Evolve and the Quandary of Female Characters

Recently, Turtle Rock Studios Creative Director Phil Robb made some comments in an interview with Destructoid where he attempted to address the underrepresentation of female characters in the 4v1 multiplayer shooter, Evolve. Presently, three-fourths of the characters are male (counting the robot, which is referred to as “he”), with women who may as well be palette and gender swaps of their teammates. Maybe one more if you regard the Wraith as a female monster. But no matter how you add them up, male characters are the overwhelming majority.

This discrepancy between the characters’ genders wasn’t a move that was made on purpose, Robb claimed. He remained focused on the fact that the team wanted to "keep all their clothes on" when referring to the women in-game, as if that were truly something that mattered: "We didn't go for the whole Dead or Alive -- there's no boob jiggle or any of that bullshit." He also went on to confirm that he and the rest of the team at Turtle Rock have plenty more character ideas in mind for the future, with "a lot" of female character ideas for possible future DLC installments and more.

That's all well and good, but a keen emphasis on keeping women clothed and "decent" doesn't exactly equate to interesting female characters, and it only reinforces a problem that currently exists within the realm of video game narrative. Female character tropes are simply tired and boring. If you want to resolve the problem of "not enough interesting female characters," you have to get to the root of the problem, and that's challenging the preconceived notions of what's acceptable for female characters and what isn't.

If you've been paying attention, you've likely noticed that there simply aren't enough opportunities for different personality types to shine through. Either the writing simply isn't strong enough, or the writers are trying too hard to channel a certain “vibe” that doesn’t match up with the game itself. We can attempt to wave this notion away with a magic wand that points at Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, the new and "improved" Lara Croft, or (God forbid) Alyx Vance of Half-Life fame as the be-all and end all of what women in games should be, but all of these archetypes eventually boil down into the same boring, homogenous pool. Sure, they question themselves. They’re fighting on the side of “good.” They’re relatively inoffensive and conventionally attractive. That’s all you need, right?

Healers, vixens, cRaZy RaNdOm children, everygirl adventurers -- and our only concern is that there aren't any more cosmetic alterations for character models to make them feminine? Why aren't we worried about how benign and droll Elizabeth of BioShock Infinite is? Why weren't we focused on how Halo had to take the most clichéd route possible with a non-human "female" entity and shoehorn in a love story simply because Cortana took the form of a diminutive woman?

Perhaps it’s because in most cases, we’re just glad to take what we can get. With so many bland archetypes, when something looks even remotely different, we’re immediately interested. But it’s never really different, is it? Female warriors and soldiers usually come cut from the same cloth. When it comes to the battlefield, most female character options are purely cosmetic, devoid of unique personalities to begin with. The ones you can actually play as are few and far between. Aliens: Colonial Marines, despite being universally panned, did feature female soldiers, but neither one of them were particularly interesting or developed as characters. Take Kat from Halo: Reach, whose only distinguishing feature is her cybernetic arm. Other than that, she's practically interchangeable with her teammates, and makes for lazy nod toward gender diversity. It's easy to take roles already reserved for men and paint them differently, render them with a separate set of animations, and call it a day.

The answer isn’t surprising. Nothing really makes them different. Nothing sets them apart from the male commanders and captains from game to game. The male characters are usually the ones tasked with becoming the “chosen one” to lead the world into an age of peace and prosperity or surviving in a world that’s been decimated and left to ruin. They’re featured front and center on game covers and even marketing defaults to the man in the spotlight despite having little or no more importance in the grand scheme of things.

Women in games, as we all know, are tasked with coming to the side of the male hero when he needs a snappy sidekick and a reason to keep fighting. They’re love interests, meek healers who want to patch everyone up, dangerous vixens, and more, but rarely ever the stars of their own stories. And when they are, it’s still disappointing. I can’t say I’ve seen one exemplary female character thus far who I’d call remotely inspiring.

In the case of Evolve, at least, the fact that the female characters are available mainly for cosmetic purposes makes sense. It is, after all, a game that’s light on plot and big on multiplayer carnage. And yet, Left 4 Dead and its sequel still ended up with more engaging women than Evolve could muster, with Zoey and Rochelle seasoned with unique quips and character designs. Still, Evolve is a high-profile release with a hefty amount of press coverage, which invites for these types of questions to be asked.

They might be the wrong kinds of questions at this point, but anything that puts writers, designers, and developers on the path of better representation of both men and women in games is a good one in my estimation. Still, it’s going to take a lot more than a trope overhaul to correct things -- it’s going to take close examination of every game character that’s being written into our favorite stories, and for that we’re going to need a whole other piece entirely. Check back for the next installment, which will examine what’s wrong with character development as a whole, especially when it comes to the bland Everyman heroes gaming is so obsessed with.

Brittany Vincent

Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!