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Grandparent Heroes

Video games are often considered to be a young person's pastime. These days though, people of all ages play games. The average age of a video game player is late 30's and 31% of 45-64-year-olds in Europe play games regularly.

It's therefore, no surprise that games are made to appeal to a wide range of ages and address topics that are important at different stages of life. There are some games that specifically star older characters as the main protagonist.

This may be because of the stage of life they are at, or because of a role they play in the game's narrative. Either way, these games offer a chance to step into the shoes of a senior character.

This includes games where an older character has a heroic role, like Joel in The Last of Us or Corvo Attano from Dishonored 2. There are other games where the character has a mythic quality that disguises old game, like Geralt in Witcher 3 or Kratos in God of War.

There are other games where you create your own character and it enables you to choose someone who looks older. Games like Watchdogs 3, Red Dead Redemption, Sea of Thieves and Fallout.

This list includes 28 games from the last 16 years, with 737 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to play as an older hero.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 18
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to R 18+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Fighting, Narrative, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Rhythm, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Sports, Stealth, Strategy and Traversal
Total Likes: 737

Related Lists

We have other Age Related lists of games:

Sea of Thieves

Release Date: 20/03/2018, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Sea of Thieves is an online game where you are a pirate searching for treasure and adventure. Cast into a large open sea you work with other online players to crew your ship and find treasure. The game has a main story but really focuses on creating...

Tchia

Release Date: 17/03/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon, Open World and Weather

Tchia is an adventure where you play a young girl (Tchia) who can climb, glide, swim, and sail around a beautiful archipelago. Along with the usual sandbox quests and play the game offers an unusual ability to take control (and become) any animal or...

Hindsight

Release Date: 04/08/2022

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

Hindsight is a narrative point-and-click game where you revisit the past by finding objects that trigger memories. Play involves exploring each scene, locating objects and listening to the story as you move the camera to look within what you've found...

Thirsty Suitors

Release Date: 02/11/2023

Coming Soon: PC

Components: 3D Third-Person

Thirsty Suitors is a role play game where you play Jala, back in your home town of Timber Hills to confront mistakes, make up with exes and reconcile cultural differences with your parents. You talk to your family and old friends, take on turn-based...

Old Man's Journey

Release Date: 17/05/2017

Out Now: Android, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Old Man's Journey is a game about memory and old age. You help a grandfather figure traverse the countryside by raising and lowering the landscape. Along the way, he visits places that evoke the story of his life: a wife, a child and a love of the sea.

Before I Forget

Release Date: 01/07/2020

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Hand-Made

Before I Forget is an exploration adventure, where you play Sunita, a woman alone in a house with early-onset dementia. As you wander from room to room, you discover mysterious objects, each holding a fleeting, fragmented memory. Examine faded...

Red Dead Redemption 2

Release Date: 26/10/2018, updated in 2019

Out Now: PC, PS4, Stadia and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an adventure game with a wild west theme and a prequel to Red Dead Redemption. As you explore a vast and varied open world, you partake in shootouts, heists, and elaborate chases across the...

Blind Drive

Release Date: 10/03/2021

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Blind Drive is a driving adventure game you play with audio rather than visuals. You are Donnie and are in a scientific study that has got out of control. You find yourself cuffed to the wheel of a car driving blindfolded against traffic. It's tongue in...

11-11 Memories Retold

Release Date: 08/11/2018

Out Now: PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Hand-Made

11-11 Memories Retold is a narrative adventure about two young men caught up in the first world war. A young photographer who joins the western front in Europe to impress a woman, and a German technician who's signs up in search of his son who is...

Venba

Release Date: 31/07/2023

Out Now: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Venba is a narrative-cooking game about an Indian mother who emigrated to Canada in the 1980s. You cook various traditional Indian dishes and restore the lost recipes which were damaged in the move to Canada. As you talk to your mother's family you...

I Am Dead

Release Date: 07/10/2020, updated in 2021

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and Hand-Made

I Am Dead is a puzzle game from the creators of Wilmot's Warehouse. You play a recently-deceased museum curator trying to avert a disaster from his home town of Shelmerston.

Littlewood

Release Date: 18/06/2019

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Day and Night, Open World and Pixels

Littlewood is a town and farming simulator a little like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. Here though, the twist is that the game is set after a grand adventure. You beat the boss, and...

The Last Of Us

Release Date: 14/06/2013

Out Now: PS3 and PS4

Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Weather

The Last Of Us is an action-adventure where You play a father, Joel, whose daughter was killed during the early stages of a deadly fungal outbreak. It’s now 20 years later, and he has clearly suffered from the loss. When Joel is given charge of a...

Last Minute Love

Release Date: 27/12/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC and Web

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Last Minute Love is an adventure where you play an "old person" in a nursing home who is looking for love. This takes the dating simulator style of game in an unusual direction. You explore the home in your wheelchair, meet a quirky cast of people and...

God of War

Release Date: 20/04/2018

Out Now: PS4

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

God of War is an adventure fighting game where You play super-strong Norse fantasy hero Kratos, as he takes his son Atreus on a brutal quest in the wake of his mother’s death. The exploration, puzzle-solving, climbing and fighting gameplay intertwine...

Forever Ago

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Forever Ago is a narrative adventure where you embark on a road trip through beautiful places, capturing memories with your camera and making new friends. You explore forest lakes, dusty barrens and sweltering deserts, interacting with objects you find...

Tree

Release Date: 13/08/2018

Out Now: PC

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Tree is a narrative game that tells the story of a boy who plants a small tree. You control the planting, watering and how the tree grows each season. It stands out for how it illustrates the passing of time and the way we interact and form connections...

Fête de Famille

Release Date: 01/09/2022

Out Now: Android and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Fête de Famille (Family Gathering) is a text adventure about families. About what happens when families get together. It's an acid portrait of a contemporary French family that asks why, how and what are the bonds that tie them together.

Bomber Crew

Release Date: 12/08/2018

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Day and Night

Bomber Crew is a cartoon-styled World War 2 strategic bombing simulator. While it avoids the grim reality of these missions, it connects players to the extreme difficulty and danger of making it out and back again.

Burly Men at Sea

Release Date: 29/09/2016, updated in 2018

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Burly Men at Sea is an adventure where you play three seafaring brothers who explore the Scandinavian seas. It's novel because it requires multiple playthroughs to discover the full narrative. It has a unique cyclical gameplay loop that remembers your...

Like No Other: The Legend Of The Twin Books

Release Date: 25/08/2022

Out Now: PC, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Like No Other: The Legend Of The Twin Books is a light point-and-click game about a bumbling adventurer who (in spite of his advanced years) sets out to solve the legend of the twin books by exploring the abandoned town of Red Pines. It stands out for...

The Wreck

Release Date: 15/03/2023

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

The Wreck is a narrative game where you play Junon, a mother at a crossroads. She's 36 but her career has stalled, she's emotionally numb, and her personal life is falling apart. It's not unfamiliar territory for a video game these days, but The Wreck...

Adios

Release Date: 17/03/2021

Out Now: PC and Xbox One

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Adios is a narrative game about a farmer with a deal-gone-bad with a crime family. Although the setting and scenario are macabre and could be pulled from shows like Ozark and Breaking Bad, the understated atmosphere and sombre tone powerfully...

Passage

Release Date: 01/01/2007

Out Now: Web

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Passage passage.toolness.org is a super-simple game from the same developer as One Hour One Life on the theme of a life well lived. Although just a few minutes long, it offers an unusual interactive metaphor for the...

The War to End All Wars

The War to End All Wars (Dreams)

Release Date: 14/02/2021

Out Now: PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person and 3D Third-Person

The War to End All Wars is a point-and-click game set in a World War One battlefield visitor centre. However, as you interact with the exhibits you get taken back in time to live the experience through the eyes of a soldier. Unusually, it uses...

Watch Dogs

Release Date: 27/05/2014

Out Now: PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Watch Dogs an open world adventure. It's the first instalment in the Watch Dogs series. You navigate and explore the world on foot or in a variety of vehicles. The novelty is the futuristic setting that highlights the use (and misuse) of social media to...

A Walk With Yiayia

Release Date: 20/08/2022

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

A Walk with Yiayia is an adventure game where you go on a walk with your Greek grandmother after she's lost her confidence from having a fall. You reassure her and connect with conversation and help her complete small quests in a relaxing neighbourhood.

Minabo - A Walk Through Life

Release Date: 02/06/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Minabo - A Walk Through Life is an adventure game about the path of life. As you move along the road your turnip character is born, grows and thrives (or not) in all manner of family and social relationships.

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

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Grandparent Heroes

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