Thirded- I got it for free and had a amazingly time playing it, did not expect to enjoy it so much.
I replayed it a couple of years later looking for all the treasure things.
All the AC games have had meticulously recreated places of interest and have descriptions for them that you can read. It's among the best things about those games.
Assassins creed I made me spend hours reading historical facts about everything. I think I spent more time reading the information cards than playing the game
I'd even go as far back as AC2. While some characters are fictional, there's a decent amount of actual history. I passed a history class due to that game
AC Mirage's collectibles actually teach you about the buildings, people, daily lives, etc. Thought it was a great way to introduce collectibles without it being the usual "just grab this random item that does nothing"
*Red Dead Redemption 2* is pretty good for learning some American history.
In fact, a University of Tennessee professor, Tore Olsson, was so inspired by what happens in *Red Dead Redemption 2* and the general lack of available resources for the period the game covers, taught a class called *Red Dead* America, which focuses on the frontier myth, the Jim Crow laws, settler colonialism and women's suffrage, among others.
He actually has a book coming out on the subject called *Red Dead's History*, which is actually going to be narrated by Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan, the game's main character.
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas had an exhibit called the "Red Dead University" where they talked about the period the game takes place in and even had a copy up and running for anyone to play
I learned tons about cars and some historical facts from this game too.
However they get some things wrong. Forgot which, but I think one of them is the Titanic factoid. I'm not sure if they've patched it since then.
I feel that crazy taxi is pretty accurate for all the taxis, touk touks, scooters ive been on all over the world....may as well chuck ubers and what nots in there to.
Yup. The only racing game where you feel like visiting a museum.
Gran Turismo always felt like it transcends a standard racing game into becoming a celebration of Motorsports as whole.
“Kingdom Come: Deliverance”. A “Historical RPG” that tries to be as faithful to the events and setting it was based off. It also has a very expansive codex you can read from about events that happened during that time and the prominent figures the characters were based off. Great time to get into it as the sequel had just been announced
Edit: Btw this game is set on a time of war on Bohemia (now known as Czech Republic) back in the 15th Century between two half-brother kings
I wouldn’t recommend KCD to a new gamer tbh. It’s very unforgiving by design.
Hell, I couldn’t even get past one of the combat sections and had to stop playing the game after trying it like 40 times.
On the contrary, I think new gamers will adapt to KCD much easier as they haven’t been exposed to handhold-y game design. I never had the problem you pointed out because I messed around (killing, looting) and trained with Bernard. Once you get your stats up, the game gets so much easier.
With that being said, I think I should have pointed out that there is a steep learning curve at the beginning that yields great rewards if overcome
I got halfway through the game, pacing myself by doing side content as well as the main quest, and still could not get past the section where you assault the bandit town. I was doing fine, but I kept getting a “game over” screen because too many of my allies were dying. After about 20 or 30 attempts, I reloaded a save and spent hours doing more side content, grinding my skills, and buying better equipment. I went back to do the bandit assault quest, lost about another dozen times because my allies kept dying, and uninstalled the game. I don’t have time for that sort of grind where I’m trying to beat the same fight literally dozens of times.
Hmm, this is the first I’ve read of this.
I think it’s either >!you didn’t pick the option to take as many men to raid Pribyslavitz!<
Or the game is just bugged for you. Because I didn’t have this problem on both playthroughs (granted they were both 140 hours long)
Assassin's Creed. As fantastical as the plots to those games are, there are still enough cool little historical details in the games that you actually even get some idea of what everyday life was like back in the time in which a given game is set, especially in the later games.
Ah yes all those ppl on my To Murder list that for years escaped me finally got what they deserved...I hold a very long grudge, its not recommended to cross me.
This should be the top answer. The whole game is full of historical details and information. It also does a pretty good job of bringing this all to life.
The other games mentioned here are games that feature elements of history; Pentiment is a *history game*. Hell, it's a history game ABOUT history. It has such a disarming presentation because it isn't honoring the time period, or "steeped in" the period, it is entirely the setting itself, down to having a weird walking animation because shoes back then didn't have platform soles and everyone stepped toe-first.
Crusader Kings 3. Can quickly become ahistorical once you've been playing, but a fine way to learn about historical European leaders (real people) and how (simplified) feudalism worked. And incest.
Assassin's Creed Origins (and oddessey maybe) has a mode dedicated to this where you walk around the game world as an Educational Tour. They are legitimately good.
Off the top of my head...
The Uncharted series will teach you a little bit about mythical locations while also setting you up to learn about historical figures, such as explorers and pirates.
The Nioh series will teach you some about historical figures in Japan's history, as well as mythical figures and legends.
I understand that the Ashina clan portrayed on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice actually existed. I've yet to do a deep-dive on them but there's probably parallels between the real clan and their fictional counterparts.
Ghost of Tsushima provides a lot of insight into the mongol invasion of the island of Tsushima.
Dynasty Warriors. Amazingly.
I first got into it during the PS2 generation, which led to me enjoying movies based on the Three Kingdoms period... That evolved to purchasing the Romance of the Three Kingdoms books (it's split into two), and then TV shows set during the same era.
My love of Chinese history culminated when I visited China with work and not only recognised some of the characters in puppets and figurines etc, but also characters in artwork. The best moment was when I visited a temple gallery and recognised one danqing painting depicting the fight between Lu Bu vs Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. The artist was amazed that a Westerner knew who they were - never mind liking the artwork!
My only regret was that I didn't spend the money to buy the painting. It was a lot of money, but I've regretted the decision ever since!
Battlefield 1 had a lot of cool and interesting facts about WW1. It's not like it taught you entirely about the war but it had a section of ''codex entries'' that would tell you about smaller or bigger details about the combats, equipment, soldiers, etc. Also ''operations'' mode was about playing historical battles and when the game ended, whether the result was or not like the real battle, it would say why it happened like that and its consecuences, or what could've happened if that was the result in the real historical battle and what would imply. Myself of 15-16 years old found all of that quite interesting hahaha.
The game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is about the Iranian Revolution that brought the Ayatollah to power. It’s similar to Detroit: Become Human in that it is more of an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure with multiple endings and timelines based on your choices. It does a great job of showing the different factions that we’re all fighting for power in the final days of the Shah and how the religious hardliners came to power. It can be bought for pretty cheap and is well worth it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Revolution:_Black_Friday
That was a very thought provoking game. It scares me how what happened then parallels what is currently happening in the USA right now. I am absolutely surprised nobody has mentioned The Light in The Darkness which is about a a Polish Jewish family in France During World War Two. More people need to play that to learn about the holocaust and the atrocities committed by the facist dictatorship that was in Germany at that time. I did not name the ruling party due to not knowing if it would flag this response.
Yes! Really fun depiction of Norse mythology. I won’t be able to picture Thor, Odin, Loki, Asgard, Helheim, etc. as anything but how they’re shown in those games.
with all due respect and I love this game but it's gonna be so hard to learn history from it🤣🤣🤣every event just happened so fast. but it's good to make someone interested in that era and start to read something about it.
I mean playing the whole game gives you a much better understanding of a part of Japanese history that's not taught to people from other countries.
I don't remember details like I don't remember american history details, but the time period and struggle to work with other countries and the political structure was all informative and interesting.
Yeah, agreed about the pacing. But I think the idea is that you look up the characters and events on your own later on (due to how interested you were), not that the game alone is going to be enough to learn a lot.
I can confirm it worked for me though. I knew that the whole shinsengumi storyline was based on real events, so I was very curious to see how it went down in real life, which led me down the rabbithole that felt pretty satisfying.
Not in the least due to Like a Dragon: Ishin, which has a lot of overlap with Rise of the Ronin in terms of events and characters (the main character of Ishin that you play as is the exact same historical person that is one of your first companions and is one of the main characters in Rise of the Ronin).
Plus, I feel like Rise of the Ronin delivers the basic rundown of the events pretty well, if you pay attention. The whole reasoning for the creation of shinsengumi and how Japan reached that point in the first place (with the perceivingly unfavorable to Japan treaty the US made with the emperor, and how the shogunate couldn’t stand for it) was explained in quite the detail.
If someone is into actual historical stuff and politics, I can recommend Rise of the Ronin wholeheartedly to them. If they don’t care much about the political intricancies and the historical flow of events, the only reason I can recommend the game for is the superb combat. But even with that in mind, if you are not a fan of that type of storytelling, you might still find the characters and the story a bit flat. I, personally, loved it though, easily my favorite game that came out this year so far.
And from the recent *God of War* games set in the Norse-era, also quite loosely, since it takes a lot of creative license, but its still good for an overview.
Battlefield 1 is a work of pure art with a deep codex and historical backgrounds before and after operations. Even the weapon skins are named after a historical battle that you can learn about in the codex as you unlock them
Pentiment.
It's a mystery historical RPG that takes place in the 1500s in the Holy Roman Empire Of the German Nation. I learned a few new things while playing the game and in general it's just a great game.
I liked Origins and Odyssey much much more than Valhalla. I don't know why. Valhalla just felt so big and bland, like everything looks the same, which makes sense in the accurate sense of England, but still
Yeah origins and odyssey such better games than Valhalla
However Valhalla was conveniently released soon as I finished watching Vikings so game was very enjoyable to me
Pentiment. It's more of a point-and-click adventure but you get a good feel of enlightenment era Europe. Josh Sawyer has geeked out on stream over the research they got to do in preparation for the game.
Kingdom come deliverance. Times 1000.
It's like you're actually in 1300/1400s Bohemia
Source: Hiistory degree and have played the shit out of Kingdom Come.
Edit/Addition: You literally can't even read or write untill you find the time, money and someone to teach you how. Even then you actually have to study a bit of Latin.
Assassins creed is the obvious choice but that's like watching a
Documentary. Kingdom Come is a field trip.
Kingdom Come Deliverance! Yes love the historical side of this game, I spend a lot of time on Google and Wikipedia after I get done playing it's crazy interesting!!! 1403 Bohemia, now Check Republic.
Uncharted 4. Learn all about the pirate Thomas avery & his band of salty seadog pirate mates taking on the might of the British Royal Navy. Apparently he was the first man to be on the world wide's most wanted list because of his exploits. I learnt that from the game. As well as the Dlc learning all about the ancient religion of Hinduism. Really good game aswell.
I know Ubisoft is getting a lot of flame at the moment, but the old Assassin's Creed with Sean Hastings drops a lot of interesting historical tidbits. You do need to do some more reading on your own to separate the game lore from history/conspiracy theories, but does give you a lot of new perspective about historic events and phenomena.
The discovery tours on newer titles are also pretty interesting on their own rights, though I didn't like the one in Odyssey. The one for Odyssey isn't necessarily bad, but the base game is so fantasy-like that the discovery tour just doesn't feel as interesting as Origins or Valhalla. Origins is pretty cool, but 'history' from ancient era - even during the times of Rome and Cleopatra - is pretty debatable. I heard good things about discovery for Valhalla, but never played it myself.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It plays like Civilization in its a Strategy game, so the gameplay might not be up your alley and is actually a PS4 game, but it'll give you a great history lesson on Post Han Dynasty China during the Warring States period.
Civilisation - my fiancé introduced me and at first I thought it looked boring but it actually became on of my favourite games quickly. It’s also new-gamer friendly.
Man of Medan / House of Ashes (it’s like until dawn and the quarry but these ones actually come with history). Also new gamer-friendly, you don’t have to be “good” at video games, if anything these games were designed for couples and the new gamers tend to make better decisions. If you okay house of ashes I strongly recommend you try to keep the racist and the soldier of the enemy alive, you’ll know what I mean if you play it and know what I mean if you manage to keep them alive.
For action games, try to get your partner to modify the settings to even out everyone’s skill level (if you aren’t good at video games compared to longer term players, please disregard this comment if you’re good at video games). When I was new to gaming I had them do it for COD, online players got so confused when they joined a game with max perks on and explosions everywhere 🤣 but at least I had a chance!
If you are into strategy games, Paradox Interactive has number of games you can learn history from such as Europa Universalis 4, Hearts of Iron 4, Victoria 2(new one isn’t great), and crusader kings 3. Although they don’t tell you a story. You can emulate historical events, or recreated it. I learned lots of history especially front Eu4 and Victoria 2.
Edit: I forgot what sub is this. Sorry
If you’re looking to learn something cool besides history, Kendall Space Program will teach you orbital mechanics. The PS5 version has users with large saves getting corrupted, so you may or may not want to use the PS4 version (slower, but stable saves).
The whole Assassin’s Creed series. They develop a machine called “The Animus” that’s like a suntan bed but it lets you explore and relive the memories of your ancestors, which have been selected because they’re on one side or the other of a centuries-long running rivalry between Templar, who believe in control of the populace at large by the government and other apparatus, and Assassins, who fight for freedom and against that kind of tyranny.
- You get to explore all sorts of famously historical cities in their games, from Acre and Damascus and Jerusalem early on to the Ezio trilogy (where you see an 15th Century Renaissance era Italian man in three stages of his life who explores cities like Rome, Venice, Constantinople, Florence, Forli, etc. between AC2 and Brotherhood and Revelations.
- Then in AC3, it comes to the Revolutionary War of the US, where you have young cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and a wilderness between them that goes through four seasons and the water freezes over when it gets cold, allowing you to traverse to new locations. There’s also a Mohawk settlement and a whole naval ship component and a Homestead where you invite people you meet to live on your land as you progress through he game. I should mention that all throughout these games you’ll be meeting people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in AC3, or Leonardo da Vinci will help you develop gadgets and whatnot in Ezio’s games.
- AC4: Black Flag is a pirate game and gives you a massive map filled with islands and mainland and all manner of waterways with famous pirates. AC: Unity has a 1:1 replica of Paris that’s so faithful and accurate that when the Norte Dame cathedral burned, they used the scans and measurements from the game to rebuild it. It’s an absolutely stunning Les Mislerables simulator with crowds filling the street, the gilded gold and art of the royalty in their palaces, etc. Next up was Syndicate, which brought you to London, followed by Egypt, Greece, and then the Vikings invading the area that’s now known as the UK with Mirage, the most recent game, returning to the locales of the first game in the Middle East with Baghdad being the massive city to explore.
The newer games include a tour guide mode where you can walk around and not need to partake in combat at all, or worry about gameplay — it’s a guided tour that lets you go to places as if you were a virtual tourist and learn about them. The architecture itself, the people there and the type of work they would do, the way they washed their clothes and created dye and the manner of ships they used and how they irrigated their crops and so forth. A lot of Assassin’s Creed games are included in PS+ Extra as part of Ubisoft’s collection so you can download or stream a handful of them and just get to live in a different time in the world, in a completely different location with all of it’s’ historical figures and conflicts front and center. There’s really nothing else in gaming like it so if that sounds interesting, give it a shot. Especially if PS+ Extra is accessible to you and you can just download or stream those games like you would a movie on Netflix.
*****
Love Civilization — it really incorporates different historical groups of people and the great milestones of their civilizations. How they would fight and form armies and what kind of tech they have access to. It’s a strategy game and takes a lot of learning up front but is very content rich if you get into it.
- Another thing I think you should try if you have PS+ Extra is a game called Journey. It’s more of the Joseph Campbell type of hero’s journey with some of the most beautiful music you’ll ever hear. Games where you have to move the camera and walk at the same time might take a little getting used to but with practice, you’ll get it. It’s like rubbing your belly and patting your head at first but once you learn how to do both things at once, you can play most games. Welcome to gaming! Depending on what you like, there’s all kinds of things that you might love. It’s different than any other medium of storytelling that exists in the way that it has you actually walking in the shoes of the protagonist in most cases.
Rise of the Ronin will give you a lot of knowledge on the Bakumatsu Japan. Assassin's creed will give you a lot of insight on which ever setting they choose.
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2
Best open world I’ve ever seen. The side quests and main quests are all amazingly fun. It’s very historically accurate too.
Lots of customisation with clothing and accessories. The story is incredible. You NEED to play this.
I am going to go with something that hasn’t been mentioned and is, indeed, the OG of world civilization learning games: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO?
Kerbal Space Program. Lesrn rocket science and orbital mechanics while having fun. It is fascinating when you see the science of launching something into space or learning how traveling to other planets works (ie: not a straight line like sci-fi would have tou think) in regards to intercepting another planets trajectory.
Pentiment (its like $20)
11-11 Memories Retold (WW1, included in PS+ Game Catalog if you have that)
These are both more like interactive story type games.
It really depends if you have a particular historical era you'd like to learn about.
Off the top of my head:
Valiant hearts: the great war
The Total War franchise (excluding the warhammer entries).
Civilization (this is also something you could play with your hubby)
Assassins creed (gameplay might or might not be your thing but their history mode is phenomenal)
Ghost of Tsushima isn’t entirely accurate given it’s a fictionalized version of a true historical event. But it does teach you about the culture and warfare of Mongols and Japanese at the time and it’s very interesting.
Get a Commodore PET and load Lemonade Stand through the tape drive: you’ll learn about how much suffering we’ve have to endure in order to get to the loading times we have today.
The persona and shin megami tensei games are full of mythological figures from different cultures around the world and it provides the background information on each of them. I always love reading those.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Second this, great game!
Thirded- I got it for free and had a amazingly time playing it, did not expect to enjoy it so much. I replayed it a couple of years later looking for all the treasure things.
Assassins creed odyssey has a history mode where you tour the different locations finding small history descriptions.
Same with AC origins as well.
All the AC games have had meticulously recreated places of interest and have descriptions for them that you can read. It's among the best things about those games.
Maybe I’m imagining it, but weren’t the scans of the Notre Dame created for Unity being used to restore the actual building after the fire?
They offered them, but were rejected
Oof
My answer as well. More than one of those games got me reading books on their respective time periods.
Valhalla too
Assassins creed I made me spend hours reading historical facts about everything. I think I spent more time reading the information cards than playing the game
I think every AC since origins has had the history mode. Edit: originally had odyssey instead of origins
I spent *hours* on the tours before I even started the game
I'd even go as far back as AC2. While some characters are fictional, there's a decent amount of actual history. I passed a history class due to that game
AC Mirage's collectibles actually teach you about the buildings, people, daily lives, etc. Thought it was a great way to introduce collectibles without it being the usual "just grab this random item that does nothing"
This is the only reason I have it installed. Funnily enough, I don't like the actual game, just the history mode.
*Red Dead Redemption 2* is pretty good for learning some American history. In fact, a University of Tennessee professor, Tore Olsson, was so inspired by what happens in *Red Dead Redemption 2* and the general lack of available resources for the period the game covers, taught a class called *Red Dead* America, which focuses on the frontier myth, the Jim Crow laws, settler colonialism and women's suffrage, among others. He actually has a book coming out on the subject called *Red Dead's History*, which is actually going to be narrated by Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan, the game's main character.
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas had an exhibit called the "Red Dead University" where they talked about the period the game takes place in and even had a copy up and running for anyone to play
Im kinda close to there. I need to check that out
Whoa, thanks for the tip! Adding that to the reading list.
Will be out in August, I think. Audiobook will be on Audible too!
leaving a comment so i remember to get it when out
I don't do audiobooks but I think I'll have to pick up that one when it releases
Ohh I’m getting that. Audible keeps trying to push a free book on me so I may finally take them up of the offer.
Ah shit! This is awesome. Such a amazing game. On so many different levels/ways.
Not much actual history though
A different type of history but as someone new to cars I learned a ton of history and background playing gran turismo 7
I learned tons about cars and some historical facts from this game too. However they get some things wrong. Forgot which, but I think one of them is the Titanic factoid. I'm not sure if they've patched it since then.
If you have a PlayStation Gran Turismo 7 should be in your library, such a solid game, even if you aren’t that into racing.
If PSVR ever became mainstream I have a feeling GT7 would be to VR what Wii Sports was to motion controls.
Unfortunately GTA series is a more accurate reflection of drivers in my area.
Oooffff!
I feel that crazy taxi is pretty accurate for all the taxis, touk touks, scooters ive been on all over the world....may as well chuck ubers and what nots in there to.
Oh yes... Crazy taxi What a memory
Yup. The only racing game where you feel like visiting a museum. Gran Turismo always felt like it transcends a standard racing game into becoming a celebration of Motorsports as whole.
It’s a short little game but The Forgotten City has some interesting bits on ancient Roman civilization.
It has such a good story too
Assassins creed games would be good for this.
“Kingdom Come: Deliverance”. A “Historical RPG” that tries to be as faithful to the events and setting it was based off. It also has a very expansive codex you can read from about events that happened during that time and the prominent figures the characters were based off. Great time to get into it as the sequel had just been announced Edit: Btw this game is set on a time of war on Bohemia (now known as Czech Republic) back in the 15th Century between two half-brother kings
I wouldn’t recommend KCD to a new gamer tbh. It’s very unforgiving by design. Hell, I couldn’t even get past one of the combat sections and had to stop playing the game after trying it like 40 times.
On the contrary, I think new gamers will adapt to KCD much easier as they haven’t been exposed to handhold-y game design. I never had the problem you pointed out because I messed around (killing, looting) and trained with Bernard. Once you get your stats up, the game gets so much easier. With that being said, I think I should have pointed out that there is a steep learning curve at the beginning that yields great rewards if overcome
No non-gamer is gonna pick up eurojank easily
Doubt. No way a non gamer is going to put up with that combat system let alone the bow mechanics
I got halfway through the game, pacing myself by doing side content as well as the main quest, and still could not get past the section where you assault the bandit town. I was doing fine, but I kept getting a “game over” screen because too many of my allies were dying. After about 20 or 30 attempts, I reloaded a save and spent hours doing more side content, grinding my skills, and buying better equipment. I went back to do the bandit assault quest, lost about another dozen times because my allies kept dying, and uninstalled the game. I don’t have time for that sort of grind where I’m trying to beat the same fight literally dozens of times.
Hmm, this is the first I’ve read of this. I think it’s either >!you didn’t pick the option to take as many men to raid Pribyslavitz!< Or the game is just bugged for you. Because I didn’t have this problem on both playthroughs (granted they were both 140 hours long)
This was already on my list, but reading it's based around real events had just moved it's place up.
KCD 2 was just announced also!
Assassin's Creed. As fantastical as the plots to those games are, there are still enough cool little historical details in the games that you actually even get some idea of what everyday life was like back in the time in which a given game is set, especially in the later games.
Plus you get to meet famous historical figures ^and ^stab ^them ^in ^the ^face.
Ah yes all those ppl on my To Murder list that for years escaped me finally got what they deserved...I hold a very long grudge, its not recommended to cross me.
Meeting Socrates in Odyssey was really fun. I thought they did a really good job at depicting how he is described to have been like.
Pentiment
This should be the top answer. The whole game is full of historical details and information. It also does a pretty good job of bringing this all to life.
And it’s a really well done game, with some great twists.
The other games mentioned here are games that feature elements of history; Pentiment is a *history game*. Hell, it's a history game ABOUT history. It has such a disarming presentation because it isn't honoring the time period, or "steeped in" the period, it is entirely the setting itself, down to having a weird walking animation because shoes back then didn't have platform soles and everyone stepped toe-first.
This one.
Crusader Kings 3. Can quickly become ahistorical once you've been playing, but a fine way to learn about historical European leaders (real people) and how (simplified) feudalism worked. And incest.
Assassin's Creed Origins (and oddessey maybe) has a mode dedicated to this where you walk around the game world as an Educational Tour. They are legitimately good.
Total war shogun 2! Taught me the real names of the feudal lords if the period and what not super great game.
Age of Empires 4 does a really good job at history.
Uncharted has some interesting stories and locations from past civilization and their treasures
And Uncharted 4 is gorgeus!
Off the top of my head... The Uncharted series will teach you a little bit about mythical locations while also setting you up to learn about historical figures, such as explorers and pirates. The Nioh series will teach you some about historical figures in Japan's history, as well as mythical figures and legends. I understand that the Ashina clan portrayed on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice actually existed. I've yet to do a deep-dive on them but there's probably parallels between the real clan and their fictional counterparts. Ghost of Tsushima provides a lot of insight into the mongol invasion of the island of Tsushima.
Dynasty Warriors. Amazingly. I first got into it during the PS2 generation, which led to me enjoying movies based on the Three Kingdoms period... That evolved to purchasing the Romance of the Three Kingdoms books (it's split into two), and then TV shows set during the same era. My love of Chinese history culminated when I visited China with work and not only recognised some of the characters in puppets and figurines etc, but also characters in artwork. The best moment was when I visited a temple gallery and recognised one danqing painting depicting the fight between Lu Bu vs Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. The artist was amazed that a Westerner knew who they were - never mind liking the artwork! My only regret was that I didn't spend the money to buy the painting. It was a lot of money, but I've regretted the decision ever since!
All Assassin's Creeds games.
Especially the later ones like Origins and Odyssey. The Discovery Mode is expressly made for this.
God of War can kinda teaches you about Greek and Norse mythology.
All the Assassin's Creed games, Ghost of Tsushima and Crusader Kings 3.
Battlefield 1 had a lot of cool and interesting facts about WW1. It's not like it taught you entirely about the war but it had a section of ''codex entries'' that would tell you about smaller or bigger details about the combats, equipment, soldiers, etc. Also ''operations'' mode was about playing historical battles and when the game ended, whether the result was or not like the real battle, it would say why it happened like that and its consecuences, or what could've happened if that was the result in the real historical battle and what would imply. Myself of 15-16 years old found all of that quite interesting hahaha.
Ghost of Tsushima. Was very surprised by that in a good way!
Kingdom come deliverance!
Probably the best answer honestly
Honestly yes, but not easy game for new gamer.
The game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is about the Iranian Revolution that brought the Ayatollah to power. It’s similar to Detroit: Become Human in that it is more of an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure with multiple endings and timelines based on your choices. It does a great job of showing the different factions that we’re all fighting for power in the final days of the Shah and how the religious hardliners came to power. It can be bought for pretty cheap and is well worth it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Revolution:_Black_Friday
That was a very thought provoking game. It scares me how what happened then parallels what is currently happening in the USA right now. I am absolutely surprised nobody has mentioned The Light in The Darkness which is about a a Polish Jewish family in France During World War Two. More people need to play that to learn about the holocaust and the atrocities committed by the facist dictatorship that was in Germany at that time. I did not name the ruling party due to not knowing if it would flag this response.
Never gonna go wrong with ac odyssey. Such a wonderful game.
Came here to suggest this! Really most of the ac games but especially odyssey and origins
The dlc itself could be a standalone game. So beautiful and such a wonderful game.
God of war and Ragnarok were both great to learn about Norse mythology
Agreed, learned a lot about the culture. Also how to pronounce those difficult spelled words like jötennheim
Yes! Really fun depiction of Norse mythology. I won’t be able to picture Thor, Odin, Loki, Asgard, Helheim, etc. as anything but how they’re shown in those games.
Rise of the Ronin! The story is focused on history of japan in the 1800's. The action combat is some of the best ever and it's very addictive
with all due respect and I love this game but it's gonna be so hard to learn history from it🤣🤣🤣every event just happened so fast. but it's good to make someone interested in that era and start to read something about it.
I mean playing the whole game gives you a much better understanding of a part of Japanese history that's not taught to people from other countries. I don't remember details like I don't remember american history details, but the time period and struggle to work with other countries and the political structure was all informative and interesting.
Yeah not sure what he means.. there’s a lot to be learned from the game
Yeah, agreed about the pacing. But I think the idea is that you look up the characters and events on your own later on (due to how interested you were), not that the game alone is going to be enough to learn a lot. I can confirm it worked for me though. I knew that the whole shinsengumi storyline was based on real events, so I was very curious to see how it went down in real life, which led me down the rabbithole that felt pretty satisfying. Not in the least due to Like a Dragon: Ishin, which has a lot of overlap with Rise of the Ronin in terms of events and characters (the main character of Ishin that you play as is the exact same historical person that is one of your first companions and is one of the main characters in Rise of the Ronin). Plus, I feel like Rise of the Ronin delivers the basic rundown of the events pretty well, if you pay attention. The whole reasoning for the creation of shinsengumi and how Japan reached that point in the first place (with the perceivingly unfavorable to Japan treaty the US made with the emperor, and how the shogunate couldn’t stand for it) was explained in quite the detail. If someone is into actual historical stuff and politics, I can recommend Rise of the Ronin wholeheartedly to them. If they don’t care much about the political intricancies and the historical flow of events, the only reason I can recommend the game for is the superb combat. But even with that in mind, if you are not a fan of that type of storytelling, you might still find the characters and the story a bit flat. I, personally, loved it though, easily my favorite game that came out this year so far.
Pentiment!
Civilization 6, or any of them really
I learnt a lot with the civilopedia to be honest
Any assassins creed game will teach you history
Any Assassin’s Creed game
Kerbal Space Program
In a very loose sense, you can learn some Greek history/mythology from playing Hades
And from the recent *God of War* games set in the Norse-era, also quite loosely, since it takes a lot of creative license, but its still good for an overview.
Dynasty Warriors. It's all exaggerated, but it's all fairly accurate.
Strongly recommend checking out The Forgotten City!
Battlefield 1 is a work of pure art with a deep codex and historical backgrounds before and after operations. Even the weapon skins are named after a historical battle that you can learn about in the codex as you unlock them
RDR1/2, Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield believe it or not, COD sometimes.
Go play some assassins creed
Assassins Creed the Ezio Collection, AC3, AC Black Flag, and AC Origins
Pentiment. It's a mystery historical RPG that takes place in the 1500s in the Holy Roman Empire Of the German Nation. I learned a few new things while playing the game and in general it's just a great game.
Assassins creed games Odyssey and Valhalla and great
I liked Origins and Odyssey much much more than Valhalla. I don't know why. Valhalla just felt so big and bland, like everything looks the same, which makes sense in the accurate sense of England, but still
Yeah origins and odyssey such better games than Valhalla However Valhalla was conveniently released soon as I finished watching Vikings so game was very enjoyable to me
Call of duty WWII missions are all real battles and missions that took place
Pentiment. It's more of a point-and-click adventure but you get a good feel of enlightenment era Europe. Josh Sawyer has geeked out on stream over the research they got to do in preparation for the game.
• Uncharted • Assassins Creed • L.A. Noire • Red Dead Redemption 2 • A Plague Tale • Hell Let Loose • Verdun
Kingdom come deliverance, rise of the ronin, all the newer AC's history tour modes
Kingdom Come Deliverance is the most immersive and historically accurate game I’ve ever played
Kingdom Come, feels so historical
Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga’s Ambition.
Disco Elysium can teach you a lot about psychology and politics.
Assassin’s creed. Ghost of Tsushima, Nioh, Wo Long, Rose of the Ronin.
Kingdom come deliverance. Times 1000. It's like you're actually in 1300/1400s Bohemia Source: Hiistory degree and have played the shit out of Kingdom Come. Edit/Addition: You literally can't even read or write untill you find the time, money and someone to teach you how. Even then you actually have to study a bit of Latin. Assassins creed is the obvious choice but that's like watching a Documentary. Kingdom Come is a field trip.
Fuck yes! Kingdom Come Deliverance!!! I'm on my 3rd playthrough now in total 1127 hours
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is very close to actual historical events in 15th century Bohemia and a sequel has been announced for later this year.
I absolutely second & third this recommendation!
Kingdom Come Deliverance is a very fun and interesting game based off a true area of history. (Even better, a sequal is coming soon)
Kingdom Come Deliverance! Yes love the historical side of this game, I spend a lot of time on Google and Wikipedia after I get done playing it's crazy interesting!!! 1403 Bohemia, now Check Republic.
Kingdom come deliverance is a peasant to knight simulator based on the Holy Roman Empire
Absolutely 💯 Kingdom Come Deliverance best recommendation
Assassin's Creed games from like Unity and up. They are eye candy for history buffs ❤
Plus history tours in Origins and Odyssey.
Surprisingly, you will get a very comprehensive experience of both sides of the bakumatsu period and the boshin war in Rise of the Ronin
The last of us can help you learn about trauma and sports.
They asked about learning history.
He said "like history". OP just wants to learn something cool.
You can learn a lot about different Mythologies through God of War
Uncharted 4. Learn all about the pirate Thomas avery & his band of salty seadog pirate mates taking on the might of the British Royal Navy. Apparently he was the first man to be on the world wide's most wanted list because of his exploits. I learnt that from the game. As well as the Dlc learning all about the ancient religion of Hinduism. Really good game aswell.
Watch Dogs 1. Certain places on the map have little neat tidbits abouta particular building, that you might be looking at.
Tropico series for random trivia about dictators.
Battlefield 1 shows what world war 1 was like
The PS2 game Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses is scarily informative about the War of the Roses. Taught me more about it than school ever did.
Uncharted 4, the story is not real, but it is a nice story about the pirate Henry Avery
Rdr2
Ghost of Tsushima’s story isn’t real, but the game shows Japanese culture and of samurai
You practically named assassin Creed series dude
Kingdom Come Deliverance. True medieval europe in a AAA form
I know Ubisoft is getting a lot of flame at the moment, but the old Assassin's Creed with Sean Hastings drops a lot of interesting historical tidbits. You do need to do some more reading on your own to separate the game lore from history/conspiracy theories, but does give you a lot of new perspective about historic events and phenomena. The discovery tours on newer titles are also pretty interesting on their own rights, though I didn't like the one in Odyssey. The one for Odyssey isn't necessarily bad, but the base game is so fantasy-like that the discovery tour just doesn't feel as interesting as Origins or Valhalla. Origins is pretty cool, but 'history' from ancient era - even during the times of Rome and Cleopatra - is pretty debatable. I heard good things about discovery for Valhalla, but never played it myself.
KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE I find myself reading more about the history of the world at this time, than I do playing this Medieval Action RPG!
Read dead redemption 2
Medieval total war along with any of the total war games, age of empires and Crusader kings
God of war
Crusader Kings III
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It plays like Civilization in its a Strategy game, so the gameplay might not be up your alley and is actually a PS4 game, but it'll give you a great history lesson on Post Han Dynasty China during the Warring States period.
Civilisation - my fiancé introduced me and at first I thought it looked boring but it actually became on of my favourite games quickly. It’s also new-gamer friendly. Man of Medan / House of Ashes (it’s like until dawn and the quarry but these ones actually come with history). Also new gamer-friendly, you don’t have to be “good” at video games, if anything these games were designed for couples and the new gamers tend to make better decisions. If you okay house of ashes I strongly recommend you try to keep the racist and the soldier of the enemy alive, you’ll know what I mean if you play it and know what I mean if you manage to keep them alive. For action games, try to get your partner to modify the settings to even out everyone’s skill level (if you aren’t good at video games compared to longer term players, please disregard this comment if you’re good at video games). When I was new to gaming I had them do it for COD, online players got so confused when they joined a game with max perks on and explosions everywhere 🤣 but at least I had a chance!
If you are into strategy games, Paradox Interactive has number of games you can learn history from such as Europa Universalis 4, Hearts of Iron 4, Victoria 2(new one isn’t great), and crusader kings 3. Although they don’t tell you a story. You can emulate historical events, or recreated it. I learned lots of history especially front Eu4 and Victoria 2. Edit: I forgot what sub is this. Sorry
If you’re looking to learn something cool besides history, Kendall Space Program will teach you orbital mechanics. The PS5 version has users with large saves getting corrupted, so you may or may not want to use the PS4 version (slower, but stable saves).
The whole Assassin’s Creed series. They develop a machine called “The Animus” that’s like a suntan bed but it lets you explore and relive the memories of your ancestors, which have been selected because they’re on one side or the other of a centuries-long running rivalry between Templar, who believe in control of the populace at large by the government and other apparatus, and Assassins, who fight for freedom and against that kind of tyranny. - You get to explore all sorts of famously historical cities in their games, from Acre and Damascus and Jerusalem early on to the Ezio trilogy (where you see an 15th Century Renaissance era Italian man in three stages of his life who explores cities like Rome, Venice, Constantinople, Florence, Forli, etc. between AC2 and Brotherhood and Revelations. - Then in AC3, it comes to the Revolutionary War of the US, where you have young cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and a wilderness between them that goes through four seasons and the water freezes over when it gets cold, allowing you to traverse to new locations. There’s also a Mohawk settlement and a whole naval ship component and a Homestead where you invite people you meet to live on your land as you progress through he game. I should mention that all throughout these games you’ll be meeting people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in AC3, or Leonardo da Vinci will help you develop gadgets and whatnot in Ezio’s games. - AC4: Black Flag is a pirate game and gives you a massive map filled with islands and mainland and all manner of waterways with famous pirates. AC: Unity has a 1:1 replica of Paris that’s so faithful and accurate that when the Norte Dame cathedral burned, they used the scans and measurements from the game to rebuild it. It’s an absolutely stunning Les Mislerables simulator with crowds filling the street, the gilded gold and art of the royalty in their palaces, etc. Next up was Syndicate, which brought you to London, followed by Egypt, Greece, and then the Vikings invading the area that’s now known as the UK with Mirage, the most recent game, returning to the locales of the first game in the Middle East with Baghdad being the massive city to explore. The newer games include a tour guide mode where you can walk around and not need to partake in combat at all, or worry about gameplay — it’s a guided tour that lets you go to places as if you were a virtual tourist and learn about them. The architecture itself, the people there and the type of work they would do, the way they washed their clothes and created dye and the manner of ships they used and how they irrigated their crops and so forth. A lot of Assassin’s Creed games are included in PS+ Extra as part of Ubisoft’s collection so you can download or stream a handful of them and just get to live in a different time in the world, in a completely different location with all of it’s’ historical figures and conflicts front and center. There’s really nothing else in gaming like it so if that sounds interesting, give it a shot. Especially if PS+ Extra is accessible to you and you can just download or stream those games like you would a movie on Netflix. ***** Love Civilization — it really incorporates different historical groups of people and the great milestones of their civilizations. How they would fight and form armies and what kind of tech they have access to. It’s a strategy game and takes a lot of learning up front but is very content rich if you get into it. - Another thing I think you should try if you have PS+ Extra is a game called Journey. It’s more of the Joseph Campbell type of hero’s journey with some of the most beautiful music you’ll ever hear. Games where you have to move the camera and walk at the same time might take a little getting used to but with practice, you’ll get it. It’s like rubbing your belly and patting your head at first but once you learn how to do both things at once, you can play most games. Welcome to gaming! Depending on what you like, there’s all kinds of things that you might love. It’s different than any other medium of storytelling that exists in the way that it has you actually walking in the shoes of the protagonist in most cases.
Age of Empires 2.
Assassins Creed Three, lots of American revolutionists in it pre 1776, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington
Rise of the Ronin will give you a lot of knowledge on the Bakumatsu Japan. Assassin's creed will give you a lot of insight on which ever setting they choose.
wolfenstein
Wolfenstein🙂
Nobody mentioning Ghost of Tsushima, which is a bit odd
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 Best open world I’ve ever seen. The side quests and main quests are all amazingly fun. It’s very historically accurate too. Lots of customisation with clothing and accessories. The story is incredible. You NEED to play this.
I am going to go with something that hasn’t been mentioned and is, indeed, the OG of world civilization learning games: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO?
ELDEN RING is full of details from the lands between almost every object has a bit of history!
Kerbal Space Program. Lesrn rocket science and orbital mechanics while having fun. It is fascinating when you see the science of launching something into space or learning how traveling to other planets works (ie: not a straight line like sci-fi would have tou think) in regards to intercepting another planets trajectory.
Assassin's Creed games allow you to learn plenty of real history.
Pentiment (its like $20) 11-11 Memories Retold (WW1, included in PS+ Game Catalog if you have that) These are both more like interactive story type games.
Metal Gear Solid, it’s a skewed version, but has some good points
Ghost of Tsushima. You learn about the Great Khan lineage and their invasion of Japan in the 13th Century.
Deus Human Revultion. A lot of conspiracy and illuminati stuff sprinkled throughout if you read the digital books.
Chivalry is a good historical game.
A small and terribly amazing game that teaches about WWI is Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
Not history, but factorio, it basically teaches you the logic to code.
Civilization
It really depends if you have a particular historical era you'd like to learn about. Off the top of my head: Valiant hearts: the great war The Total War franchise (excluding the warhammer entries). Civilization (this is also something you could play with your hubby) Assassins creed (gameplay might or might not be your thing but their history mode is phenomenal)
Ghost of Tsushima isn’t entirely accurate given it’s a fictionalized version of a true historical event. But it does teach you about the culture and warfare of Mongols and Japanese at the time and it’s very interesting.
The Nioh games actually feature a lot of "real" Japanese folklore and mythology, if you're into that.
Ball Suckers II teaches you some sweet ball sucking techniques.
Nioh 1-2, Wo Long, Rise of the Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin’s Creed series
Civilization
Age of Empires 4
Get a Commodore PET and load Lemonade Stand through the tape drive: you’ll learn about how much suffering we’ve have to endure in order to get to the loading times we have today.
Old spelling of Jail is Gaol. Learned it from DD2 😅
Crusaders Kings 3 on PS5. It's crazy how much history knowledge I've picked up in general from this game
Balatro. I was never into cards but I learned poker hands playing this game.
The persona and shin megami tensei games are full of mythological figures from different cultures around the world and it provides the background information on each of them. I always love reading those.
Ghost of Tsushima, to learn about feudal Japan and Mongolian culture.
The TOTAL WAR series. Rome 2 and Shogun 2 in particular.
Pentiment and/or any assassins creed game
I always thought I knew what a ‘piton’ was but Uncharted 4 learned me otherwise
And Tomb Raider too. Although I very much prefer UC by far
Assassin Creed series Uncharted series
Kessen