10 Greatest World War I Video Games

Image via EA Published Jul 30, 2026, 7:44 AM EDT Sign in to your Collider account In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by a lone Serbian gunman in the city of Sarajevo. Due to established alliances, escalating tensions in Europe, and the increase of nationalism, the event led to an armed conflict that is now known as World War I. The scale was absolutely unprecedented, resulting in anywhere from 15 to 22 million fatalities. It is considered the first modern war, the first time many modern war machines were used and invented, such as fighter planes, chemical warfare, and tanks. Over a century has passed since the Great War, yet its influence is still felt to this day. Though it's not as well-known as the Second World War, that hasn't stopped creators from making many video games about it. From horror to strategy to shooters, there are plenty of excellent World War I games out there. If you're interested in playing through this devastating time in history, these are the best games to do so. 10 'Toy Soldiers' (2010) Image via Xbox Game Studios Toy Soldiers is a tower defence game that was initially released on the Xbox Live Arcade. It was actually the top-selling game on the arcade that year, selling hundreds of thousands of digital copies. In 2012, it was made available for PC, and it even received an HD remaster for PC and consoles in 2018. The game features both the lesser-known and most famous battles of the war's Western Front, all presented with a toy aesthetic. All the soldiers and units are toys, and the backdrop appears to be a child's bedroom. Gameplay involves strategically purchasing various units and placing them at specific locations, including machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, and artillery. You can also upgrade these units and control them for more precise shots and a score bonus. But that's not all. Some levels also feature tanks, sniper towers, and planes, which you can hop right into in order to even the playing field a little bit. There are some DLC campaigns that bring aliens into the mix, but these are a little bit weird and off-putting; the main story is where the game shines the most. It might be a bit of a juvenile way of presenting the conflict, but it's strangely addicting and surprisingly easy to get into. 9 'Battle of Empires: 1914-18' (2015) Image via Best Way Soft Battle of Empires: 1914-1918 is a real-time tactics game built on a Men of War engine. Upon its initial release, reviews were mixed, with many players disliking how it lacked the authentic World War I feel. Years after its release, however, it has successfully fixed this issue with additional campaigns and a complete overhaul featuring various factions. You can command the troops of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire. There's even a bonus tank-focused campaign. Since it's built on a Men of War engine, the mechanics are fundamentally the same. Individual soldiers can be controlled rather than treating whole squads as one unit. On top of that, each soldier or vehicle has a direct control function, where you can actually move and shoot using the mouse and arrow keys for more precise commands. The missions are a lot of fun, and take players to some of the bloodiest battles of the war, across all fronts. From the beaches of Gallipoli to the Battle of the Somme, Battle of Empires does a pretty good job of capturing the carnage of the First World War. Image via Nacon Ad Infinitum is a horror game that puts the player in the shoes of a German soldier, finally home after months on the Western Front. The story is told mainly through environmental cues and scattered notes rather than outright dialogue. The first-person game alternates between the protagonist, Paul's, time at home and flashbacks to his nightmarish experience on the front. However, even his home life is strained, as familial friction causes a rift in the household. A lot of supernatural elements occur, involving terrifying demons and nightmarish abominations. The game implies that none of it is real, though, but rather manifestations of Paul's fears and insecurities, as well as PTSD-fuelled hallucinations. While not the most realistic game, Ad Infinitum is a pretty solid horror experience with a really interesting setting. Some of the horror elements could be a little better, but overall, it's a fun game that's well worth the money. Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one. 🏕️Jason 🔪Michael 💤Freddy 🎈Pennywise 🪆Chucky TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty. ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply. ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours? APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it. AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late. NEXT QUESTION → 05 You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't. AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not. AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it. AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force. NEXT QUESTION → 08 It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours? AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it. REVEAL MY VILLAIN → Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck. Jason VoorheesJason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit. He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues. Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge. The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance. You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected. Michael MyersMichael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention. But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound. Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is. Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had. You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it. Freddy KruegerFreddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised. You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away. The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it. Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on. Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here. PennywisePennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it. The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly. You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away. That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare. It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all. ChuckyChucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is. You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance. Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone. Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing. Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 7 '11-11: Memories Retold' (2018) Image via Bandai Namco Entertainment 11-11: Memories Retold is an adventure game by Aardman Animations, the same studio behind the Wallace & Gromit franchise. This game is no comedy, though. The story stars Harry, a Canadian photographer (voiced by Elijah Wood, by the way), who enlists for the war to impress a girl he likes. On the other side of the war, there's Kurt (Sebastian Koch), a German engineer who enlists in the war to search for his missing son. The two become buried underground during the Battle of Verdun, and form an unlikely friendship in their efforts to escape. The game was released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice, marking the official end of the First World War. It is an adventure story, meaning there is no shooting or anything. It's also a bit of an art project, with visuals meant to resemble an Impressionist painting, with visible brushstrokes. This gives the whole thing a blurry aesthetic, almost as if, true to its title, the characters are really recounting their story to someone, though some details are fuzzy. It's a tragic anti-war game that never got the attention it deserves. 6 'Iron Storm' (2002) Image via Dreamcatcher Interactive Iron Storm, also known as World War Zero, is an alternate history FPS game set in the 1960s. The premise is simple: what if World War I never ended? Alliances have shifted, and the war has become a much different conflict. New inventions have drastically changed the battlefield, but trench warfare still reigns supreme on the Western Front. You play as Lt. James Anderson, an American commando sent deep behind German lines to destroy a new prototype weapon and bring an end to the war. All of the weapons are completely and wholly original, based on actual design motifs of popular manufacturers. The game is moderately challenging, although the combat is nothing special. However, it really shines in regards to its setting. It has a unique aesthetic, part dieselpunk and part steampunk, and has everything you could want from a World War I game: tight, muddy trench combat and a thrilling alternate history setting that is impossible to match. 5 'Verdun' (2016) Image via M2H and BlackMill Games Verdun is a squad-based tactical FPS game set on the Western Front. The game is multiplayer-only, and doesn't have any single-player modes, unfortunately. Featuring three main modes, massive battles of 64 players, and realistic weapons, Verdun is a straightforward yet rewarding game with tight controls and intense combat. There's no real plot to it, so it's easy to jump into. Verdun actually saw the release of two sequels, Tannenberg and Isonzo, which are set on the Eastern Front and the Italian Front, respectively. All of these games are pretty great and have clear individual strengths. However, if you're looking for a grittier, more claustrophobic World War I experience, Verdun is the way to go. In terms of crawling through the mud and the muck and fighting in confined trenches, this one absolutely reigns supreme. 4 'Amnesia: The Bunker' (2023) Image via Frictional Games Amnesia: The Bunker is the fourth entry in the popular Amnesia series of horror video games. Most of these games have some sort of historical setting, and this one decides to focus on the First World War. The protagonist is a French soldier named Henri, trapped in the weaving trenches of the Western Front while relentlessly pursued by an unknown entity called "The Beast." The Beast is photosensitive, meaning light is actually the best weapon against it, although firearms and throwables are also usable. Ammo is scarce, so you must manage your resources carefully. Unlike previous games, this one has a more open level design rather than linear corridors. Even though much of it is supernatural in nature, it's a phenomenal horror game and one of the best in the franchise. The setting is a heavy influence on the story, so it still counts as a World War I game. 3 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' (2014) Image via Ubisoft Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a cartoony adventure-puzzle game from Ubisoft. Directed by the same guy behind 11-11: Memories Retold, it was released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I's onset. The story follows Emil, a French farmer whose son-in-law, Karl, is a German man. When the war breaks out, Karl is deported to Germany and conscripted into the army. Meanwhile, a Black American volunteer named Freddie joins up with the French to avenge his wife, who was killed in a German bombing raid on Paris. With the help of a Belgian nurse named Anna, as well as a medically trained Dobermann Pinscher named Walt, Emil and Freddie begin their search for Karl, and for the German commander who killed Freddie's wife. Despite players not being able to wield guns in this game, the battle sequences are surprisingly intense, even with its cartoon visuals. The ending is fittingly heartbreaking; a swift gut punch that's hard to see coming. Valiant Hearts is one of the best war games ever made, one that is simple but soulful. 2 'Conscript' (2024) Image via Team17 Conscript is a top-down horror game reminiscent of late '90s survival horror titles. Even though it's horror, nothing supernatural happens; it remains firmly grounded in reality. The protagonist in André, a French soldier at the Battle of Verdun who is searching for his missing brother Pierre. The game emphasizes resource management, as your backpack only has so much room for your weapons, ammunition, and healing items. While stealth is the name of the game for the most part, there are some significant battle scenes, but you'll at least have some friendly troops with you. Made by a single developer, Conscript is an absolutely phenomenal work with a dark and realistic plotline that paints a harrowing picture of the realities of war. There are multiple endings to pursue, important decisions to make, and secrets to unravel in the trenches of Verdun. Conscript never gets boring, and is a nostalgic throwback to classic survival horror that needs to be played by fans of the genre. 1 'Battlefield 1' (2016) Image via EA Battlefield 1 is a first-person shooter that represents everything an FPS game should aspire to be. Let's start with its campaign — not the game's strongest aspect, but it's still a pretty solid effort. The campaign follows five different protagonists in various places. Players can ride with Lawrence of Arabia against the Ottomans, storm the beaches of Gallipoli, scale the slopes of Monte Grappa, and more, using a variety of weapons at their disposal. Where the game really shines is in its multiplayer; man, did Dice really knock it out of the park with this one. The multiplayer involves the use of land, sea, and air vehicles, although you can also play as a regular soldier. The maps and the combat are very cinematic. There aren't very many people who don't stop to watch a flaming zeppelin come crashing down in the middle of a match. It is by far the best Battlefield game in recent memory, if not the best out of all of them. To call this game a masterpiece would honestly be selling it short.