First Person Shooters
Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest
Another timeless classic makes the list. Medal of Honor might have had a tough start and it’s hard to believe it had significant pushback from veteran associations. But after proving the team had the respect to properly represent the subject matter, the rest is history. The seminal franchise was the first entry point for many a world war aficionado. An engrossing single-player campaign has players on the boots of Lieutenant Mike Powell, a United States Army Ranger and an OSS agent as he goes on missions from North Africa (Lighting the torch) to Northern Europe. The 3rd and most iconic mission puts players right in the middle of an allied Higgins rushing ashore on D-Day. Arguably, the most iconic mission of the series, replicating the events of Saving Private Ryan’s opening scene to obsessive detail. Not realistic in any way, but it manages to encapsulate the general idea of the popular perception of what the second world war was.
Other similar games: Medal of Honor: Airborne, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, Medal of Honor: Rising Sun.
Hell Let Loose
A couple of months back picking this over Red Orchestra could raise suspicious eyebrows. But with the recent addition of the Eastern Front to HLL, there’s not a whole lot the excellent, but decade-old Red Orchestra 2 does better than Hell Let Loose. It’s, at the present time, the best and most realistic depiction of PVP tactical warfare. 100 Players battles, a comprehensive arsenal of American, German, and Soviet hardware. With large maps, beautiful graphics, and a community with a penchant for realism and roleplay, world war grunts are sure to enjoy themselves amidst the chaos, from Normandy to Stalingrad. Add to that, that the whole game is enjoyable even without teammates to play with and it’s easy to drop him, get on with the fight and leave without much of an investment. Firefights are super intense and ingrained into your brain, every fight is a story. That is, to me, the best Hell Let Loose and games of this genre bring to the table. Emergent storytelling. Hell Let Loose is a fun, semi-realistic romp through the battlefields of the western front with a rich Roadmap ahead, promising a lot of new content that will keep World War 2 aficionados engaged all across 2021 and 2022. A solid entry in the Squad Based First Person Shooter genre and the uncontested king in its timetable of the late 1940s.
Other similar games: Post Scriptum, Battlefield 1942, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad.
Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway
There are thousands of reasons as to why the previous two entries in the series could be here instead of Hell’s Highway but the last piece in the B.i.A series was a visual treat when it came out all the way back to 2008 and it remains beautiful to this day, even more so if the machine you’re playing on can run it at 4K, maximum settings. The third entry follows along with the Market Garden misadventures of the 101st Airborne Division. It’s an FPS that turns third-person when in cover, making for cinematic, movie-like scenes reminiscent of Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. Coordinate your fire teams to suppress your enemies and flank them for ultimate victory. The gunplay paired up with the tactical movement of squad elements and fantastic set pieces carries the campaign.
Other similar games: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood.
Call of Duty
What once could be seen as a bastion that stood for a respectful historical representation of the effort made by those that fought in history’s worst conflict is now nothing more than a close friend gone astray. Even though, it’s really hard to discredit how hard Call of Duty 1 and 2 tried to bring historical authenticity under the motto “In war, no one fights alone”. Medal of Honor might have started it, but Call of Duty refined the formula. Battles had a tremendous sense of scale, with dozens if not hundreds of soldiers moving about. The graphics were a step above Medal of Honor and several storylines took players on adventures all across different times and locations of the war.
Other similar games: Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty World at War, Call of Duty WW2.
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
It’s a dying game, but one whose depiction of the battles in the Eastern Front is so memorable that it deserves a last great chance before fading into oblivion. You owe it to yourself to play Red Orchestra while you can. Yes, Hell Let Loose is now leagues ahead of it, but this was the game that, arguably, popularized the tactical/realistic shooter. I have very fond memories of fighting in Stalingrad- I’m probably the first person to write this.
Other similar games: Rising Storm, Day of Infamy.
ArmA III
The universal WarSim and Military Sandbox. Packing extremely realistic physics, sprawling maps, and a very dedicated modding community. With literally thousands of weapons and vehicles, an easy-to-learn real-time editor that allows you to modify your missions on the fly, Arma 3 stands as the Go-To-Shooter if you’re craving a life-like experience of modern combat without getting shot IRL. Yes, it’s mainly focused on modern battlefields but with the help of the Steam Workshop and the dozens of dedicated World War II mods, ArmA III suddenly becomes the only first-person shooter that allows players to build and play their own missions. Yes, the AI is shoddy at best and you will need a decent computer to run it, but design a mission, play with your friends against the AI, roleplay a bit and it’s an experience seldom seen anywhere else.
Similar games: None, unless you want to go back to playing and modding ARMA 2.
Strategy Games | Strategy and Wargaming 
Leave a comment