Historic periods you'd like to see more in video games

Ihateregistering1

New member
Mar 30, 2011
2,034
0
0
I don't know if this necessarily counts, since it injects fantasy into the mix, but for the life of me I've never understood why there aren't more games set in fantasy feudal Japan settings. Things like Legend of the Five Rings are just ripe for putting in any sort of game, but honestly the only one I can really think of is "Battle Realms", and that game was awesome.
 

gact

New member
May 26, 2014
74
0
0
I would love to see some unexplored areas and times of the world, we already have lots of games full of japanese culture, also tons more of the world wars, it would be good to see something like 1st century central/south africa, or a game set in mongolia.
 

Timeless Lavender

Lord of Chinchilla
Feb 2, 2015
197
0
0
I would love:

-Maya civilization period (just so we can see Belize but to be honest, no one cares about that country so just use Mexico instead)

- Ancient African tribes and Egyptian civilization

-Native Americans time line

-Slavery/colonialism (This one may be too controversial but is very interesting)

-Inca civilization

-Aztec civilization

-Hawaii history

-The Caribs, Arawak people
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
18,863
15
43
maybe the Victorian era or the 20's? although that's a bit euro-centric and its not like the Victorian era gets no love (probably to the point of romanticisation)

I think India is a rich culture/history (or I should say lots of cultures/histories) that is very under utilised
 

Bizzaro Stormy

New member
Oct 19, 2011
829
0
0
The Opium Wars could be interesting. WWII fighting against the Italians. You could easily do an American Civil War FPS so long as your character was in the U.S./C.S. Secret Service or a partisan soldier. There were any number of covert missions by both sides whose outcomes could have drastically affected big battles, campaigns, or the diplomatic situation. Also while repeating weapons with cased ammo were expensive, they would have been much cheaper for individuals or even squads to use. So the old complaint that muzzle loaders make FPS play in that time period impossible would be invalid. You could also do war games set in Central and South America during there various revolutions against Spain, France, or the Mexican American War. Or an empire building game set in southern Africa during the time of Shaka. I could go on and on, but game developers have a ton of material to work with historically. Just remember to make it fun and interesting and the sky's the limit!
 

Shoggoth2588

New member
Aug 31, 2009
10,250
0
0
I'd like to see more games that take place in the prohibition era. To be honest though, I'd rather see mergers of historic periods. I want to play a game where I use Tommy Guns on the Knights Templar during the crusades. I want to have WW1-style dogfights in ancient Egypt, being watch by canon-armed, war-mammoths. I want to have old-school samurai duels on the roof of a future sky-scraper while robot-dinosaurs are fighting in the backround with laser canons...

...back on topic though: I can't recall any games that are about Dark Ages naval combat.
 

beastro

New member
Jan 6, 2012
564
0
0
Timeless Lavender said:
-Slavery/colonialism (This one may be too controversial but is very interesting)
The best you're going to get is the abstract treatment of is in Strategy games like Europa Universalis and Victoria.

Case in point, Paradox asks modders of Victoria 2 to not expand on these in graphic ways to the point where any form of genocide is banned from their games and any mods based on them. You can mod in decisions in Vicky2 is the CSA won the ACW and became a world power for it to reinstate the African slave trade and stuff, but it's limited to abstract bonus' and penalties like increased production and other nations hate you more, you cannot mod in decisions where you can wipe out whole POPs (in short, the games mechanic to represent ethnic groups) from regions so you can then exterminate all blacks from Africa and full the place with white settlers.

The reason for this being above simply being disgusting is that it attract people who seriously hold those views in real life to play out their fantasies and they don't want to throw them that bone.
 

beastro

New member
Jan 6, 2012
564
0
0
Shoggoth2588 said:
...back on topic though: I can't recall any games that are about Dark Ages naval combat.
That's because there's nothing to base an idea on and most likely was exceptionally rare.

Sea control throughout the Middle Ages was virtually nonexistent and the sea was bigger, faster and safer (but more expensive) highway to march armies on than land, especially if you were attack coastal areas because you could land and attack without warning - the MO of the likes of the Norse and the Muslims of the time. Men could attack any point of land that wasn't already manned, reinforced and defended at will, and if need be, get back on their ships and escape just as easily because no one had any idea of how to intercept ships by guess work and most lacked the numbers of ships to make any possible naval battle anything more than a fight with a handful of ships on either side, which the Norse Mount and Blade DLC does as best as can be done.

What combat you'd face would be naval combat but a aquatic extension of land warfare using ships to surround and cut off raiders from escaping while your army wiped the raiders out on land.

This is what Alfred the Great tried to do against the Vikings and met with mixed success, building large, slow, high draft galleys to trap Viking longships in the landing beach if his patrols failed to defeat the raiders on land. What happened in what little can be documented in pretty much only one surviving testament of a battle is that his men chased the Vikings to their ships, which Alfred's own ships couldn't engage because of the shallow waters they were in, killed some, tried to board and capture some of the longships before they could escape into water too deep to wade through, which when they did were too quick for his large slow galley to range in more than a passing ranged attack of throwing spears before the longships got out of reach and slipped into the open sea.

A more effective counter to the Viking raids was devised by Alfred's daughter, Æthelflæd, which largely revolved around planting large wooden stakes in vulnerable shallow areas to prevent the Vikings from landing on them or going up river and instead landing father away from opportune targets thus allowing the Anglo-Saxons more time to be warned, muster and counter attack.

Hardly something to build a game around.

Keep the context in mind, raiding parties of, at most, hundreds of men in a dozen of less ships, not thousands of ships in hundreds of ships, making lightning quick strikes to get in, rape and pillage, and get out as quickly as possible. There was no way for the Anglo-Saxons to stop the Great Heathan Army at sea because they didn't know it was coming and they didn't have the ships to stop it if they did, nor was the invasion point largely surmised and opposed as it was at the Battle of Sluys in 1340, by which point Medieval men had at least formed a rudimentary idea of how to fight war at sea.
 

L. Declis

New member
Apr 19, 2012
861
0
0
inu-kun said:
World War 2 in china could be interesting, another is having standard setting but made by different countries, like feudal japan by an american developer or the american revolution by a british developer, could be refreshing.
Diablo2000 said:
Ancient China needs more love... Been playing Jade Empire (Been in a quite Bioware run lately) and I would love to see something like that again. Bioware, sequel? Please?
Maybe this time make it feel more like Ancient China rather than Chinatown because everyone seems to speak perfect english, except those who speak the ancient "Gibberish in order to save space of audio file" tongue.
This is getting less and less likely as time goes on.

The Chinese government has been introducing more and more rules regarding media content allowed in China, and as China is one of the largest potential markets in the world, companies have been bending backwards to get a piece of the oriental pie.

Some of the things you can't do;

-Portray young love as succeeding; must end in heart break or death, preferably both
-Time travel is not allowed.
-Altering history from the accepted Chinese history
-Ghosts, zombies, skulls
-Portray China in anything less than the dominant position
(The reason they rely so heavily on the time of the Three Kingdoms is because it's China vs. China, so they can't lose, and it also manages to be more a story than history, so you can play with it more)
So on.

The time of things like China in Command or Conquer is gone.

----------------

That said, one thing I would like are more horror games set in ancient Asian countries. They've got plenty of unique and different horror, which are more scary as we're not used to the tropes. I'm sure we're all done with zombies and such.

E.g. Kuon is a game made by From Software; really bloody scary.
 

Soviet Heavy

New member
Jan 22, 2010
12,218
0
0
Early years of World War 2, where the allies were on the back foot and resorted to commando raiding. Video games would have you believe that the War didn't exist before JUNE 6TH 1944.
 

The Madman

New member
Dec 7, 2007
4,404
0
0
I've said it before and I'll say it again: A horror game set during the first World War would be amazing.

I imagine it as a psychological horror game where the dull drudgery of the western front trench warfare is interspersed with these intense moments of utter chaos and conflict, all leading towards moments later in the game where it becomes increasingly difficult to tell reality from growing insanity. Artillery bombardments and the rush of conflict in the forays 'over the top' leading to an increasingly surreal and hellish experience as the green fields and lush forest you'd started in become torn and muddied, mustard gas soaks the battlefield while the air is filled with sickness and the screams of the dying. Blimps and primitive aircraft fill the darkened sky while metal gas-belching tanks roam the battlefield.

People often say WW1 wouldn't work as an action game, and in terms of trench warfare they're largely right. But this wouldn't be an action game, it would be a horror game. Something more in line with a mix of The Darkness Hell sections, Dead Space, Valiant Hearts, and the growing insanity of Spec Ops than Call of Duty or Battlefield.

Hell, movies and books figured this combination out ages ago, about time games did. It would make for an amazing(ly horrifying) interactive gaming experience.
 

BathorysGraveland2

New member
Feb 9, 2013
1,387
0
0
Bronze Age. There aren't many games set in the Bronze Age, which is a shame. Age of Empires is about the only one that comes to mind (and maybe the first ages in some other RTS games). Prince of Persia at a far stretch, though that's obviously more fantasy than historical. That's really all I can think of. I know there are some city builders set in ancient Egypt, but I haven't played them. I guess this could be summed up as location. In the Bronze Age, the mighty powers were all in the east, which Hollywood and the video game industry don't seem to enjoy touching on too much.

Vietnam War. Obviously there is a bunch of Vietnam War games, but not many good ones. Vietcong, Man of Valor (maybe) and the odd strategy game is about all there is as far as quality goes. It's probably my "favourite" (if that could ever be considered the right word) war of the modern period and one with much, much potential. I'd consider Vietcong probably my favourite military FPS of all-time (might not be saying too much, though). I've always had a hard-on for jungle warfare, guerrillas and choppers though, so I'm bias.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,230
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
ffronw said:
I've longed for an up-to-date take on the Civil War. Maybe something in a really solid, Relic-style RTS, or even a first-person shooter if need be. Heck, why not both?
Darkest of Days was kind of a Civil War Shooter. You got to fight on both sides of the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsberg and use period weapons. However, the game does break immersion when occasionally your future buddy gives you a future weapon and tells you to go nuts, history be damned(because digging modern bullets out of the dead/wounded isn't gonna mess up the timeline or anything).
 

Gordon_4_v1legacy

New member
Aug 22, 2010
2,577
0
0
Diablo2000 said:
Ancient China needs more love... Been playing Jade Empire (Been in a quite Bioware run lately) and I would love to see something like that again. Bioware, sequel? Please?
Maybe this time make it feel more like Ancient China rather than Chinatown because everyone seems to speak perfect english, except those who speak the ancient "Gibberish in order to save space of audio file" tongue.
I second this motion, Jade Empire is one of my favourite BioWare games and I really dug the setting and the story.


Aside from that, maybe some Space Opera that at no point ever goes near Earth.
 

Gray-Philosophy

New member
Sep 19, 2014
137
0
0
I may be among a group of few. I know the medieval era has been done time and time again, and I know things like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and War of the Roses exist, but I have yet to see a properly done fantasy setting that focuses more on a historically accurate appearance rather than buff dudes in spiky armour and special effects that put michael bay films to shame. As well as something that goes beyond the typical european medieval aesthetic.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,230
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Johnny Novgorod said:
An Assassin's Creed game styled after Black Flag and set in Feudal Japan.
Or china. But let's face it, Ubisoft has been teasing that game for years and we're never gonna see it. Just like we're never see an ancient Egyptian assasin.
 

aozgolo

New member
Mar 15, 2011
1,033
0
0
I'd like to see more Renaissance games, I really like the idea of a masquerade ball as a setting.
 

Arean

Windwalker of Shaundakul
Apr 24, 2008
60
0
0
While this is a game already in the works, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and their historically correct presentation of medieval Bohemia looks incredibly interesting. It's a weird place to be when Fantasy has become so prevalent that when I see the announcement "This game will feature no magic or supernatural elements", it actually piques my interest.

Other than that, I think ancient Asia (especially Japan and China) have a lot of interesting and unique cultural history which would have been a joy to see more of if people are considering historical games.
 

InfernalPaladin

New member
Mar 30, 2013
26
0
0
I'd enjoy more coverage of the Crusades, however the implications of what games on that subject entail, the war between opposing religious views (and inherent mass-killing of either side), seems to make it somewhat of a "taboo" topic in our politically correct modern-day. (In my opinion Assassins Creed doesn't really count as the story was about a shadow war between two opposing ideologies, Assassin and Templar, rather than something more historically accurate, ala Muslim/Christian wars)

On the topic of Assassins Creed, it was a fun game to cover that era, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find many good games on it since then.