For those readers in America, let me wish you a happy Memorial Day! Hopefully you are getting some time away from work, firing up the grill, and embracing the beginnings of summer. Or, even better, maybe you are finding yourself with some time to play video games. If you’re looking to strike the balance between video games and paying homage to the men and women who have served in uniform for the United States, we’ve got you covered. Here is a list of video games focused around the most famous American wars.
Revolutionary War: Assassin’s Creed III
There’s not a lot of video games about the Revolutionary War. For obvious reasons there is a limited market, interest-wise the war for America’s independence doesn’t mean a lot to other countries. Ubisoft Montreal has always embraced understated periods of history with its blockbuster Assassin’s Creed series and thought the time period was interesting enough to bring to life. Assassin’s Creed III might be one of the weaker games in the franchise, but it doesn’t skimp on amazing world-building the series is known for.
Spanning from decades before the American war of independence, and covering such key moments as The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the numerous important battles, Assassin’s Creed III covers a lot of ground surrounding colonial America. Players can traverse the untamed frontier, they can sabotage British patrols, take control of British fortresses, and more. The overall narrative is the same eye-rolling Templar vs. Assassin’s nonsense, but the world you can traverse in the game is plenty interesting.
Civil War: Sid Meier’s Gettysburg
From Civilization to Pirates, Sid Meier’s name has been attached to some of the greatest strategy games ever played. Gettysburg was the first official release from Meier’s co-founded studio, Firaxis games, and was a resounding critical and financial success for the studio which went on to make the Civilization series and X-COM: Enemy Unknown.
In Gettysburg, players can either take control of a single scenario or play out the three-day conflict. Since you will rarely find superior numbers in combat, Gettysburg forces players to rely on terrain, morale, and troop movement to defeat the enemy. Players can either take control of the Confederate or the Union, and while the game has plenty of fictional or “what if” scenarios, it still works hard to provide authenticity and historical accuracy .
World War I: Battlefield 1918 (Battlefield 1942 Mod)
While it might be hard to find video games for the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, it is extremely difficult to find games about World War I. There are some history-focused games you might find in a bargain bin at your local Office Max, but the best World War I video game is not a stand alone title. The total conversion mod Battlefield 1918, takes the popular game Battlefield 1942 and switches the setting from World War II to World War I.
Battlefield 1918 has seen impressive support from its developers as the game has received new versions as late as May 2011, with version 3.1 While the game does not offer a ton of single player content, it attempts to cover the expansive scope of World War I through its numerous countries with which players can align themselves. Adding more realistic damage, and designing maps faithful to the trench warfare, Battlefield 1918 is an impressive mod and a must-play for World War I buffs.
World War II: Company of Heroes
There is a plethora of World War II games, of a varying genres and quality. Company of Heroes is not only a phenomenal World War II game, but one of the best strategy games you can find. Relic Games’ work has long had a devoted fan-base which followed them to the recently released Company of Heroes 2, which traded the traditional Western European front for the lesser-known Eastern European front, seen through the eyes of the soviets who battled the Nazis.
Company of Heroes focuses on controlling resources, capturing buildings, and tactically outsmarting your enemy. The game starts with players assuming control of Able Company during the D-Day Invasion, then progresses through the Normandy campaign with players following multiple companies at different locations. With simple but deep mechanics, Company of Heroes creates a unique strategy game set in the most important war of the 20th century.
Vietnam War: Call of Duty: Black Ops
The Call of Duty franchise has become one of the most – if not the most – lucrative franchises in video game history. Selling copies hand-over-fist, each year Call of Duty seems to continue it’s hot streak, whether it is telling war stories in the future, the alternate present day, or – in the case of Black Ops – in the past.
Set during the Cold War, Black Ops focuses around the soldier Alex Mason and his involvement in a series of missions to save the world from an unknown threat, Nikita Dragovich. Authorized by President Kennedy to take down Dragovich, Mason travels through the jungles of Vietnam and other Cold War locations. Historical accuracy is not high on the list of things developer Treyarch is concerned with, but Black Ops offers a fun roller-coaster ride with the polish the Call of Duty series is known for, while creating the tense environment surrounding the Cold War.
Modern Day: Spec Ops: The Line
It’s hard to find any games which directly deal with current-day military conflicts, and Spec Ops: The Line isn’t one of those games. Made by Yager Development, the game is centered around a fictitious military uprising in Dubai. A squad of soldiers go into Dubai, which has been devastated by a series of brutal dust storms, searching for Colonel John Konrad.
Paying respects to Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness, the third-person shooter focuses on the horrors of war, subverting the game’s choices and linear objectives, to make players confront their own brutal actions. Being a third-person, military-action game, nothing initially stood out about the title, but as more people played the game, more began to discover the unique ways Spec Ops went about telling it story of war.
Any games you think we’ve left off the list? Is there a World War II game you like better than Company of Heroes? Have an unknown Revolutionary, Civil, or Vietnam War game you think is better suited for this list? Let us know your favorite war games.
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