – birthplace of Lara Croft
Games featured: The Tomb Raider Series
Birmingham, West Midlands
Games featured: Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
Shropshire
Games featured: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Derby, East Midlands – birthplace of Lara Croft
Games featured: The Tomb Raider Series
Birmingham, West Midlands
Games featured: Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
The most British
backdrop of all?
So is there a game location that could claim to be more British than any other?
Obviously, games set in London have a head-start for sheer iconic value. Stick Big Ben in the background and there’s no doubting where the action takes place. But we think Britishness goes a little deeper than that, and we reckon we’ve found a good contender for the most typically British setting a video game has ever seen.
Step forward 2015’s Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Available for PlayStation 4 and Windows, this adventure game can claim to have Britishness down to a fine art. Games set in Shropshire are rare – as far as we could find out this is the only one. It captures the spirit of a typical British village perfectly – tweeting birds, wind blowing softly across the fields, sunlight in the village pub garden. Then there’s the rain too – it absolutely chucks it down when you reach the Butlins-style holiday village complete with tents and caravans (and what could be more British than a wet holiday?). Then there’s the garage, the doctor’s surgery, the cottages, the church, the village lanes, the windmill on the hill, the pylons, the bus-stops, the phone boxes…
The only thing that’s missing is the people – everyone has disappeared, and it’s down to you to uncover just what has happened. It’s a mystery set in a location that is so well designed that it captures the essence of Britain perfectly, right down to the Emmerdale-style village drama that emerges the more you play. There’s an even bigger drama unfolding there too, but we don’t want to spoil that for you.
But in the meantime, here’s our list of 10 great games set in the UK.
10 top games
set in the UK
So, there we have it. The UK has been, and will no doubt continue to be, the inspiration for exciting games that have us all hooked as we dash from city to village, through wars and history and battles on the sporting field. And there are plenty of prime platforms from which to enjoy video games to the fullest.
The compact Xbox Series S may be small in size but it comes with 512 GB SSD storage and speedy loading for some serious gaming. And, with the revolutionary new Xbox Velocity Architecture you can bring better quality to your old Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.
Plus we have a great range of Nintendo consoles available to take your gaming experience to the next level, including the Nintendo Switch which undocks for portable gaming on the go, and some great Nintendo bundles.
And, if you’re a PlayStation aficionado (or know someone who is), then enjoy some downloading power with our range of PlayStation Plus gift cards. We also have the super-fast, super-slim PS5 console. It delivers above and beyond on great visuals and gameplay, yet comes in 24% lighter and 30% smaller than the original”.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Village mystery adventure in beautiful rural Shropshire
Forza Horizon 4
Spectacular driving experiences through Scotland and England
Medieval II: Total War
Historical war campaigns in Ancient Britain
F1 2020
Formula 1 racing at Silverstone Circuit
Project Gotham Racing 4
Fast cars on the mean streets of London
Resistance: Fall of Man
Alternate alien post-WWII history in Northern England
Tomb Raider: Legend
Brit heroine Lara Croft searches for Excalibur in Cornwall
Dirt Rally 2.0
Rally racing in Powys, Wales
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
The Vikings march on ancient England
Total War: Thrones of Britannia
Tribal war strategy in Anglo-Saxon Britain
So, there we have it. The UK has been, and will no doubt continue to be, the inspiration for exciting games that have us all hooked as we dash from city to village, through wars and history and battles on the sporting field. And there are plenty of prime platforms from which to enjoy video games to the fullest.
The compact Xbox Series S may be small in size but it comes with 512 GB SSD storage and speedy loading for some serious gaming. And, with the revolutionary new Xbox Velocity Architecture you can bring better quality to your old Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.
Plus we have a great range of Nintendo consoles available to take your gaming experience to the next level, including the Nintendo Switch which undocks for portable gaming on the go, and some great Nintendo bundles.
And, if you’re a PlayStation aficionado (or know someone who is), then enjoy some downloading power with our range of PlayStation Plus gift cards. We also have the super-fast, super-slim PS5 console. It delivers above and beyond on great visuals and gameplay, yet comes in 24% lighter and 30% smaller than the original”.