John and Abigail Marston
Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption (2010) caught gamers off-guard with a husband and wife scenario that is less than ideal but an unbreakable bond. An early 20th century outlaw, John Marston, falls for a prostitute with whom he starts a family. Though John strives for a better life, the couple cannot escape their past. Sadly, this does not end at all well.
Marcus and Anya
The Gears of War series (2006––) is unsubtle in its handling of… almost everything, and yet somehow its writers have a knack for making us care very deeply about its characters. The most obvious scenario was Dominic and Maria Santiago, which ends horrifically, in Gears 2. However, it is the restraint shown by Marcus Fenix and Anya Stroud that cuts the deepest.
Ellie and Riley
When Ellie kisses Riley in The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), it is, like the drama throughout the main TLoU story, the truest of moments. It isn’t there to shock, to feel cheap. It is purely a romantic moment, and from that point on we accept the decision that they make together regarding the value of life chosen over death. It says so much on many levels.
