I'm a huge stickler for genre-definition. Contrary to the state of my desk I prefer my games nicely pigeon holed in specific pockets of genre clarity. But when I started thinking about the definition of military games everything went a bit fuzzy. It all started well, the first thing that came to mind was strategy games. Such as the Total War series and Risk. But then my rational mind said to me, as it often does, surely anything containing a feudal hierarchy should be classed as a military game? Well yes and no, yes they contain aspects of a military but perhaps that doesn't make it one. Especially not if you turn against the system during the course of the story, that just doesn't make sense somehow. There is also the idea that a military game originates from the military itself. The American army is well known to have used games as a recruiting tool. This is now into it's 3rd iteration and I would guess to be hugely successful. Whether it is morally correct to use entertainment as a recruitment tool however? It has never stopped them in the past I suppose!
So there are potentially many games that could come under this heading and it really made me wonder. Especially since, I have to admit, I've hardly played any of them! We have strategy such as the Sudden Strike series. You can take control of one of the major forces involved in World War 2. This is real time with a strong emphasis on unit types focusing on their strengths and weaknesses. Then we have Air Combat games such as Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. where environment accuracy appears to be the order of the day. Alternatively if you want to get stuck right into playing soldiers, there are games like the Call of Duty series or Day of Defeat. These allow you play as either a British or German recruit in the thick of the action. Generally these are First Person Shooter games but there are some squad-based games that offer similar action with a different perspective such as the Commandos series.
So there have been many variations of military games created. Even though there are many variations they all have one very similar quality. They all emphasise on realism and historical accuracy (in the case of games based in the past anyway!) Is this why military games are popular? Some obviously depict famous battles or missions from history. Within my experience with these achieving the well-known outcome of these missions is generally made fiendishly hard, especially in strategy games. Or the other reason for their popularity could be the technical accuracy of the weapons and vehicles. The aircraft and submarine games generally have technical accuracy at the top of their lists. Deviation from the right kind of ammo used in weapons, for instance, is often met with outcry from the gaming community.
Could there be a patriotic reason to buy these games? When "Empire: Total War" was released they had a different cover for each country depicting that country's flag and colours. This certainly suggests that many people buy these games out of patriotic pride. I wonder if people re-enact some of the famous battles in an attempt to achieve the opposite result than what historically happened. Perhaps it's none of these reasons and people are just playing to experience the history. Or are games in this genre bracket are just good fun to play? With this in mind here are the top 3 military games I think you should have played!
Sudden Strike 2
This objective-based strategy game is something my friends would quite often coax me into playing for long periods of time. It focuses on the technicalities of warfare during the Second World War. This includes elements such as line of sight, unit strengths and weaknesses and how the armies from different countries fought with their own tactics. It does have a fairly steep learning curve, since not being like most modern real time strategy games there is no base building. However you do get re-enforcements if you hold onto objectives for long enough. However the real strength of the game is the environment. Getting the higher ground is often essential and making sure your commanders are using their binoculars when defending helps you to see enemies sooner as they come to attack. If you fancy a bit of WW2 strategy but can't be bothered with the idea of turn based games then this will be worth your attention!
Day of Defeat
This game is so often underrated. And although it doesn't offer as much realism as some online fps games it is a heck of a lot of fun. The maps involved are control point based, so you need to get to objectives and hold your ground long enough to capture the point. There is a class based character system so you can choose what type of weapon you have from a selection of rifles and machine guns. This dictates how you play through the map, for instance the rifles are better for the long range stand offs down the streets but the machine gun helps more in the tighter spaces within buildings. The only downside is probably the lack of single-player or co-op mode. A re-enactment of a famous squad mission would have really helped this game's popularity.
Silent Hunter
This is a submarine simulator series. It really does concentrate on the fine details of tactics used in underwater warfare down to having to switch off everything in order to remain undetected! Things get very tricky in these situations and patience plays a large part! Still, when someone says the phrase "military game" I will always think of the top down, turn based antics of "Panzer General." Even though I wasn't as keen on this as the ones mentioned above, it does however embody the tactical-overview feel I associate with this genre.
This article was written by Andy Yates of http://www.pc-games-and-reviews.com
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