

The Security faction is comprised of the equivalent of real-world militaries like the US SOCOM or NATO forces. Players can join one of two teams – Security and Insurgents – and work together to complete objectives in versus or co-op modes. But while the setting may be fictional, Insurgency: Sandstorm is easily among the most realistic war-based games out there in terms of close quarters guerilla-style combat. This next game isn’t based on a real war but it was clearly inspired by many of the real conflicts that have been raging across the Middle East over the past several decades. There’s no health regeneration or anything like that and bandages are only good for preventing blood loss. Likewise, don’t expect to be able to heal in this game. You’ll get a sense of the number of rounds found in a magazine when you reload but don’t expect any specific numbers. The HUD doesn’t feature an ammo counter so you’ll need to either check manually or just try to remember how many bullets you have left. You’ll need to take into account things like bullet drop, bullet spin, and cover when firing at an opponent. Red Orchestra 2 puts a lot of emphasis on realism, especially when it comes to guns.

Despite being a little over a decade old at this point, Red Orchestra 2 still holds up pretty well in terms of both graphics and gameplay. Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of StalingradĪnother WW2-based title, Red Orchestra 2 is one of the best war-based video games centering around the Battle of Stalingrad. Namely, The Battle for Moscow, The Invasion of Normandy, the Battle of Tunisia, and the Battle of Berlin. Matches are fought across four campaigns based on real-world battles. Infantry squads, tank crews, and aircraft fight each other on massive battlefields that can potentially host hundreds of soldiers at once, including bots. In addition, you can also recruit new specialists to bolster your forces. Though squads are fairly basic at first, they can be upgraded with better equipment over the course of the game. You can only control one of these soldiers directly (with the rest being controlled by AI) but can switch between them at any time. Each with their own unique specializations and weapons. Unlisted gives you command over a squad of anywhere between 4 and 9 soldiers. However, the main focus this time around is on the infantry. Just like its older brother, Enlisted features realistic vehicular combat complete with an extensive collection of tanks and aircraft to choose from. EnlistedĮnlisted is a squad-based MMOFPS released in early 2021 by Gaijin Entertainment, the same company that brought us War Thunder. If you’re looking for titles set further back in time, you may want to check out our list of top 10 grand strategy games.

For the purposes of this list, we’re primarily looking at games that depict warfare in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. With that in mind, we invite you to join us as we take a look at the top 15 most realistic war-based video games of all time. But while some franchises go out of their way to glorify war and turn it into an over-the-top spectacle, there are still examples of war-based video games that try to keep things grounded.
#Real war games free series#
Video games as a whole aren’t exactly known for conveying the horrors of war in a realistic manner, with popular series like Call of Duty and Battlefield doing a particularly bad job at it.
