10 Video Games That Secretly Teach Us History

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway follows the 101st Airborne Division as they progress through Operation Market Garden during the latter part of WW2. This operation, which was overall a failure, is shown in gritty and realistic detail through this game. You play as Staff Sargent Matt Baker as he commands Baker Company.

This game’s best elements come from the fact that it doesn’t try to sugar coat any part of this conflict. Instead of offering an overview of the war, where you push around nameless divisions on a map, you have to be there in the mud and the blood. With its realistic depictions of the bonds that soldiers form and the mental strain that they are put under, Brothers in Arms pulls no punches.

The way health works in this game also lend itself to realism. If you expose yourself from cover while being fired upon, you will gain threat. If this continues, members of your team or you will be shot. This allows the feature of regenerating health without taking away from the realism.

While this is a game, it is based on the real lives of the men that fought in this conflict. Matt Baker himself is based on Harrison C. Summers, a decorated veteran of WW2. This game helps us to understand that while these games entertain and teach us, we must remember that real people fought and died on both sides during these conflicts.