Most players have gone through the formative childhood drama of wanting to get on gaming but having some history homework or somesuch to finish before that.
Every now and then, we yearn for a game that is not too far off from a textbookin terms of historical accuracy.
This list gives younine of the best historically-accurate games in the market. Some of them have you try to rule whole continents, others expect you to survive, but all of them walk you through unique periods in time that you must experience firsthand to understand.
We could have easily packed this list full of WW1 and WW2 FPS games, so we have tried our best to add variety here. But if you do want to check out some historically accurate shooters, thenthis list is for you!
9Empire Of Sin
Fight For Chicago
Empire of Sin
Released in 2020, this hidden gem from Romero Games went all in on trying to recreate the lawless underworld that rocked Chicago during the Prohibition era.
Part of the gameplay looks and feels likeThe Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, a fantastic board game that puts players in the shoes of crime family leaders in New York.
InEmpire of Sin, you exert your influence through the territories you control or wish to bring into your sphere, but the action also plays out at a smaller scale.
Managing your crime empire involves hiring the right people for the right job, keeping feuds from escalating at the wrong time, and balancing the books. If you can handle all of that at once, you can build your kingdom in Chicago.
Reliving America’s Frontier
Red Dead Redemption 2
The untamed reaches of the United States were a prime setting for outlaws and those seeking a fresh start. Rockstar spared no expense in building up the game to deliveran authentic 1899 experience, resulting in a timeless classic.
Red Dead Redemption 2walks you through the contrast between fairly industrialized areas and endless cattle ranches asVictorian influence from across the pond reshaped the American view of what a town should be, but it also focuses on the consequences of this dramatic shift.
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These games have such immersive universes that the optional content ends up being just as good as the main campaign.
There are plentiful references and leftovers from the American Civil War, which ended over three decades before the events in the game, that help contextualize the ideological crisis that the country was raising itself from.
As with any game,Red Dead Redemption 2takes plenty of artistic liberties, but it comes much closer to the real deal than the first game in the series.
7We. The Revolution
A Political Masterpiece
We. The Revolution
Exploring one of history’s most complicated periods is no easy feat, and doing so without straying from the source material takes extra work. Polyslash was not afraid of the challenge, and the result isWe. The Revolution.
We. The Revolutionis one of the best legal games ever made (sorry,Ace Attorney), but what makes it special is the setting.
You play the role of a judge in a Revolutionary Tribunal during the French Revolution, in the period immediately before the Jacobin takeover.
The cases you preside over range from petty robberies and business disputes to major political ones, and you have to keep your close ones safe in the process. It is stressful and sometimes disturbing, and that’s what makes it beautiful.
6Crusader Kings III
The Peak Of Classic Paradox
Crusader Kings 3
Paradox in-house creations are often the butt-end of jokes by being the same old map simulator with a slightly different flavor.
Crusader Kings IIIdoes not stray far fromthat winning formula, but it delivers it in a much fresher way thanks to new mechanics and content, even if its scope is narrower than Crusader Kings II.
The game manages to balance out grand strategy and RPG elements in a unique way. Some veteran players feelCKIIIleans too hard on the role-playing, but that’s what makes it special.
Crusader Kings IIIalso has an added layer of polish and character that its predecessors lack, making it arguably the best Paradox in-house title.
5Manor Lords
Medieval City Building
Manor Lords
Slavic Magic releasedManor Lordsin early access back in April 2024, but the game’sunfinished statedoes not get in the way of a fantastic gameplay experience.
In a somewhat poetic way,Manor Lordshas two core mechanics: building things and destroying things. Everything else is just a prelude or consequence to that.
WhatManor Lordsdoes better than any other game is it allows you to experience the full scope of ruling a medieval city. You get to look after your citizens and rally them to build beautiful things, but the idyllic life of trading and survival regularly gives way to senseless bloodbaths.
The heartbreak from seeing your precious hometown burning while your enemies pillage it is incomparable, but that’s what good games do: they make you feel something.
4Steel Division 2
Battles That Defined A Century
Steel Division 2
Most people think of the invasion of Normandy when you mention major offensives in 1944, but the other end of Europe got to experience Operation Bagration.
Steel Division 2puts you in the role ofSoviet and German colonelsduring the offensive into what today is Belarus, which would arguably become Hitler’s worst defeat in WW2.
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The game incorporates the popular deck-building system popularized by Eugen’sWargameseries but marries it to a much more grounded and historically accurate combat experience.
To this day, I wish we had something with the gameplay mechanics of Steel Division but the units of Wargame. WARNO tries, but it does not come close.
3L.A. Noire
Post-War Cop Bonanza
L.A. Noire
Team Bondi’s lone effort drew a lot of inspiration fromits publisher’sbig hit,Grand Theft Auto, butL.A. Noirelays on so many original layers that make the game easy to fall in love with.
Set in 1947 Los Angeles,L.A. Noireputs you in the shoes of Detective Cole Phelps as he and his colleagues at LAPD try to keep the City of Angels from imploding following the post-war Hollywood boom.
L.A. Noirestrikes a comfortable balance between exciting shooter action and the creeping tension of detective investigations.
The game was one of the first to lean hard into face-scanning tech, and it does wonders for the game’s atmosphere, considering how much of it relies on reading a suspect’s emotions. To keep the immersion up,Team Bondi built the best replica of L.A. in a videogame to date.
2A Plague’s Tale: Innocence
When Youth Meets Death
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Rats are not exactly popular today, but your average New York sewer rodent has nothing on the deadly animals that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages.
A Plague Tale: Innocenceputs you on the run from the Inquisition in medieval France, traversing a country that isfalling apart due to diseaseand wars.
The bombastic rat swarms are more allegorical than anything, but if you can look past that,A Plague Tale: Innocenceis a historical masterpiece about Europe’s darkest houras told through the eyes of children.
The game is heavy, but it backs it up with a solid story and faithful recreation of the towns and people it depicts.
1Kingdom Come: Deliverance
A Real Bohemian Rhapsody
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
The Holy Roman Empire was many things, but an easy time it was not.Kingdom Come: Deliveranceis an extremely accurate recreation of life in Bohemia in the early 15th century.
As a first-person RPG, there are some mild liberties taken around combat for the sake of gameplay, but most of it fully conforms to HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) fundamentals.
Most of the world map follows real-life positions, layouts, and buildings, and although the individual story is largely fictional, it exists in the context of real historical events depicted in the game.
Kingdom Come: Deliverancemay not be a perfect recreation of history, but it is easily one of the most accurate historical games ever made. On top of that, it achieves this while also providingfantastic gameplay, so you can learn as you play.
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