I love history. I have historical books, movies and texts on every shelf at home and a big fat history degree on my wall that’s mostly useful for… well, articles like this.
Being a history nerd also means that when a game takes inspiration from a particular historical epoch, it makes me all the more interested. I know that history isn’t for everyone, and not every game needs a solid historical basis, but I’ve always seen games as a way to explore thoughts and ideas in a way that no other medium can – and not everyone wants to sit through a three-hour lecture on the Russian revolution.
So let’s take a look at a handful of games and game series that have built an incredible experience on top of a solid historical underpinning. To be clear, these aren’t experiences that will give you a totally realistic depiction of a time period, but they do give you some of the flavour of the age; whether that’s culture, politics, warfare or any number of other elements. And yes, because I can’t resist I’ll also point you in the direction of further information to complement – or build upon – what you might get out of each game.
