Let's revive the WWII genre

[TheIronRuler]

Here's one for a twist. How about where you play as a nazi? Can't think of any games off hand that have you playing as the bad guys.

I'm sorry but I'm now going to talk your face off.

I actually had an idea like this where you play as a young soldier in the Wehrmacht, the game starts, like a lot of World War 2 games, in Stalingrad, when the Germans looked like they could take the city. You'll be facing down charges in which half of the soviets aren't even armed, but as things advance your squad (who would each be characterised, of course, perhaps with replacements coming in through the campaign) would come under sniper fire, and be faced with an ever more resistant Red Army.

The game would then follow you in retreat, as your comrades grow ever more tired of the war effort, and distrustful of the Nazi regime, some of them may be taken away or shot for this, the game would go on, falling back from the advancing red army, who are spurred on by Stalin's Order 227.

Eventually, you will be shot, tortured, captured or hanged.
My only real issue is making a fun game in which you're constantly trying to get away from the enemy rather than ever really pushing back against them for a long while.

A hopeless fight for survival.
You KNOW what the outcome of the war is and you know that he will meet his demise, but the interesting question remains - in what way?
I like that idea.

 

[Daverson]

You know what's never been done? A WW1 shooter.

Closest I've ever seen was Darkest of Days, and even then, it was more a completion of "you never see these historical scenarios in video games, but they happened, along with out stuff!".

 

[TheIronRuler]

Vietnam was a war in which the lines were blurred. Americans came to save the day but the local population had an intelligence network against them for the North, but then after the north crushed them they started massacring some of the population, and then they turned on .... bleh, WW2 was much more simple - You had the Axis, the Allies, and the countries that didn't give a shit.

I guess that's one of the reason the US developers don't go into the Vietnam war too much. I mean, Battlefield Vietnam was made by DICE (Swedish I think), Vietcong by Illusion (Czech) and that's about it, as far as good games go.

Either way, all that Vietnam agenda stuff would just make for cooler games. Same as with, say, the Iraq war. How about a game about INVESTIGATING whether the WMDs exist?

Or back to the WWII, Fallout:Hiroshima could be quite cool as well.

Yeah, the distributors just want to play it safe, so as far as war goes, all we get is Normandy all over again. Yeah yay the heroic US saved the day! *pukes*

There are the conflicts in north africa that rarely get any attention.
You can also make a 'WHAT IF' scenario and spur a bloody fanchise from it.

 

[Iwata]

World War II was a global conflict, one whose story comfortably out-does anything fictional. It's no wonder it originates so many games. However, we do need a new insight into it, a fresh perspective. It's getting annoying to just play as an american G.I. gunning down the "evil" foes in droves. Give us something different. We've moved on enough to understand that there were no clear good and bad guys in WWII, so give us fresh perspectives.

I still get my WWII fix with Battlefield 1943, though.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

World War II was a global conflict, one whose story comfortably out-does anything fictional. It's no wonder it originates so many games. However, we do need a new insight into it, a fresh perspective. It's getting annoying to just play as an american G.I. gunning down the "evil" foes in droves. Give us something different. We've moved on enough to understand that there were no clear good and bad guys in WWII, so give us fresh perspectives.

I still get my WWII fix with Battlefield 1943, though.

This is a good point too.
I challenge people to look up the Battle of Wizna and say they wouldn't want to play a game from the perspective of one of the Polish soldiers in it.

 

[FFHAuthor]

I wonder if some developer might pick up some of the conflicts in the middle east, the ones with Israel in them.
That might be a refreshing change.
Wait, dod anyone actually make a FPS based on one of the wars between Israel and the other arab nations? now THAT is a sensitive subject.

Ouch, that one would be VERY charged politically, it would be incredibly interesting because you could do just about anything...but there would be so many people going nuts about portraying Israel and the Arab states in a game in ANY time period that you wouldn't be able to get it out. '6 Days in Fallujha' all over again.

But it would be incredible to play as a soldier in the Golan during the 6 days war...meld the FPS with some tactical scale command and control...a free roaming battlefield with large scale combat. Hold the line...no objective, just try to survive and hold back the Syrians.

Or be a member of the Jewish Resistance before Israeli independence...like Red Faction Guerrilla, but an actual Guerrilla/Partisan warfare game...tactics, ambushes, snipers and such to throw out the British and fight the Arabs.

 

[TheIronRuler]

World War II was a global conflict, one whose story comfortably out-does anything fictional. It's no wonder it originates so many games. However, we do need a new insight into it, a fresh perspective. It's getting annoying to just play as an american G.I. gunning down the "evil" foes in droves. Give us something different. We've moved on enough to understand that there were no clear good and bad guys in WWII, so give us fresh perspectives.

I still get my WWII fix with Battlefield 1943, though.

This is a good point too.
I challenge people to look up the Battle of Wizna and say they wouldn't want to play a game from the perspective of one of the Polish soldiers in it.

But you'd like continuity, not a few battles stringed together. The Poles caved after a month, but the fighting as a Russian, British or German soldier lasted for years.

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Let's not.

Wow I was actually ninja'd on this. Damn.

 

[TheIronRuler]

I wonder if some developer might pick up some of the conflicts in the middle east, the ones with Israel in them.
That might be a refreshing change.
Wait, dod anyone actually make a FPS based on one of the wars between Israel and the other arab nations? now THAT is a sensitive subject.

Ouch, that one would be VERY charged politically, it would be incredibly interesting because you could do just about anything...but there would be so many people going nuts about portraying Israel and the Arab states in a game in ANY time period that you wouldn't be able to get it out. '6 Days in Fallujha' all over again.

But it would be incredible to play as a soldier in the Golan during the 6 days war...meld the FPS with some tactical scale command and control...a free roaming battlefield with large scale combat. Hold the line...no objective, just try to survive and hold back the Syrians.

Or be a member of the Jewish Resistance before Israeli independence...like Red Faction Guerrilla, but an actual Guerrilla/Partisan warfare game...tactics, ambushes, snipers and such to throw out the British and fight the Arabs.

'Twas more of hoarding weapons and getting settlers off ships in the middle of the night when the British watchmen aren't looking.
An actual bombing would be in the King David Hotel and that wasn't pretty at all. That was a real terrorist act.... A rather small fringe group commited it, but it was devastating.

 

[Mechanix]

There's been a huge amount of WWII shooters in the past few years, oversaturating the market with them. Whenever I see one, I immediately think "oh boy, ANOTHER one". WWII is my favorite time period to learn about, but I don't want to see the same thing over again with different controls.

 

[artanis_neravar]

How about a Korea game? The war lasted 3 years with over 36,000 US casualties.

 

[Xannieros]

Let's not.

First thing I thought when I saw this topic.

WWII games are usually boring as they bring nothing innovative to the FPS genre. It's a lot of the same fights. Portrays the USA as the saviors of the world, it just seethes pride . I mean yeah we were the good guys in that war, but really we don't need the amount of games they release.

I'd never buy a WWII game again, you play one you've seen them all. Same weapons, same enemy, same fights. At least Airborne was somewhat innovative. But I'll pass.

 

[DefinitelyPsychotic]

I would absolutely love for the WWII genre to be revived! Those games were awesome!

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Probably the best WWII game out there is COD: WAW, which would have been amazing if the graphics were better and the campaign was longer.

Graphics were fine. I don't get why people say graphics are horrible unless they are Crysis-level (maybe they all just have shitty computers or something, I dunno). Only half the campaign was good, and that was the Russian side. The American side was decent at best.