Anyone know of ANY WWI PC games? I can’t think of a one, but lately I’ve been watching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_eagles and several WWI docs, and I seriously can’t think of another conflict out of WWII that deserves some kind of gamer treatment, what with the gross attrition, revolutions, etc., would be a heck of a treatment. Ultimate end game might be to avoid WWII…
Don’t know about a WWI ground war game but the classic Red Baron games have been recompiled for modern computers.
Well, there was 1914:The Great War, but I never managed to find it (legally or not) in any language besides German, so I can’t really comment on its worth.
Years back, during the age of board war games, someone at Avalon Hill put it: “The trouble with WW1 games is that they pretty much end up exactly like the actual war turned out.” A big surge, then stagnation. Nobody wants to play 3 years of stagnation. The only difference is where the stagnation happens, on the border of France, further in, or closer to Paris."
Think of the FPS potential, though! You’d go over the top with the rest of your company and race across no-man’s land. Most of the company would get mowed down by machine guns (most of the time this will include you, so remember to save your game before leaving your trench!) If you’re lucky, you’ll survive with enough of your mates that you can clear out the machine gun nests before the enemy counterattack from the second line of trenches hits, so that you’ll be more likely to survive the retreat back to your own lines. In campaign mode, you might successfully move the front as much as 100m over the course of 25 missions.
Lulz…
I seem to recall a FPS that was in development that was set during WWI but had some kind of occult theme behind it. Can’t remember the name.
There was an FPS called To End All Wars that was supposed to be in development, but I don’t know what happened to it.
War sims would be the best bet for a WWI game, though they tend not to be all that graphically impressive (I’m thinking of games like TOAW3).
Well, the ONLY WW1 game I’ve ever played was the Half-Life mod The Trenches. It suffered from an unfortunate lack of machine gun nests, which meant the gameplay was really just side-strafing with the rifles through the foggy battlefield.
Great WWI atmosphere, no so much with the WWI experience.
I don’t know why anybody would want to play a video game based on the boringest war ever. But then again, I also played the revolutionary war mod…
There’s AEGOD’s World War One.
Historyline: 1914-1918 is a bit old now, but still pretty good. Highly recommended.
The Darkness for 360 has a few levels set in a kind of warped hellish WW1 setting.
Stagnation? Maybe if you have to slavishly stick to history, but what war have you ever had TWO (Russian and German) major revolutions in? On top of the military maneuvering, the political maneuvering would be exquisite if done right!!! Other than Italy (meh) WWII didn’t have anything near the political intrigue of WWI imho. Who says you have to Haig it up??? The Fall of Eagles!!!
Avalon Hill didn’t have any game design imagination then. Paths of Glory is fantastic. Just about every turn both sides think they’re one move away from losing everything.
As far as the OP goes, I think SSI made a hex grid game awhile back that was trench warfare…I’ll look for it.
Should probably check out some of the free flash stuff, like Warfare 1917 out on Armor games:
There was an “alternative history” WWI-esque FPS a while back that was set in the 1960s or something, but still featured trenches etc.
Otherwise, I’m personally of the opinion there are no “major”, non-aeroplane WWI games because the Americans didn’t show up until 1917, and there’s a limited market in the US (the major English-language market) for War-themed FPSes not involving the Americans in some way.
Which is a shame, because not all of WWI was like Blackadder Goes Forth… the Palestinian Theatre (Lawrence of Arabia) has lots of potential for a computer game, as does the Gallipoli campaign, and also the African campaigns in Namibia and Tanganyika…
A ww1 fps really wouldn’t work out all that great, just because the guns all kind of sucked. You’ve a choice between a few different bolt action rifles, unless you have a ‘defend against an attack’ mission with you in control of a machine gun. The tanks would be absurdly boring, crawling along at 5mph with no turrets or anything.
As far as flight sims go, there have been a few, but those old biplanes are pretty slow and incapable.
WW2 and beyond has all the neat action for games, with the fun tanks and planes and other weapons.
There was at least one mod for Battlefield 1942 set in WWI—I think there even might have been a couple…which may have been merged during development; I forget the details—which looked pretty in-depth, but I was never able to get it to run on my computer. It did have Arthur Fields’ “Hunting the Hun” as main menu music, though, and I’m eternally grateful to it for that.
Aha! Youtube has gameplay footage.…and a full-out trailer, mit zeppelins!
For the real experience, though, the first three minutes or so of the “Omaha Beach” level of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault should probably do the trick. I imagine a few people here know what I’m talking about. :eek:
They had automatic weapons in WWI, and you’d be surprised how quickly you can fire a bolt-action rifle if you know what you’re doing. As for tanks, sure, they were slow and unwieldy, but they did have armoured cars and cavalry and so on, which were pretty mobile (given the conditions, of course)
Yet you still have to get up close and personal to take out an enemy and there’s a lot of skill involved. Did you ever read Biggles adventures as a kid? If not, check them out- WWI air combat is pretty exciting, despite the (by modern standards) low speeds and altitudes involved.
Did you not read what I said a few posts up about the Palestinian campaign? That involved wide open spaces, cavalry attacks, armoured cars, aircraft, movement, trains being blown up, all sorts of stuff.
Seriously, go and do some proper reading on WWI. It was a lot more “interesting” than popular culture would have you believe.
Darkest of Days is a first person shooter that partially takes place in WWI. Its plot is about time travel, so it’s not exactly a simulation, but it does let you use period weapons.
Necrovision is another first person shooter that takes place in WWI. I’ve never played it, but it seems to have a strong supernatural theme in it, with zombies, vampires, and demons, so it’s also not exactly a simulation.
How about SimTrench like SimCity. You dig, you place MGs and barb wire, You get bombarded and you have to rebuild.
Or how about a WWI The Sims game where you have to keep you Sims from starting Christmas Truce with the other Sims.