The recent release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance brings us a sweeping RPG that’s committed to historical accuracy. Its dedication is admirable, and if you find the historical simulation aspects up your alley then there are a few other titles you might enjoy. Although not all of these fall into the same genre or type of game as Kingdom Come: Deliverance, they all deal with history in interesting ways.Â
Verdun
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Before the release of Battlefield 1, Verdun was one of the strongest shooters focused on World War I. Even after, Verdun is much more focused on realism and historical accuracy than Battlefield 1 is. This accuracy is done in a multitude of ways, with weapons that match the look and functionality of the time, battlefields mapped from a real World War I battlefield, and even realistic gore modelling based on the time.
Verdun is a multiplayer-focused shooter, and there’s a few different game modes to engage in. The main game mode, Frontlines, tries to recreate the feeling of World War I battles by having two teams take turns in attacking and defending different sectors. Verdun is very focused around trench warfare, and the focus of Frontlines is to push the enemy back over turns to capture their HQ. Players are separated into squads, all of which are actual squads that historically existed, and the classes that you have available are determined by which squad your in. Verdun can be a chaotic experience, just as you’d expect for a historically accurate World War I game.
Total War: Rome II
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
The entire Total War series is pretty good when it comes to historical accuracy, and they’re a bit different from your typical RTS game. Gameplay is much more based around formations for your units and employing specific strategies, ambushes, etc. The campaign of the game begins in 272 BC and spans 300 years, as you try to expand the reach of the Holy Roman Empire.
There are, of course, some historical liberties taken but, for the most part, Total War: Rome II does a great job at recreating the period of history. It’s not through just battles that you extend your reach, but also through diplomacy and espionage options. Interestingly, the game also features a political system involving the three factions vying for power in Rome. There’s a resource system here that factors into your standing with different organizations, and if your standing drops too low you might find yourself powerless to stop things happening at home while you’re out campaigning. Alternatively, you can also try to claim power in all the political factions and become Emperor, although you’ll start a civil war first. Total War games have always been known for their historical feel, and Rome II helped set a new standard for the series.
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Bladestorm comes from Koei Tecmo, the makers of the Dynasty Warriors series. Although the game does take certain historical liberties, it’s a much more on the nose experience for the time period than something like Dynasty Warriors. Of course, the game is based on the Hundred Years War that took place between England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Bladestorm’s story focuses on mercenaries of the time, and it doesn’t depict one side as good or bad, instead casting a morally grey blanket over everything. Battles take place in actual areas of France and England, and key battles like Crecy, Poitiers, and Orleans are a big focus in the game. Also, unlike Dynasty Warriors, Bladestorm’s combat is much more focused on strategy, while blending arcade action in. You lead squads of soldiers into some pretty massive battles filled with different villages and outposts to capture. One squad is brought into battle with you at a time, but you can actually take control of any allied squad on the battlefield. Bladestorm may not be one hundred percent historically accurate, but there aren’t many games out there so focused on the events and characters of The Hundred Years War, making this a unique title.
Europa Universalis IV
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Europa Universalis is a series of sweeping strategy games that task players with controlling a nation from the Late Middle Ages through the Early modern period. Unlike other strategy games, however, Universalis puts an emphasis on guiding your civilization through various routes including trade, administration, diplomacy, colonization, and warfare.
The actual gameplay map in Europa Universalis is an interactive map of Earth comprised of different provinces that make up nations. The game begins on historical events, and history plays out in real-time as you advance. The most interesting part of Europa Universalis is the amount of choice it gives you in how to play. You can conquer the world through miltary conquest, dominate through trade, or much more. You play in a sort of sandbox historical environment, and there’s no strict rule on how to win. For anyone that’s happy to jump into a deep strategy game, Europa Universalis IVÂ provides a tantalizing historical sandbox to play around with.
Crusader Kings II
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Paradox Interactive has a whole host of historical games that stick pretty close to their inspirations, and Crusader Kings II is one of their deeper strategy titles. The game has you controlling a Medieval dynasty through the years of 1066-1453, expanding your power through a variety of factors. Crusader Kings II has a steep learning curve, but there’s an incredibly deep strategy game underneath the wealth of information that’s absolutely rife with history, from historical figures to the general design of everything.
The goal of the game is to obtain as many prestige and piety points as possible in an effort to overcome the historical European dynasty in a prestige ranking. You can use a combination of war, marriages, espionage, assassination, and more to achieve this. Game over comes when your ruler dies without an heir to succeed them, all titles and land are stripped from you, or the game reaches its final year of 1453. One of the more interesting aspects to the game is marriage, which has you weighing the benefits of alliances versus traits. Offspring inherit traits from their parents, so choosing a marriage that will benefit in strong offspring can be ideal, however, choosing another marriage could lead to alliances that you can form now. Small gameplay details like these are what make Crusader Kings II such a strong historical game.
L.A. Noire
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
L.A. Noire is a surprisingly faithful recreation of 1940s Los Angeles, right down to the look and feel of each city street. The game casts you as Cole Phelps, an up and coming detective in the LAPD. The story is separated into a number of different cases that you need to solve through a mixture of crime scene investigation, interrogation of witnesses and suspects, and, when the need arises, some straight up shootouts.
L.A. Noire isn’t strictly based on historical events, but the game’s cases did draw inspiration from actual real-life crimes that the media reported on in the time period. At the same time, the title heavily draws from Film Noir with its storytelling and characters, and there’s even an option to play through entirely in black and white. L.A. Noire conveys a time period not often seen in video games, and its incredibly unique facial animation technology makes interrogations a fascinating experience. This is one title that any fan of historical pieces shouldn’t miss out on.
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
You might have noticed that many historical games are based around the RTS genre, and for good reason, as the type of gameplay really lends itself to different time periods. Nobunaga’s Ambition is a long-running strategy series from Koei Tecmo, and it’s focused on uniting the country of Japan during its Warring States period. Unlike Tecmo’s other Feudal Japan series, Samurai Warriors, Nobunaga’s Ambition is much more focused on being historically accurate and simulating the time period.
Sphere of Influence casts you as a Daimyo of the Warring States period, tasked with uniting the land. To do this, you’ll need to conduct a number of civil functions, while also waging war. You’ll need to perform a variety of updates and improvements on your castle to prepare it and engage in diplomacy, just as much as you engage in battle. Your town will grow and expand based on the policies you use, and the game uses a free quest system to loop in historical events and tell stories about the lives of other Daimyo.
Age of Empires II
Historical Games Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Age of Empires is one of the most influential series in the RTS genre and it set a new standard for how these types of games deal with history. Age of Empires II is set in the Middle Ages and has 13 different civilizations to play as, including the Japanese, Teutons, Britons, Saracens, and more. A unique aspect about Age of Empires has you advancing your civilization through four ages during matches: the Dark Age, Feudal Age, Castle Age, and Imperial Age. As you might expect, each age grants you new technology and stronger units.
The strong historical aspect of the game, however, comes in with its five different story campaigns. Each one focuses on a string of actual historical events and characters, and your available units and play style are restricted to match that. It starts with William Wallace during the Wars of Scottish Independence, then goes to Joan of Arc in the Hundred Years War, and Saladin in the First Crusade and Capture of Jerusalem. Finally, the campaigns finish off with Ghengis Khan and the rise of the Mongolian Empire, as well as Barbarossa and the expansion of the Holy Roman Empire.
Age of Empires II’s story campaigns provide a nice bit of variation on historical content, and there’s even information about actual historical events you can read through to provide more context. This is doubly true when you add on The Conquerors expansion which brings four more single-player campaigns into the mix, with more civilizations to boot.
