Most of you who have been around a while know I set themes for myself, or challenges to help me complete games. Keeps my ADHD focused on a couple games. So one of these ideas Ive been kicking around for a couple years now I think I want to take a run at next year, but its a big one and I need some help. Suggestions and organization to be specific.
I want to play a series of games, minimum of 50 total, that sort of recreate the “History” of earth. Quite obviously though it wouldnt be the true history but rather a fabricated timeline of events from across the world based in video games. While Ive got some games chosen, I need more, though I’m being slightly picky about some choices. System and age dont matter, but Im staying away from games that jump large chunks of time, or wouldnt be feasibly explainable from decade to decade. For example Wolfenstein, or Fallout, which have events that utterly warp the tragectory of the entire earth for many years. Id rather pick things that take place in a specific year or couple years, or represent a decade. Im not shying away from sci fi or fantasy, apoclypse etc as its an alt history, but i want it to still make sense as a timeline.
So far i think my start point is probably going to be Far Cry Primal, and ill end up somewhere like Mass Effect Andromeda, or Outer Worlds.
Along with those Ive tapped Greedfall, Kingdom Come Deliverence, Cyberpunk 2077 and a few others as potentials but the door is pretty wide open for relevant suggest right now.
Mafia games would be good, many of the Call of Duty games I think would fit this too. Red dead would be cool, Ghost of Tsushima would be cool, and the AC games would for your project.
I played Mafia 1 and 2 a couple months ago back to back, so those probably wont be revisisted, but 3 is on my short list. Red Dead 2 is also on there, 1 ive played several times and love it, i just havent gotten around to 2. Ghost is stupid good, i may play that again. Have to see what else i can turn up for that time period.
And assasins creed is kind of a sticky one. I might play one or two of them, but since they hit so many time periods they feel a bit like the easy way out if that makes sense. I also started a project to play them all, got through the original in January amd then just didnt feel like playing another. But if any itll probably be origins, syndicate and/or unity
You will get a slice of life of Germany (Bavaria) in 1995 and a look into the historical backgrounds of King Ludwig II and Richard Wagner between 1870 and 1886 with a little scary twist.
The Oregon Trail
Either the classic one or definitely more fun the new one: The Oregon Trail on Steam
That’s 1811 to 1840.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
The game is set in the early 1400s Kingdom of Bohemia, also known as the Czech Kingdom.
The Saboteur
France and Germany in 1940.
Martha is dead
Italy 1944.
Jack Orlando
Prohibition in the 30s, detecive story about a murder. If you don’t want to go for the Mafia related games that have been already mentioned.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Japan 1600 and later.
Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth
England in 1100 -1200.
Jotun
If you dont want to go with one of the AAA games about the Vikings. I guess the time is about 800+.
For the future/alternative reality, I definitely recommend the Shadowrun games and everything XCOM related.
1274 - Ghost of Tsushima
1802 - Return of the Obra Dinn
1839 - Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Late 1800s/Early 1900s - The Great Ace Attorney
1911 - Red Dead Redemption
1943 - Return to Castle Wolfenstein (I know you mentioned Wolfenstein’s dramatic deviation from our real history, but this one stays grounded in World War II from what I recall)
1947 - L.A. Noire
1964 - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
1960s - Call of Duty: Black Ops
1975 - Boku no Natsuyasumi
1984 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
1986 - Shenmue
1996 - Tomb Raider (Original)
2003 - Half-Life
2005 - Metal Gear Solid
2010 - The Walking Dead (Season 1)
2013 - Tomb Raider (2013 reboot)
2010s - Persona 5
2019 - Yakuza: Like a Dragon
2022 - Bayonetta 3
2035 - Prey (2017)
2330 - Starfield
3021 - Horizon: Zero Dawn
+12,000 Years - Splatoon
+250,000,000 Years - Pikmin 1-4
Thansk for the suggestions! Ending in pikmin would be hilariously weird. Also makes me wonder if we could somehow timestamp Kirby and the forgotten land.
Dawn of Man, a pretty good city builder on Steam and GOG lets you take a small but growing tribe from the stone age through farming and animal husbandry up to the iron age.
Ill check it out, but to be honest the only city builders ive ever really got hooked on were Civilization Revolution…which is only sorta a city builder and Kingom for Keiflings which can be beat in like 6 hours. Appreciate the suggestion though!
By the time you finish this project, GTA 6 would have come out so you can include that! That’ll be for the modern day. Based on the trailer, there’s probably going to be a lot of pop culture in it.
This is a really neat concept, you’re always coming up with good gaming related questions / ideas!
I like what other people have mentioned already. I would like to add one of my favourite games from the PS1 era that would fit in nicely as sort of one of the first games to play as it’s based around the dawn of mankind. I’m talking of course of Populus! Specifically Populus: The Beginning is my favourite!
I really like the idea of using fps games to represent moments of conflict in your timeline. You could almost create a fictional timeline where you decide certain countries are going to war and then play some battlefield or red orchestra for example to play that moment out!
Good choice of topic, Ureshi!
I am humbled that my extensive timeline list has come to mention here. As much as the total amount can be overwhelming, a handful picking could do for a fun backlog project to partake in a chronological narrative of your idea.
Yeah, its a great list. Id probably be skipping over the Age of Empires stuff for the most part, Im rubbish at those type of games, but theres a lot of stuff on there i havent heard of, and also it kind of helps set up timeline order as to when some stuff takes place. Ive barely even started a skeleton of a list, and usually i do this kind of this alone but this seemed like a bigger idea than just myself could handle. And as you mentioned it seemed like it could be a fun piece for others to join in on if they felt like it.
