![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Through countless shooters gamers were able to feel like the “greatest generation” in a time when we weren’t sure who our enemy was. Why was World War 2 the epicenter of American retrospect? The Nazis are history’s best-dressed villains, with Swastikas and stark grey uniforms providing easy branding as the antagonists, and lend themselves to good guy/bad guy shooter dynamics. The next few years could be considered a golden age for World War II shooters - the point at which you couldn’t really find many shooters that didn’t involve Nazi Germany. Inside the homes where those flags waved, millions of Nazis were being shot dead. By 2003, America was involved in two armed conflicts, which were supported by a large amount of the American people, flags waving proudly. Now toss in the multiple Brothers in Arms games, Battlefield games, and other various titles set in the era, and you have officially saturated the market. By 2001, another huge piece of World War 2 fiction, HBO’s Band of Brothers, pushed the conflict further into the American conscience.īetween 1999, when these series debuted, and 2008, there were 14 Medal of Honor and 10 Call of Duty games set during World War 2. Much like the film, Medal of Honorwas a smash hit, garnering critical praise and going on to become the third-highest-selling Medal of Honor game of all time, according to IGN. So, Medal of Honor was developed in tandem with Steven Spielberg, the man responsible for Saving Private Ryan (1998), and released a year after the film. So why not? Where the technology was concerned, the plainer European countryside and its pockets of urban landscapes were much easier to work with on consoles such as the original PlayStation. 1981’s Castle Wolfenstein and 1983’s 1942 came out in the midst of the Cold War, a time when American’s were at their patriotic peaks. World War 2 games that weren’t shooters had come out long before Wolfenstein 3D. Using such a divisive time in our history would not work.Īfter eliminating the more recent conflicts (Operation Desert Storm and the Gulf War were still fresh in our memories and a bit taboo), what was left? Oh, just our most patriotic and ultra-American war ever – Dubya Dubya Two. Much like the war in the Middle East today, the ol’ red, white, and blue was not the clear hero. Whereas the USA was the clear hero in World War 2, that wasn’t the case with Vietnam. Of course, It wasn’t just the technical limitations that stopped developers from going anywhere near Vietnam. Consoles would have likely been taxed to the breaking point. Vietnam was likely out because its landscapes were made up of lush jungle foliage and enemies popping out all over the place. That meant digging into war history books in search of an era that would provide the most exciting setting in which to tell tales of heroism, patriotism, and sacrifice.There were also technological limitations to consider. Sure, there was Wolfenstein 3D, but even that was rooted in science fiction with its Mecha-Hitler final boss.įirst-person shooters had been around for nearly a decade by the late ‘90s, and it was time for them to grow up by dipping their toes into realism. Up until Medal of Honor made its debut, first-person shooters were almost exclusively about space marines, thanks to Quake and Doom. ![]()
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