Time for a dose of (virtual) reality!

Although video games allow us to detach from the hustle and bustle of everyday life with sprawling fantasy worlds very different from our own, there are a whole plethora of titles out there that have taken inspiration from real-life, which range from the sublime to the truly craptacular in terms of quality.

What’s more, such titles have often courted their fair share of controversy over the years, whether for their questionable portrayal of events or the fact they serve as propaganda tools for nefarious global actors.

So, without further ado, we’re taking a look back at 5 games which have taken inspiration from real-life events.

Contents:

1. Blackwater
2. This War of Mine
3. Kholat
4. LA Noire
5. Papers, Please

Blackwater

We kick things off this week with a bit of good ol’ fashion FPS action and Blackwater, which caused quite a stir upon its release in 2011. Whilst there are no shortage of games depicting real-life conflicts out there, Blackwater was the first which tasked you with playing as a member of a real-life, highly-controversial private military company of the same name, a mere 4 years after members of Blackwater had been convicted of murdering Iraqi citizens.

Speaking of the Iraq war, this was also the inspiration for a game entitled Six Days of Fallujah, which centred around a group of US Marines fighting in the battle of Fallujah. Incidentally, although developer Atomic Games conducted extensive research, which included interviewing US and Iraq combat veterans, as well as military historians, the project was abandoned due to a public backlash.

This War of Mine 

Sticking with the theme of conflict, we shift our attention to this week’s second title, This War of Mine, which offers quite an unusual take on the classic war-game formula.

Inspired by the siege of Sarajevo and the impact this had on Bosnian society, this game takes the focus away from the battlefield and onto the harrowing suffering which everyday people suffer during war. Consequently, it profoundly captures the struggles death, famine and disease can cause in wartime and often forces you to confront immensely difficult moral dilemmas in order to survive.

Kholat

If you’re looking to indulge your inner Sherlock Holmes and solve one of the most puzzling mysteries from Russian history, then Kholat is arguably the answer to your prayers. The aim of the game here is to investigate the Dyatlov Pass incident, which saw 9 ski hikers disappear without a trace in the Ural Mountains, retracing the steps of the aforementioned hiker’s doomed expedition route.

The question is: will your trip to the mountains also result in your demise?

LA Noire

We take a trip across the pond now for yet another game that’ll have your sleuthing sense tingling, L.A. Noire. Set in 1947, L.A. Noire follows the story of detective Cole Phelps as he fights crime on the mean streets of Los Angeles, solving multiple murders, including some real-life cases.

One such case is that of Jeanne French, whom many believe to have been killed by the Black Dahlia as her corpse had the initials “B.D” stomped into her chest. Whilst it sounds pretty gruesome, this is actually one of the most intriguing missions in a thoroughly gripping game.

Papers, Please

We round things off this week which tests your ability to withstand exhaustion to its absolute limit, Papers, Please. The basic premise of this game seems simply enough. You play a border control guard in a repressive country in charge of deciding who can and can’t enter your country.

However, the simplicity stops there as Papers, Please very quickly ratchets up the difficulty, throwing more and more complex requests your way, whilst simultaneously decreasing the amount of time you have to process them. What’s more, just one wrong move could see lead to severe consequences, such as being fined or even letting a suicide bomber into the country.

As if that’s not enough, this game also has multiple possible endings, which could involve you being imprisoned or even executed. 

Think you’ve got what it takes to escape punishment? Then check out this game. But, we warned, it’s not for the fainthearted.