Which PC Games Have Text to Speech Built In (and How to Add It to the Rest)

Text to speech in games used to mean installing a mod and hoping it survived the next patch. That is changing. A growing number of PC games now ship with some way to read text aloud, and if your game is one of them, that is the first thing to try.

This guide lists notable PC games with built-in text to speech or narration, with a source for each, says what those options tend to cover and what they skip, and shows how to add text to speech to the many games that have none.

PC games with text to speech built in

This is not a complete list. It is the games we could confirm from the developer, the patch notes or a detailed accessibility review. Options move around between updates, so check your game's accessibility settings too. For RPGs in particular, including the ones that need a mod, see how to turn on text to speech in RPGs.

Stellaris

Stellaris is the best-known strategy example. In the settings' Accessibility tab you can turn on Text to speech and Text to speech (Tooltips), and the Sound tab has a volume slider for it, as this Steam community guide walks through. It speaks with your Windows voice, which is why projects like StellarisNaturalVoice exist to swap the standard Microsoft voices for more natural ones. More in our Stellaris guide.

Civilization VII

Civilization VII added text-to-speech narration in its February 5, 2025 update, and later patches have kept fixing the narration hotkey and its narrate-on-hover option. It is a real start, though players on the Steam forums report that the hotkey doesn't trigger on everything that has text.

Pentiment

Obsidian's Pentiment is a game made almost entirely of text, and it has text-to-speech support in its accessibility options. Its official site notes that the narration assist feature isn't available on PlayStation or Switch, so the PC version is one of the places to use it.

Wasteland 3

Wasteland 3 has a UI narration option for reading interface text aloud. inXile's support site notes that narration requires an online connection, so it won't work while you play offline.

Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport (2023), which is on Windows and Steam as well as Xbox, has a screen narrator built to help players with limited vision navigate the game. Microsoft's Xbox Wire post describes volume, pitch and speed controls, a choice of narrator voice, and verbosity settings.

Diablo IV

Diablo IV has a screen reader in its accessibility settings. Can I Play That?'s accessibility review, played on PC, found the voice's volume, speed and the voice itself could all be adjusted.

When built-in text to speech is enough

If your game has its own reader and it reads the text you care about, use it. It is free, it is already installed, and the developer built it to fit their interface. For a lot of players that is the whole answer.

It is also worth knowing what these features are designed for. Many of them are menu narration: a screen reader that speaks the button or option you are on so that blind and low-vision players can navigate. That is important work, and it is a different job from reading a three-paragraph event or a long tooltip on demand.

Where built-in options fall short

• Most text-heavy games have none. Baldur's Gate 3 has no built-in text to speech or menu narration on PC, and Crusader Kings III and Europa Universalis V rely on community mods or nothing at all.
• Menus, not content. Narration that reads the focused menu item may skip the lore, the event text or the nested tooltip you actually wanted to hear.
• Your Windows voice. Several games read with whatever voice Windows has installed. Some players are happy with that; many find it robotic.
• One game at a time. Each game puts its reader somewhere different, with different keys and different gaps.

Mods: the middle ground

Modders have filled a lot of the gap, and their work deserves credit. Crusader Kings III has a Text to Speech mod in its UI Accessibility collection on the Steam Workshop. Osmodium's SpeechMod covers Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Rogue Trader. Pillars of Eternity has a free text to speech mod built by a player for his wife, who has dyslexia. Most read with your Windows voices, and each covers one game. Our CK3, Wrath of the Righteous and Pillars of Eternity guides compare them honestly.

How to add text to speech to the rest

For every game without a reader, or with one that doesn't cover what you need, you can add one from outside the game. Corvo Reader is a Windows app that reads any text on your screen aloud in a natural voice. Nothing is installed in the game, so there are no mods to manage.

1. Download Corvo Reader and install it. The Free plan needs no card.
2. Open your game.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+E and draw a box around the text you want to hear.
4. Listen.

One setting matters: run your game in Borderless Windowed or Windowed mode. In exclusive fullscreen, Windows keeps the game's picture away from other apps, so there is nothing for Corvo Reader to read. The setting is usually in the game's video or display options.

If you keep reading the same part of the screen, like an event window or a dialogue box, save it as a region. Saved regions read with one key, so each new event is one press away.

Because it reads pixels rather than hooking into the game, it works the same way in Baldur's Gate 3, EU5, Disco Elysium and everything else on your PC. There are more in our game-by-game guides.

If your game already has text to speech

You don't have to choose. Use the built-in reader for menus and Corvo Reader for the long text it skips, or for a more natural voice. If both are reading the same text, turn one off so the voices don't overlap.

Who this helps

Corvo Reader was built for players with dyslexia, ADHD and visual fatigue, and for anyone who would rather listen to a long event than squint at it. The Free plan gives you standard neural voices for 20 minutes of narration a week, with no card. Paid plans (Core $6.99, Plus $12.99 and Max $24.99 a month) add weekly premium-voice minutes, unlimited standard voices, and Summarize and Translate for long text.

Frequently asked questions

Do many PC games have text to speech?

More every year, but still a minority. The ones that do often focus on menu narration rather than reading story text, tooltips and lore aloud.

Does Windows have text to speech for games?

Windows Narrator reads what has focus in Windows, which works poorly with most games, because they draw text as pixels rather than as text Narrator can find. A game's own option, a mod or an on-screen reader like Corvo Reader works better.

Is built-in text to speech better than an app?

Where it exists and covers what you need, it is the simplest option. An app is for games that have none, for text the built-in reader skips, and for a natural voice that sounds the same in every game.

Does Corvo Reader need mods?

No. It reads what is on your screen, so it never changes game files. Just run the game in Borderless or Windowed mode.