WW2 Games from a Nazi Perspective...

[bl4ckh4wk64]

There's a whole hell of a lot of world war II games where you can play as the Germans. While I would like an FPS to do this, (and not fighting Russians like in RO2) it's probably not going to happen. For me, the biggest thing is the Japanese perspective. I mean, there was a whole other half of the war being fought almost solely by Japan against the largest economic powerhouse of the 1940's. The only game where I've played as the Japanese are in Men of War: Assault Squad and it looks like I'll be able to in Rising Storm. That's it.

Then again, I've been looking for another World War II game as I really wasn't overly sickened by them when everyone switched to Modern War. Then again again, I'm also a History major with an emphasis on World War II so...

 

[blackrave]

Battlefield1942
Had Allies and Axis sides

Anything else? Maybe some WW2 strategy games?

 

[dyre]

The thing is, the vast majority of WW2 games don't "tell" a story from any perspective; they just involve one uniformed side shooting another uniformed side, occasionally with funny accents involved. If you're playing on the side of the British, you're not going to hear about the soldiers' thoughts about fighting on the same side as Stalin, or on the guilt over shafting Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, or bitterness about the Battle of Britain, or their thoughts on George VI or Churchill.

You're just going to hear, "Jerry infantry trying to take that bridge! Hit them with the Bren" or w/e. There's no point of view, and therefore there's really no point in playing as the Axis side of the conflict anyway. All you'd have is different uniforms and different accents.

That said, I have nothing against playing as a German. I just don't particularly care, because I don't think there's a WW2 game in existence that even tries to explain the political differences of every side.

 

[Mr F.]

There are some Axis Campaigns in Company Of Heroes and you can play as the Germans in one of Earned In Bloods extra modes.

I don't think we'll ever get one from a Nazi perspective, maybe a Wehrmacht soldiers perspective.

Ninja xD

And the Wehrmacht missions in CoH were brilliant. Not quite sympathetic but not the reverse, it really started to show the desperation and the cost of the war on the Home Front from a German perspective.

But you said it right, games from the perspective of a man in the Wehrmacht can exist (And should exist) but games directly from the perspective of a bonafide Nazi should not, and hopefully will not, exist.

As many have already pointed out, the soldiers in the German army were conscripts, were ordinary men forced to the front lines. Some deserted (Although doing so was a shooting offence), some enjoyed what they were doing (Different time, you have to think logically) some were evil, without a doubt. But many were brave.

When people think of Omaha Beach they think of the nearly unlimited bravery of the men sent forward in landing craft to assault that beach. And that is right, those men were brave. But it is rare to see things from the other perspective, the bravery of the men who did not flee from their posts, who were woken up one morning by one of the largest artillery bombardments in history (Dunno if it was the largest or not) and stood their ground as a seemingly unlimited force of men and boats assaulted them.

No, I do not think it is right to glorify men who committed crimes against humanity. But I do think it is right to remember that bravery is not only an American, British, French, Canadian, Polish, Aussie (etc etc etc) trait.

I dunno, I think that says my peace. I think that its about time a war game was produced that highlighted the more human stories of the war. The German soldiers who deserted and were hidden by the French, the members of the Polish Resistance who died in Warsaw, the stories we like to forget because they go against our histories.

Hell, a game set during the Warsaw uprising would be amazing. Brutal, horrific and in its own way educational. Its about time more people learnt about the horrors of one of our greatest mistakes of the war.


EDIT:

I seem to have a very different opinion about the war to the people i meet on-line.

I am from Ukraine, my grandfather fought in the 14th SS division "Galician". Germany did a great thing liberating our country from the Bolshevik pigs, if only for a while. I am proud that my grandfather helped them. I do not understand why many forigners hate the Nazi.

To discuss video-games, i cannot say that I play them, so i am not sure about Germany and war-games.

Many foreigners hate the Nazi's because it was fascist ideology that brought on hopefully the largest conflict in human history. We hate them for their ideology, for the slaughter of innocents, for the Blitz, for France, for Belgium, for Poland. We hate them for causing a rift in the world that has not yet healed and may never heal. We hate them because their entire ideology was based on science which has now been disproven, we hate them for what they did to Eugenics, we hate them for causing the deaths of millions, both directly and indirectly.

We hate them because our grandfathers fought against them and some of them died in that fight. We hate them because they demolished entire nations.

And most of all we hate them because they still exist, we hate them because their policies are not equal, we hate them because you cannot live in both a facist and a free state. We hate them because many of us would not exist under Nazi rule, we hate them because we have friends who would be destroyed.

You know what?

We hate them because they are so fucking easy to hate. Now, let me be clear that I have nothing whatsoever against your grandfather, it was a different time and I treat everyone I meet as my brother until proven otherwise. I have plenty of international friends and at some point our ancestors probably tried to kill each other. But Nazism, Nazi's and Fascist ideology is indefensible.

So whilst you might be happy that Germany "Liberated" Ukraine from the Communists, it is still inarguable that they did far more harm than good throughout the war.

Any man who defends their ideology is not a man I wish to meet.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

I was writing a play in the perspective of a Wehrmacht soldier in WWII during the invasion of france.
It focused more on a mental perspective over the "Let's commit mass genocide and laugh" perspective a lot of designers, atleast in my oppinion, would put onto the Germans.

 

[Chives on top of me]

snip

During the end german civilians tried to defend their homes in a milita called "The Volkssturm" we pretty much murdered them to a man, and anyonethat was run into for fear of being a sympathizer, they were dumped into mass graves. The Hitler Youth, we killed them, kids as young as six who never took the field were being executed by GIs simply for Nazi affiliation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkssturm


"It was set up, not by the traditional German Army, but by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler on October 18, 1944. It conscripted males between the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth

"By 1945, the Volkssturm was commonly drafting 12-year-old Hitler Youth members into its ranks. During the Battle of Berlin, Axmann's Hitler Youth formed a major part of the last line of German defense, and were reportedly among the fiercest fighters. Although the city commander, General Helmuth Weidling, ordered Axmann to disband the Hitler Youth combat formations; in the confusion, this order was never carried out. The remnants of the youth brigade were "mowed down" by the advancing Russian forces; only two survivors remained."

Or maybe...Google this: Eisenhower's death camps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Losses

...Holocast...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial

The French resisance being largely a myth, based on small groups of french patriots and hardliners backed by Russian intelligence. France gets insulted as being "surrender monkeys" because basically what happened is they surrendered to Hitler in part because fighting him was relatively unpopular, they then backed him as they saw him as the winning side, but when the tide turned France realized it was in the way and even if it turned around for Hitler it would be smashed by the allies. The whole "surrender monkey" thing is the allegation that they surrendered twice in the same war, once to each side, and the acceptance of German occupation and French resistance is kind of a political fiction that everyone would agree to when things finished.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese-eating_surrender_monkeys

The awkward moment when I learn more about WW2 in an internet post, than in a history book....

I'd stick to the books if I were you.

 

[maninahat]

snip

You've probably been told already, but the Silent Hunter u-boat simulator games are mostly from a Nazi perspective. No actual nazi propaganda or politics come up though - you're essentially torpedoing ships with Allied ensigns, and not ranting about Jews or the master race.

I agree it would be interesting to play from the perspective of a losing side with an attached reprehensible ideology. I don't know if you could get away with making the protagonist a nazi, but some kind of stand in culture in a fantastical setting could do the same job without causing offense. That's probably already been done - assuming the devs give the player enough credit to get the point.

 

[Bad Jim]

There is a turn based strategy game called Panzer Corps Wehrmacht.

http://www.slitherine.com/games/panzer_corps_pc

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Pretty good stuff!

I can definitely see that happening. The problem is, decades of literature and general mythification of "The Nazi" as an easily exploitable Big Bad have reinforced the notion that you're just not supposed to humanize certain historical characters. Bruno Hirschbiegel's "Downfall" did pretty good on the international scene for its VERY humanized portrayal of Hitler, but some people in the US and Canada took serious umbrage to the movie. A lot of people are absolutely convinced that most Nazis were slavering bastards à la Tex Averey, and Pulp sensibilities didn't help either. The Narm in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is utterly phenomenal in this regard - and I love that movie to bits.

Any game that would smartly go about taking a Wehrmacht or SS footsoldier and making the character relatable would have to be utterly and completely preachy in its approach, to appease certain types of people. You know, "War is Bad", "We Were Just Following Orders", "I'm Tortured as all Hell Because of What I Did", etc.

A simple texture swap, though? Taking Call of Duty II and just switching things around completely? Nobody would swallow that. I'd give that project a few months in the press before it goes the way of "Six Days in Fallujah" - because some people are so caught up in being PC that fresh avenues of study are ignored.

And why are they ignored? Because "I know a guy who knows a guy who has a grandfather who fought in the Bulge and I won't tolerate any kind of guff on the memory of the honourable sacrifice of a man I hardly ever knew!"

You just can't reason with these people.

 

[saintdane05]

No official game, but you can always play the god awful Zog's Nightmare!

<youtube=mR1Jme2AuNw>

 

[The White Hunter]

If it were handled the right wqay and didnt feature genocide too much in an immature way (do NOT let Treyarch within the same room as it, nor EA) then I'd actually enjoy such a game, it'd be different to say the least.

BUt then I play Killzone feeling sad that I dont get to be a British Space Nazi.

 

[Trekkie]

silent hunter 5 you play a U-Boat captain.

 

[Exocet]

The only way I can see a Nazi perspective being greenlighted is if it's Nazis versus Soviet political officers, in an almost comical game about which side is the biggest dick in recent history.
There would probably be a Japanese death camp squad cameo, and since at this point it's laughably silly, the end boss would be Satan in a Tiger tank on Stalin's mustache.

 

[J Tyran]

Rommel was an honorable man (and one HELL of a magnificent bastard), and the soldiers frequently kept up semi-courteous/gentlemanly relations with their "enemies".

Because Rommels mission in North Africa was never to pave the way for the holocaust to be exported to the middle east or to help "destroy Jewry in the Arab World" (their exact words) or anything like that, neither was he a Nazi party member and supporter of Hitler.

He was so noble and honourable he even fell on his sword after being involved in very honourable and noble coup attempt.

 

[GoaThief]

The awkward moment when I learn more about WW2 in an internet post, than in a history book....

Don't believe everything you read, especially in a forum post.

 

[GoaThief]

I seem to have a very different opinion about the war to the people i meet on-line.

You're a neo-Nazi, right? You even have a swastika in your avatar (kolovrat?).

I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on the final solution and how would you deal with that and related topics in a video game. Do you think it was positive? Would it sell in your country compared to western Europe and the states where there would no doubt be a public outcry?

 

[demoman_chaos]

RTS games often allow you to play as the Germans (Men of War is easily the most realistic and has a great map editor), and so did Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood.

 

[J Tyran]

I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on the final solution and how would you deal with that and related topics in a video game.

There is a game or a mod for a game (not entirely sure which was never that curious about it) where the player managed concentration camps Bullfrog sim style. Pretty sickening really but it must have appeal enough for someone to bother making it.

 

[N3squ1ck]

I'd stick to the books if I were you.

You saved me a lot of work, thank you.

OT: I can't really see this game being made and not being nazi appologist in any way.
The Wehrmacht was involved into the killings aswell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht

kthxbye

 

[Mournful Crow]

The awkward moment when I learn more about WW2 in an internet post, than in a history book....

Don't believe everything you read, especially in a forum post.

Aye... Still fun to pretend, though...