“It’s been done to death!” is the ocean like roar whenever a new World War 2 Game enters the video game market. We’ve been to D – Day, Stalingrad, and Brecourt more times than we care to mention. We’ve been blown up only to be rescued by our commanding officer who then tells us to get a move on, simply put the experiences we have within this type of game we have seen countless times before, lessening the rugged brutality and the emotional involvement the gamer has with this harshest of settings.
Developers seem ignorant to the fact that it’s not more campaigns, more realistic graphics or weaponry that makes people feel such games are relevant but the experience offered to them, what it requires are bold, brave and challenging choices to be made.
They should be bold and tell stories they have never told before the story of the Germans.
Another aspect that still remains untouched within ‘video game World War’ is the treatment of the Jews. How can there have been so many titles published based and set within this period of history and yet not one has touched this theme. Schindler’s list, Ann Frank, The boy in the striped pajamas film and literature have all been bold and empathetic enough to discuss this issue, yet video games remains mute.
No one is saying Schindler’s List the videogame would be appropriate, as it may trivialiase the immense level of suffering of the Jewish people, but surely there is scope were you could play as a soldier liberating a Concentration camp, could you not be a prisoner who escapes from such a place? By turning the focus onto these aspects of the War, perhaps a more faithful account of the second World War could be presented to the gamers, and through such a game the genre could truly state that it was educating the gamer about the situation.
The second world war isn’t solely about soldiers either, the home effort was immense, while the resistance within occupied countries proved invaluable to shortening the war. These would offer gamers a rich environment, yet crucially a different theme for the gamer to experience.
World War 2 is a fixed period of history, perhaps the darkest moment of our history that can’t change. What can change however is the variety of stories that can be told within this setting, and as a result make such an important part of our history relevant to a new generation.
- Chris ‘Guesty81’ Guest