History And Video Games Are A Match Made In Heaven
One of my favorite things about playing video games is the ability some of them have to make us relive certain times and places from History. In this article, I’ll go over some of my favorite games when I feel like taking a trip into some of my favorite historical periods. As you might expect, given the name of the website, most of the titles will be strategy and wargames, but we’ll also see some first-person shooters here and there. Obviously, these games will reflect my own personal tastes when it comes to the kind of History I enjoy reading, learning, and playing about.
If you have a different opinion, I would love to hear it in the comments below: What are your favorite time periods in History, and which games do you play to experience them in a virtual format? Do let me, and everyone else, know!
10 – Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
Listen, I know that Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition isn’t the perfect game to recreate historical events. It’s an arcade real-time strategy (RTS), we all know that. But there’s no denying that it is fun to try and cram historical reality into an arcade mold. I have tried to recreate dozens of battles in Age of Empires 2, to varying degrees of success, and have even analyzed how Age of Empires 2 tries to emulate real battles in its scenarios, like the Battle of Toro. It’s fun having to work within the limitations of the game and having to make things work with whatever tools you have at your disposal. The game shines with simple, one-off battles and skirmishes, but prolonged and elaborate actions will not work with it. Honestly? Age of Empires 2 is much better suited for turtling, if you enjoy that.
9 – Stronghold: Definitive Edition
Speaking of a game that’s fun to play around with, and one that manages to do a bit better than Age of Empires 2 when it comes to medieval scuffling, we have Stronghold: Definitive Edition, and also Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition. Both games are equally great; it just depends on whatever type of scenario you want to create. Since I mostly enjoy playing scenarios of battles set in Europe, Stronghold would be my pick. The game is amazing if you want to recreate any sort of siege-based scenario, as no other game in existence gives you the kind of granularity for recreating castles that Stronghold does. The game still gives you some plausible results if you recreate battles just right, like it did when I attempted Aljubarrota with its map creator, for a friend of mine.
8 – Rome 2: Total War
There’s an online meme going around claiming that every man thinks about the Roman Empire daily, at the best of times, and weekly, at the worst. Plenty of psychologists have tried to come up with a definitive answer for why that is, so I’m here to tell you the real reason: It’s because the Roman Empire was cool. Yes, that’s it. Unfortunately, in 2026, the Western Roman Empire had been extinct for a millennium and a half, so the chances of you and me joining Caesar’s legions to fight for the glory of Rome are pretty slim. None, some naysayers might claim. So, how do we get around that? I have just the answer too.
The solution is simple: you boot up Rome: Total War, or Rome 2: Total War, whatever game you grew up with, or whatever game is your favorite, and just take the digital reins of your very own Roman Empire from the comfort of your home. No need to worry about hearing the trees of Teutoburg speaking Germanic, the trumpeting of elephants, or the warcries of Alaric.