10 Tips to Enjoy Historical Video Games the Most

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Introduction

I’ve been wanting to write this article for a long time. At Firaxis, we believe history and video games are a perfect match – they just naturally go together. There’s a huge appetite for historical games, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon, as recent hits like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Europa Universalis 5 have proven. I’m a big fan of the genre myself, and that’s actually why this website exists.

After my list of 10 common historical myths proved popular, and drawing on my 25+ years of playing history-based video games, I’m sharing my top 10 tips for getting the most out of the genre.

10 – Learn A Little Bit Of Real History First

If you want to truly lose yourself in great historical games, understanding the history behind them is a fantastic starting point. While games can certainly teach you history, knowing some background information beforehand will significantly enhance your enjoyment. You don’t need to become a history expert – memorizing every date or ruler isn’t necessary! Just having a general understanding of the events, locations, and people involved will make the experience much more rewarding. This also applies to things like the weapons, strategies, and groups that were part of the time period.

9 – Learn About Geography

History isn’t just about the past; it happened in real places. It’s easy to forget that historians sometimes overlook this simple fact. And when it comes to video games, every game takes place somewhere – whether it’s a whole country, a small town, a forest, or a battlefield, and at any scale you can imagine. To really get the most out of historical games, it’s important to remember how geography impacted things like resources, populations, economies, and even the results of wars. Understanding these connections can help you develop better strategies and win more often, as geography has shaped the lives of billions throughout history.

8 – Accept Historical Inaccuracies

Video games can’t truly recreate the past, and it’s not just a technical challenge. We simply lack detailed records for most of history. What we do have are just fragments – glimpses of what life, events, and feelings might have been like, and the further back we go, the more uncertain we become. While games often depict World War II – a period with abundant documentation and even living veterans – earlier eras are much harder to represent accurately. For example, we have very few surviving ships from the age of sail, and our understanding of the medieval period feels incomplete and patchy.

Games are welcome to strive for historical accuracy, and many do. However, it’s important to remember they are, first and foremost, games. Europa Universalis 5 isn’t perfect, but it effectively simulates complex things like population changes and their effect on government and the economy. Graviteam Tactics: Mius Front, even with its flaws, is one of the best WWII games and powerfully illustrates the immense scale and brutal realities of fighting on the Eastern Front. Rome: Total War 2 wasn’t a completely realistic portrayal of Roman politics, but it brought Roman history to life in a way no book or film had before. Even Battlefield 1, despite its inaccuracies, is valuable for the attention it brings to the period.

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2026-02-19 17:43