If you thought video games about history were the ultimate learning tool you needed, you are mistaken. While historic games give you facts and figures about significant past events, games about alternate history allow you to dissect events unlike anything else.
While learning history, often questions are asked about what could have occurred if a single event in history had been altered — a life spared, or possibly a life lost. Thinking about different angles and endings helps gain clarity and understanding about the cause of those events.
You can achieve this in the easiest, funniest way by playing some of the best games about alternate history. These games are incredibly imaginative and thrilling stories that combine genuine historical locations and events with fantasy. Here are some examples that you can try out!
1. Freedom Fighters
After World War II, the US entered the Cold War. The Russian Empire started making its own nuclear arms and financing communist regime reforms worldwide. Although the superpowers never went to war, Freedom Fighters envisions a narrative where the Soviet Union invades New York.
In freedom fighters, you get to take on the role of Chris Stone, who is a plumber-turned-action hero. Together with his brother Troy, he is tasked with gathering rebels and ending the Soviet takeover of New York City.
2. Fallout
In Fallout, China blasted the United States into a radioactive wasteland. The fact that the 1950s never ended, yet technology evolved, is an intriguing aspect of the game. So, in addition to commercials, music, and fashion from the 1950s, there are robotics and plasma weapons. This difference generates the game’s comic tone amid immense terror, including it in one of the best games about alternate history.
The fallout shows odd equipment that runs on nuclear power because the transistor was never created after World War 2. Fallout uses a reality-based basis and twists it. There might be disastrous variations in how contemporary times played out if something as simple as the transistor was not created — a gadget that many individuals never think about.
3. Homefront
The game’s narrative takes place in the 2010s when North Korea and superpowers clash over the country’s military aggressiveness, which includes a successful nuclear test and the loss of a South Korean ship.
The United States is shown in Homefront in a completely different light than it is presently, with a defense far from the most competitive in the world. As a result, it’s a prime target for a North Korean attack, and it’s up to you to incite a revolt that will liberate the country.
4. Bioshock
The alternate history of Bioshock is tough to determine since it exists in several different timelines. Essentially, it occurs in a world when technology progresses at a far quicker rate. This is why, in what seems to be the 1950s, there is essentially futuristic technology.
BioShock transports you to the wreckage of a failed Objectivist civilization. Rapture’s clientele has become substance maniacs addicted to ADAM, a DNA-modifying chemical. You play as Jack, who explores further inside Rapture to learn its mysteries and stop Andrew Ryan, the organization’s commander.
Because cities like Rapture are so remote and cut off from the rest of the world, there isn’t much historical data to draw on. However, it demonstrates a great deal in terms of American customs and beliefs in various situations.
5. Prey
Prey alters history by failing the assassination attempt on President Kennedy, who would live until 2031. This leads to a period of scientific advancement that would result in far more space travel and research. The game goes on to show how you’ll be fleeing from strange aliens that appear to be on the verge of taking over the Earth.
The chronology in the game features humanity’s discovery of the Typhon, aggressive aliens with both physical and mental characteristics. The Typhon was discreetly kidnapped and held in the Kletka space shuttle by the USA and the USSR.
6. We Happy Few
This alternate timeline depicts a World War 2 ending in which Hitler loses power and Germany becomes the German Empire. They then attacked England, which quickly submitted and survived the invasion. Considering how drastically different World War II would have turned out if Germany had control of Great Britain, We Happy Few is dangerously close to reality.
In this game, people living in the Wellington wells had to do something horrible with kids, so they invented a medication to help them recall. This, on the other hand, soon goes downhill. They are joyful because of the drug, but they have no morality. They experience visions and hit anyone who declines to take the pills.
Final Word
Players interested in history may enjoy the mentioned best games about alternate history that explore “what-if?” scenarios. These games follow and modify real history to produce new realities. But because they are based on the authentic culture and technology of the period, you get to learn a lot!