Best WW2 Games – Top 10 Games About World War 2 (2024)

The Second World War was probably one of the biggest events in modern history, so it’s no surprise that World War II games are a popular thing to play.

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Down below, you’ll find a list of the top 10 best WW2 games to stream, ranging from some of the old classics to even some more recent games.

Top 10 Best WW2 Games

1. Call Of Duty 2

When this game came out back in 2005, it was considered the best World War II game and the best game on the market.

And even though many games have come out since then, Call of Duty 2 stays very loved among gamers.

In this game, you go through famous WW2 scenes, like D-Day, and you get to follow Russian, American, and British troops, just like in the original Call of Duty.

A new addition in the second game is that you get to play with north African troops as well since the British fought in the desert.

Call of Duty 2 was the first among the older games to add features like health regeneration, so looking for health kits was no longer one of the very important tasks that you have to worry about.

The soldiers around you are also highly updated compared to games that came out before this one, as developers have started incorporating better AI in the gameplay.

The soldiers are not just passive background extras, you actually have a feeling that they are almost on the same level as your character, making the experience of playing Call of Duty 2 a great experience.

Overall, there are many reasons why this is still considered one of the best WW2 games, but also the best first-person shooter game in the world.

The way each battle goes through is something that was still not seen in the games of the last generation, so it’s understandable why this was such a hit when it was the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, and why, 17 years later, it absolutely stands the test of time.

2. Battlefield 1942

You might be surprised to see this one here, as it isn’t available on Origin for quite some time now due to Gamespy going out of business.

But, there are many community servers on the Internet where you can still find the game in all of its glory, and it just wouldn’t feel right not to mention Battlefield 1942 in a list of games about WW2.

The reason why Battlefield 1942 is so special and was so revolutionary when it came out is that it changed how multiplayer was being done.

Games in the FPS genre that came before, even if they were among the best titles in the world, still had multiplayer that mainly focused on being fast and killing as much as possible. With Battlefield, the main focus is shifted to cooperation.

This also meant that besides getting new vehicles of various kinds, this game had a much greater focus on controlling the map and also on combined arms warfare.

It also comes with great diversity in what you can do. For example, you could be bombarding coastlines from your ship, but your co-players will be busy flying around in bombers.

Obviously, this meant that you had a much better chance of winning.

You can play on two different sides of World War 2, so you might choose to be in the British troops that are located in El Alamein, but you can also choose to be a part of the Imperial Japanese Navy that has its troops in Iwo Jima.

Both of these sound equally interesting, so you could be taking control in many different directions.

3. Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Like many events in human history, this time period can sometimes be depicted with a clear sense of Hollywood in the background.

But, as with classic Russian novels, this game will not only give you accuracy in weapons and vehicles but also in the historical events that took place in World War 2 and be brutal about it.

As the name suggests, Heroes of Stalingrad will take you to the Eastern front, so that might be different from some other games. With this being said, you should know that this first-person shooter game is not easy and will need you to be diligent with caution and maintain strict teamwork throughout the whole experience.

The main hardship in this game comes from being an individual cog while the machine-gunners are covering fire.

This is how you make sure that the players that are down on the field are advancing.

Tanks are also amazing weapons in this game, and they literally get the reputation of being a murder machine once they are fully crewed.

But, as with great power comes great responsibility. Going about in the tank if you are not fully crewed will make you a target that’s not that easy to miss, so you will have to be careful with that one.

All in all, this game gives you a very realistic insight into just how many things you have to think about when everything around you is in flames.

A thing that’s rewarding, though, is the fact that after you’ve successfully finished something, there is a very real and distinct feeling of victory.

As most World War II titles are centered around the Pacific order or the western European countries, this game will take you to another part of WW2 with real-time tactical battles that leave little to no time for fooling around.

4. World Of Warships

Wargaming has had a fair share of WW2 games, and World of Warships is the third one that they came out with.

They were inspired by World of Tanks and everything that went well and that people loved about it and transferred it to the sea.

As expected, going with ships instead of tanks has brought a lot of changes to the game, as battles on the water have a very different fighting strategy.

Most importantly, the story progresses significantly slower, and the battles take way more time to combat.

The main change that this might bring to your gameplay is that you’ll have to go about every battle with a lot more thought and be way more tactical with naval combat than you ever were in the ground-based WW2 games.

When you’re out on the open sea, you don’t really have where to hide, making you more vulnerable to your enemy.

But, the good thing about this is that your enemy is more or less in the same exact position, so a lot of planning will need to be involved.

However, when you play World of Warships, you have the ability to get the help of air support. On your decks, you’ll find fighters and bombers that are ready to go, and once you do use them, the fight becomes like an RTS.

The plans you make, and the steps you take in your attempts to win are full of uncertainty, and that type of suspense is what, in my opinion, makes this game one of the best WW2 games of all time.

Being sure that your plan will work out is fun the first and maybe the second time around, and it becomes very repetitive, making the experience dull.

This means that this game has great replay value, especially since Wargaming has taken it upon itself to update this game on a regular basis.

5. Enlisted

Enlisted is a first-person shooter type of game, and it’s considered an attempt to make the very popular War Thunder game in an FPS form.

This is a highly tactical multiplayer World War II game, and it actually feels very similar to Battlefield.

But, besides all of these similarities with other games, this one has some of its own special qualities, one of which is the mechanics of the squads.

During the game, you can unlock various squads that you can spend on different parts of your equipment.

When you start playing, you’ll see that each of the players leads their own team that’s customized with named soldiers, which are, of course, controlled by AI.

Once your character is killed, you will be transferred to the character of another one of your soldiers and continue fighting like that.

In this game, like in many others, you can take up to 4 squads to battle with you, and once all of them are dead, you are dead too, and the game is over. Hopefully, this won’t happen to you way too often.

If you want to keep your squads alive for longer and have some additional advantages, you can purchase extra slots with in-game currency.

There are two possibilities for playing this game, you can either go to the Eastern front and play through the Battle of Moscow, with Soviets and Nazis on the battlefield, or you can go to the west and do the Invasion of Normandy, where the Western allies and Nazis are fighting.

When you go through each stage of the battle and win, you will get additional squads, weapons, and equipment.

However, there is a third one available to play in an open beta form, and it’s the Battle of Berlin.

There is also the fourth one out since August 2021, and it’s the Battle of Tunisia, so you will have a really wide variety of locations to play with.

6. Strategic Command WW2: World at War

If you have heard of the War in Europe game, then you will probably enjoy playing World at War, as it takes everything to a global scale.

This strategy game is different from other best games surrounding World War II, a sandbox game.

You can play wherever, and your game will be highly individual from Europe to Korea.

Depending on which country you decide to play as you will be able to control everything about it completely – the strategic resources, its industries, all the way to military assets production.

All that you do with your country will directly impact how the World War will go down.

This game was out for a very long time, all the way from the early 2000s (yes, that was 20 years ago, not 5), and it’s still interesting to a lot of players since the way the grand-strategy wargaming is done in this game is something that is very high quality.

You can play as either the commander of the Axis or you can command the allied powers. And what happens to the other nations?

Well, if you like that type of real-time strategy game and gameplay, then you can choose to have the other nations be controlled by AI.

You control all of the inner workings of your nation and decide where you want to send the most investments, choosing between research, diplomacy, mobilization, and the maintenance of arms.

7. Men of War: Assault Squad 2

Men of War is a whole series of different games, and even though they all had very humble beginnings, they gained great popularity when it comes to the best WW2 games.

So, if you still are not sure what World War II-themed game to choose, this one is definitely worth considering.

One of the great things about this one is that the experience of playing it is very immersive, which is not always the case with war-related topics.

Each combat you start having will play out with a great depth that you usually find in battle when you play turn-based games about World War II.

Despite the depth, this game isn’t too hard to grasp; it’s even considered quite easy to learn and interact with.

When you lose a combat, it punishes you greatly, but when you become the hero of the story, the thrills are immaculate.

As I’ve already said, this game belongs to a series, and that included a lot of different additions to the game. However, this is the one that, in my opinion, and a lot of other players’ opinions, deserves the medal of honor.

The official support for this game is no longer available, but the Internet has made a whole team of modders and players that keep the scenarios going.

If you ever get bored of World War 2, you can choose scenarios from a lot of different events, like World War 1 all up to the Cold War.

If you wish to play this in multiplayer, then you should know that there are five different multiplayer options, and the most interesting one that I would recommend is the Assault Zones Extreme.

This is an eight-on-eight version of the combat, so each fight will require a lot of strategizing.

The reason why this game is considered one of the best WW2 games is because of its depth and details, as well as because it’s not too easy to win a fight.

8. Hearts of Iron 4

If you like to play World War games that are sandbox type of games, and you’re out of ideas for what to play next, then you should definitely look into Hearts of Iron 4.

What you do in this game is choose a country that you wish to lead, and you can choose from any country that has existed since 1936.

After choosing your side, your task will be to lead this nation through WW2.

You get to play through 3 different ideologies trying to win over everything in an open-ended nature.

Depending on what happens on this front, the war in your playthrough will have different outcomes.

You can also make your own Divisions and go through the war like that.

That might be a bit more complicated to start, but there are a lot of templates and guides to be found on the Internet that can ease you into this process.

You have your own battle planner, so you’ll be able to really customize your attacks down to the smallest details.

Once you’ve come up with the perfect strategy, the AI-controlled soldiers will execute everything you want to.

One tricky thing about this game comes from the fact that it is a sandbox game, meaning that having the historically accurate ending is only one of the options, not the only options, like it would be in a game that’s mainly a strategy.

Some people may like to have that kind of freedom and play out things as if they were happening in a parallel universe, but some may take issue with the fact that historical accuracy is not the main focus in this game.

9. Steel Division 2

If you are a game nerd and a history nerd, but you aren’t a fan of games that include hardcore games about the war that are mostly first-person shooter on the field type, like Call of Duty, and would like to have something more strategy-focused, then Steel Division 2 is what you should be looking at.

In this war game, you will be located on the east front. And, since developers heavily focused on historical accuracy, you’ll be able to play through the real struggle that the Axis and the Russian forces had to face.

If you choose to play against the Soviets, then you should know that while there is a lot of them, they are not equipped nearly as enough as you would expect, so with them, there’s always a high chance of yielding.

When faced with the SS troops, you will see that they are much better equipped and organized in a more efficient way.

However, their culprit in a fight is the fact that they severely lack energy.

As you might know, this is a sequel to the Steel Division: Normandy ‘44, and even though that one was good, the second one is much better at showing the scales that this World War had.

As I’ve said, being historically accurate was one of the main focuses when this game was developed.

You will have large maps, tanks, troops, and aircraft all under your control, so a lot of things will absolutely depend on the decisions you make.

Another interesting feature that you can choose to play with is the Army General mode, where you can add an RTS story campaign into your gameplay if you wish to.

You will be able to make long and deeply thought-out strategies and make a lot of hard decisions in this mode, making everything much more interesting.

There are four mini-campaigns in the game that will lead you to play with the Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation, which was the crucial factor in seeing the Soviet forces break through the Axis.

Most of the action will take place on a strategic map, proving that this game is absolutely perfect for history nerds.

10. IL 2: Sturmovik 1946

And, in the end, I come to you with the biggest classic among WW2 games. IL 2 Sturmovik 1946 is a very old game, but it stays among the best simulation games, not only considering war arms games but simulation games overall.

In this game, you get a mix of the original IL-2 Sturmovik game, the sequel of this game, and every expansion that was made for them.

This will obviously give you a lot of amazing things to do while you play through this one.

Besides those old parts of the IL-2 Sturmovik games that came before 2007, the 1946 version has nine more campaigns and many additional jets.

The main deal of the game is that it has an alternate version of WW2 in it, the one where Germany and Russia dealt with everything in the sky with their air forces.

And, even though the missions are scripted, they have enough alternatives that this game still holds a great replay value and doesn’t get boring.

The battles are very dynamic, just like the ones before the 1946 version were, and you’re guaranteed to come across very intense fights, bombings, raids, and dogfights.

If you are a bit younger and have never played this game, I definitely recommend it, and if you do belong to the generation that played and loved it, I don’t see why you aren’t planning a nostalgia game night with this right now.

FAQ