A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to study the nature of potential conflicts. Many wargames re-create specific historic battles, and can cover either whole wars, or any campaigns, battles, or lower-level engagements within them. Many simulate land combat, but there are wargames for naval, air combat, and cyber as well as many that combine various domains.
A tactical shooter is a sub-genre of first- and third-person shooters, associated with using strategy, planning, and tactics in gameplay, as well as the realistic simulations of ballistics, firearm mechanics, physics, stamina, and low time to kill. Dating back to strategy games from the late 1980s, the genre first rose to prominence in the late 1990s with the releases of several well-received tactical shooters. The popularity of the genre saw a decline in the late 2000s as fast-paced "arcade"-like action shooters rose to prominence, it has seen a revitalization since the mid-2010s with the successful releases of several modern tactical shooters.
Battlefield 1942 is a 2002 first-person shooter video game developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game can be played in single-player mode against the video game AI or in multiplayer mode against players on the Internet or in a local area network. It is a popular platform for mod developers, with many released modifications that alter the gameplay and theme.
Day of Defeat is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game set in the European theatre of World War II on the Western front. Originally a modification of the 1998 game Half-Life, the rights of the modification were purchased by Valve and released as a full retail title in 2003.
Call of Duty 2 is a 2005 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in most regions of the world. It is the second installment of the Call of Duty series. Announced by Activision on April 7, 2005, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2005, and as a launch title for the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005. Other versions were eventually released for OS X, mobile phones, and Pocket PCs.
Real-time tactics (RTT) is a subgenre of tactical wargames played in real-time, simulating the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics. It is differentiated from real-time strategy gameplay by the lack of classic resource micromanagement and base or unit building, as well as the greater importance of individual units and a focus on complex battlefield tactics.
The Battle of Buffington Island, also known as the St. Georges Creek Skirmish, was an American Civil War engagement in Meigs County, Ohio, and Jackson County, West Virginia, on July 19, 1863, during Morgan's Raid. The largest battle in Ohio during the war, Buffington Island contributed to the capture of the Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, who was fleeing U.S. Army soldiers across the Ohio River at a ford opposite Buffington Island.
Order of War is a World War II Strategy video game developed by Wargaming and published by Square Enix. It was released on September 22, 2009.
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad and Rising Storm GOTY, now known as Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2 GOTY on Steam, is a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter video game set during World War II, developed and published by Tripwire Interactive. It is a sequel to Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45. The title focuses heavily on the Battle of Stalingrad and the Pacific Theater. The game was released in September 2011. The game is currently a Windows exclusive and contains many new features compared to the original, including a new first-person cover system, which can also be combined with blind firing, first person collision detection, Commander role and abilities as well as an entirely new system of statistics tracking and player levelling. Maps are much bigger and had immediate 64-player support.
Heroes & Generals was a free-to-play first-person shooter and real-time strategy video game set in World War II developed and published by Reto-Moto, and TLM Games from February 3, 2022, following Reto-Moto's acquisition by TLM Partners. Reto-Moto was founded by some of the founders of IO Interactive and the Hitman series. The developers called it a "mass participation game" in contrast to a traditional massively multiplayer online game, where the actions in the FPS-part of the game reflect into the strategy-part. The player can use weapons from Germany, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Heroes & Generals was shutdown on May 25, 2023 by TLM Games.
Verdun is a squad-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game set during World War I. It was released on 28 April 2015 on Steam, after more than a year in Steam Early Access. The console versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released between August 2016 and June 2021.
Squad is a realism-based military tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by Canadian indie developer Offworld Industries exclusively through the Steam distribution platform. It is a spiritual successor to the Project Reality modification for Battlefield 2. The game depicts realistic modern warfare between military and paramilitary factions in large and expansive battlefields. Squad became available on Steam Early Access in December 2015, and was officially released on Steam in September 2020.
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is a 2017 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Antimatter Games and Tripwire Interactive and co-published by Tripwire Interactive and Iceberg Interactive. It is a direct sequel to 2013's Rising Storm and is set during the Vietnam War. The game was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows through digital distribution platform Steam on May 30, 2017.
Insurgency: Sandstorm is a multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video game developed by New World Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive. The game is a sequel to the 2014 video game Insurgency. Set in an unnamed fictional Middle Eastern region, the game depicts a conflict between two factions: "Security", loosely based on various militaries ; and "Insurgents", loosely based on various paramilitary and terrorist groups.
Battlefield 2042 is a 2021 first-person shooter, developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The twelfth main installment in the Battlefield series, it was released on November 19, 2021, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Unlike previous games in the series, Battlefield 2042 is solely multiplayer and does not have a single-player campaign. It features support for cross-platform play, a first in the series. Battlefield 2042 received mixed reviews from critics and a negative reception from players for its technical issues, lack of features, and certain changes to the gameplay. The game failed to meet the sales expectations of Electronic Arts. A new Battlefield installment, under the head of Motive Studios, is in development.
Ready or Not is a 2023 tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by Ireland-based VOID Interactive and released for Microsoft Windows. Ready or Not follows the operations of a police SWAT team in the fictional American city of Los Sueños in the midst of a violent crime wave.
World War 3 is a free-to-play first-person shooter developed by Wishlist Games and published by The 4 Winds Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. World War 3 is solely multiplayer and does not feature a single-player campaign. It features real-world locations of Warsaw, Berlin, Moscow, Smolensk, Polyarny, the Gobi Desert, Tokyo, the Korean DMZ, and Istanbul; the locations have been extensively revamped since the early access release on October 19, 2018. The full version followed on December 10, 2022. On December 14, 2023, Wishlist Games acquired the rights to develop World War 3 from The Farm 51, becoming the next lead development studio for the game.
The Great War: Western Front is a real-time strategy video game based on the First World War. Developed by Petroglyph Games and published by Frontier Foundry, the game was released in March 2023 for Windows PC.
Unrecord is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by DRAMA. The game received media attention when the developers released an early gameplay trailer in April 2023 showcasing the photorealistic graphics.
BattleBit Remastered is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter developed by a team of three indie developers—SgtOkiDoki, Vilaskis, and TheLiquidHorse—and published by SgtOkiDoki for Microsoft Windows exclusively through the Steam distribution platform. Loosely set during a conflict between the United States and Russia, BattleBit allows up to 254 players to compete in player versus player matches on large maps. The game is strongly inspired by the Battlefield series by DICE, with similar gameplay mechanics to earlier entries in that series such as team-oriented character classes and destructible environments.
