This reflects the era the game takes place, when nations as we know them didn’t exist they were possessions. This means that, unlike similar games, you are not playing as some sort of disembodied mind that makes all the important decisions in the country. Maybe that individual is a king, maybe they are a duke or other noble, or you can even play as a veritable nobody. In the case of Crusader Kings 2, power is not tied to a nation state you play as an individual. What this means is that Crusader Kings 2 isn’t simply the same game as Hearts of Iron 3 except with knights instead of tanks, rather it operates in a different way – in keeping with the time period it portrays. What these games manage to accomplish is not so much an examination of history as a chain of events but rather an examination of the systems of power in their respective eras, showing how the forces that make the world go round have changed. Starting off with Crusader Kings 2, set in the dark ages, before moving onto Europa Universalis 4 for the early modern period, Victoria 2 for the industrial age, and rounding off with Hearts of Iron 3 (with 4 expected next year) wrapping up the line at World War Two.
One series that almost manages this is the line of grand strategy games by Paradox Development Studio, using their Clausewitz Engine.
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This generally makes the games more accessible even on the highest realism levels, although accessible shouldn’t be confused with easy. The first way is that the controls are very easy to pick up compared to those for more modern aircraft, because there isn’t much to control in an early aircraft. Rise of Flight is a singularly educational experience because rather than going over the well-trodden ground of World War Two it deals with the Great War.įlight simulators set during the Great War differ from those set in other time periods in two significant ways. While there is only so much you can learn about history from a flight simulator, one in particular, Rise of Flight, stands out from the crowd. The degree of historical accuracy in a flight simulator, for example, is normally a major selling point. Not all games play so fast and loose with history, of course. Revolutionary Paris might as well be the Mushroom Kingdom, while ancient Europe becomes a glorified chessboard.
Watching the antics of the ostentatiously camouflaged heroes of the Assassin’s Creed series or marshalling the conveniently symmetrical armies in a Total War game you’d be forgiven for thinking that, as far as game development is concerned, the past is just another backdrop. Videogames do not generally do history very well.