Last week, a new kickstarter campaign popped up for a game called Battalion 1944. According to the game’s page, Battalion 1944, which is the first game developed by Bulkhead interactive, “recaptures the intensity of classic multiplayer shooters, revitalising the WW2 genre on PC & Console using Unreal Engine 4.”
Revitalizing is an interesting choice of word, but fans of WWII shooters understand that the development of a shooter that takes place during the Second Great War is nothing short of a resurrection attempt.
It’s a bit crazy to think that less than a decade ago the conversation surrounding first-person shooters was that the World War II setting was becoming oversaturated. Games like Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Brothers in Arms make up just a portion of the list of games depicting the conflict that were developed between 2002-2009.
It’s been almost a decade since the heaviest influx of World War II games have come to market, and outside of the re-imagination of events in Wolfenstein, the era is virtually untouched on 8th generation consoles.
Prior to the announcement of Treyarch’s latest game, rumors swirled that the developer may return to the Second Great War. With the rumors came a sense of excitement from people who were pining for the day that Call of Duty would return to its roots, but alas, Call of Duty: Black Ops III released with futuristic weapons and exo-suit abilities.
Now, with most of the major first-person shooters either going for a grounded modern day experience or a futuristic imagining of warfare, the question still stands. Is it time to return to war torn Europe and Asia, and get a gritty retelling of World War II?
