Summary
PlayStation consoles have had a lot of interactive ways to engage with history. Sometimes these games are completely accurate to the era while other times they are more fantastical. Then there are games that feature history as a premise or gimmick but they aren’t exactly trying to tell an accurate story.
For example, theUnchartedgames feature Nathan Drakeas he explores lost civilizations for treasure. He’s PlayStation’s Indiana Jones. While fun interactive games, they don’t feel like living history books as they take place in the modern era whereas these other examples, while fantastical in some ways, are engrossing beyond words. They’re a great way to relive the past beyond what real books, TV shows, or movies are castle of.
Call of Juarez: Gunslingeris not based on any specific piece of lore, but it is set in the height of the Old West and has a unique story gimmick. Silas Greaves plays the game’s narrator who isa bounty huntertrying to relive his glory days to a bunch of bar patrons.
While trying to explain his many shootouts, patrons can argue with the validity of these events which will change the scene in real-time. It’s a living and evolving storybook in every sense.
Sid Meier’s Civilizationis a classic PC seriesthat players love to go in-depth with, offering many historical periods and icons to research. While some of the mainline games have made it to consoles, they are a bit hard to navigate compared to PC setups.
That is seemingly why a paired-down version was specifically made for consoles around the PS3 era:Civilization Revolution. It’s just as good as the mainline games even though it is a streamlined strategic and historical experience. There was a sequel,Civilization Revolution 2, which was mostly made for mobile devices but it did get a PS Vita port too.
Ghost of Tsushimais set on the island of Tsushimain Japan specificallywhen Mongolians tried invading it. Players will inhabit a young samurai, Jin, who will struggle to take back the island one kill at a time through stealth or head-on combat.
It’s a grand adventure that was beautiful as a late bloomer on the PS4 made even better with its eventual PS5 port. The game was so accurate to history thatJapan honored Sucker Punchafter making it. If that isn’t a ringing endorsement then it’s impossible to see what else could be.
Kessenwas an early PS2 game that is similar to games likeDynasty Warriorsbut there is more strategy involved. The first game covered historical events in feudal Japan that were fairly accurate to the time.
Kessen 2tackled Chinese history and added some mysticism while the final game,Kessen 3, went back to Japan to focus on Nobunaga’s rise to power but also added more fantastical elements. All three offer some historical insights into Asian culture with some action and strategical blends not unlike a more streamlined version ofRomance of the Three KingdomsandNobunaga’s Ambition.
Medal of Honor: Frontlinewas a groundbreaking PS2 game that showed the horrors of World War 2 like never before. After his success withSaving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg was called in to help with some of the historical accuracy of the missions.
It had been done before and it has been redone many times over, but for a time the opening D-Day mission was incredibly engrossing. Thanks to in-game documentaries with real veterans,Medal of Honor: Frontlinefelt like an interactive retelling of how events went down.
2006 was a big year for wolf-based action-adventure games. The PS2 gotOkamias an exclusive while the GameCube and Wii gotThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight PrincessandOkamistand the test of time better thanks to thecel-shaded/painterly art styleand innovative gameplay mechanics.
As the wolf embodiment of the Japanese goddess Amaterasu, players went around the countryside helping villagers and rescuing land from an encroaching darkness. It’s not a historical game, but it does dive into Japanese folklore like no other game had before and that too is a precious way to relive history through video games albeit in a more fantastical way.
Red Dead Redemption 2is the best way to visitthe Old Westwithout jumping into a time travel machine and experiencing it firsthand. It takes place at the end of the outlaw era when the Western frontier was being more developed, more machines like cars were cropping up, the law was more embraced, and so on.
Players assumed the role of the aging criminal Arthur Morgan who was trying to help keep his fellow outlaws alive. The game is accurate to the era with a big open-world to explore and simulation-like mechanics from horse training to hunting. It was an achievement for Rockstar to be sure.
Resistance: Fall of Manwas a fun what-if scenario that reworked World War 2 epics. During roughly the same period, the world was not at a civil war but instead banded together to fight back againsta set of alien invaderscalled Chimera.
From mission to mission, there were interstitials likeMedal of Honor: Frontline, treating the game like a retelling of historical facts. So even though the game was fiction, it still gave an aura of legitimacy. The war started in Europe and sequels took the fight to the U.S. and unfortunately, this PS3 trilogy never was remastered.
