• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Which videogames captured the horror of war?

cod4_singleplayer_ac130.jpg

I came to post this
the comments of your handler really made this an uncomfortable mission, and I guess it really shows how inhumane war has become
 
I have a morbid longing for a game that truly captures the horrors of war.
I want to see the things I've heard from WWI stories/diaries; dismembered bodyparts, hanging in trees, random mortar strikes crushing houses and people, extreme anxiety, fear, soldiers going mad/ shell shock, filth, stench and disease, hunger, hopelesness, throwing morals overboard to survive.

As a game I could see this being a hardcore survival FPS/TPS where you have to manage your mental stability & physical health.
 
While I disliked the game overall, Tales of the Abyss is one of the few RPGs I've seen really grapple with the fact that the heroes are all killers, even if it's for a good cause.
 
Haven't played Spec Ops. Valiant Hearts does capture the devastation of the War. The gameplay is fairly simplistic but the art style, the story, and the vast amount of history that it presents via collectibles, journal entries give you a good understanding of what people had to endure.
 
operation flashpoint cold war crisis and arma series. nothing feels closer to being in the field. also feels great knowing you are nothing but a tiny cog of the whole war machine.

red orchestra/rising storm is great depiction of the heat of battle. almost Saving Private Rayan level of immersion during combat. there's even grim video compilation of soldiers dying screams.

world in conflict/ wargame series are "godview mode for operation flashpoint" for me. nothing more real with strategy games.
 
I have a morbid longing for a game that truly captures the horrors of war.
I want to see the things I've heard from WWI stories/diaries; dismembered bodyparts, hanging in trees, random mortar strikes crushing houses and people, extreme anxiety, fear, soldiers going mad/ shell shock, filth, stench and disease, hunger, hopelesness, throwing morals overboard to survive.

As a game I could see this being a hardcore survival FPS/TPS where you have to manage your mental stability & physical health.

This is something I would love to see for example in a Eternal Darkness sequel. Going mad is one of the biggest angles in the game and some chapters play during wars.

A sequel could dive into that more.
 
If we are talking about historical human cost of the politics of war, Final Fantasy Tactics has always been a highlight of my experience in the portrayal of the little people in war being torn apart by the machine. Lots of atrocities and backstabbing with a lot of the major players considering themselves above the possibility of death.

I would like to think it feels somewhat realistic, from a 17th/18th century point of view. Also pushes the "history is totally written by the most corrupt of winners" angle to the extreme.
 
A lot of studios making military shooters hire former soldiers as consultants.

Consultants don't do nearly the amount of decision-making that directors do, and I doubt that any of them work with creative staff full-time. Definitely not the same thing. I feel like the furthest removed that an actual vet could be and still contribute genuine wartime experience into the creative production is writer, and that's something of a stretch because I'm more willing to bet that a game's script gets warped a ton from its initial drafting to cater to gameplay and entertainment value. It's the only way that I can fathom how a writer like Rhianna Pratchett gets credited with something as uninteresting as the Tomb Raider reboot storyline.
 
Someone already mentioned it, but the Omaha Beach section of MoH:AA really stuck with me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHscQgzkMKg

It's not so graphically impressive anymore, but I remember playing it, the tension of the ride in in the fog. Hearing explosions and billets whizzing past, but you couldn't see anything. Then you land, and there's another pause before the door opens, and the guys in front of you get cut down immediately. I was playing on a higher difficulty level, so I died repeatedly, sometimes before getting out of the boat. How the hell are you supposed to survive something like that? I was super relieved when I finally beat the section.

I was in my early 20s at the time, and remember thinking that the guys doing this in real life were my age at the time (or younger). Crazy to think about. It can't really be said enough: thanks to all the armed forces personnel, past, present, and future.
 
I actually think the Witcher series does this pretty good, particularly 3 as it's set during a total war where the others are mostly set around an insurrection. It isn't a modern military shooter but as a story-based RPG I think it portrays the grisly violence, horrific aftermath, and disturbing politics of war fairly well.
This is a really good example actually. I never thought of it like that.
 
Top Bottom