10 Best LGBT+ Characters In Gaming History
8. Vamp - Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 2 released in 2001 and, at the turn of the millennium, the Western world (where the game is set) was just starting to wake up to gay rights. For example, the first American state to legalise gay marriage, Massachusetts, was three years away from doing so.
But representation in media was still largely negative across the board, especially in a mainstream sense. Whilst Vamp falls into the trope of being a queer-coded villain, MGS2 at least holds the honour of being the first video game with the recorded spoken usage of the word "bisexual".
What's fun about Vamp is that his behind-the-scenes origin is so organic. He was originally designed as a woman, which is where the word "vamp" partly came from; used to describe seductive femme fatales. When the switch was made to a man during production, Vamp's background as the former lover of US Marine Corps Commandant Scott Dolph wasn't altered.
Rather than shy away from it, MGS2 very matter-of-factly states it in a codec conversation between Raiden and Pliskin and moves on. Being bisexual is part of what makes him a person, and Vamp is part of LGBT+ gaming history, but it doesn't totally define him.
After all, drinking blood and surviving gunshot wounds to the head are a tad more pressing.