War, huh, yeah! What is it good for? Well ... video games.
Conflict and combat have typified video games since the early titles on the Atari 2600 and all the way to the Xbox One and beyond. War is a terrible thing, but it has inspired some of the greatest games on Xbox One to date, with courageous heroes and terrifying villains. Here are six of the best war games on Xbox One.
Best Xbox One Games as of 2017
Battlefield 1
The entire Battlefield series is widely known and hugely respected for its visceral reconstructions of all types of warfare. As a first-person shooter (FPS) series, players experience all sorts of weaponry, vehicles, planes, and more, but few games are as poignant and sobering as Battlefield 1.
Recreating the horrors of trench warfare from WWI, Battlefield 1 showcases the world's first industrial war in all of its voracity and fire. Cavalry horses were still in service, tanks were rudimentary and prototypical, and guns were awkward and inefficient – but still brutal and deadly.
Battlefield 1 is the single best war-themed title on Xbox One, for its 40 versus 40 all-out battles, dynamic gameplay, and stunning visuals, all for $59.99.
This War of Mine
This War of Mine is a unique side-scrolling survival title that tells the horrors of war through an alternative perspective. Inspired by the Bosnian war in the 1990s, This War of Mine follows the story of a group of survivors attempting to avoid starvation, death, and insanity amidst the ruins of an unnamed city.
Anarchy reins, food is scarce, and sometimes you have to commit immoral acts just to survive the day.
This War of Mine is $29.99, and it's as dark and haunting as they come.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein pioneered FPS games in the early days, and its modern reboot, The New Order, took the franchise to all new heights.
Few games do wanton Nazi killing as well as Wolfenstein, and with the sequel around the corner, it'd be criminal for us not to include The New Order.
In Wolfenstein: The New Order (and its standalone DLC, The Old Blood), you play as B.J Blazkowicz as he singlehandedly tears through hordes of Nazis in an alternative history where the Third Reich won WWII. Few shooters are as visceral as Wolfenstein: The New Order, which is a must-play for $19.99.
Valiant Hearts
Valiant Hearts is a side scrolling adventure puzzle game from Ubisoft, also set in the first world war. It isn't about running and gunning. Instead, it's about solving problems, and following the intertwining story of several well-written characters and their plots. Valiant Hearts is a $14.99 bittersweet game that showcases the futility of war, and the tragedy of those caught up it.
Halo Wars 2
Moving into sci-fi fantasy territory is Halo Wars 2, a real-time strategy (RTS) game set in Microsoft's flagship Halo universe.
In the distant Halo future, humanity battles various alien factions, including parasitic organisms, fanatical alien cult collectives, and sentient machines. And Halo Wars 2 is no different. You guide the stranded UNSC Spirit of Fire space vessel and her crew against a new alien threat. The Banished are waging war for control of a galactic superweapon, and it's up to you to stop them.
Halo Wars 2 features large-scale epic battles that are as stunning as they are exciting, and with all new enemies in the latest DLC – Awakening the Nightmare – Halo Wars 2 easily makes this list at $59.99.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is set in the Lord of the Rings universe, and it has an entire system dedicated to warring orc clans. The Nemesis System sees procedurally-generated orcs rise through the ranks of the horde dynamically as a result of their success in combat. They can become generals, working either for or against you.
Playing as a lone ranger, it's your job to infiltrate the orc clans, turn them against each other, and disrupt Mordor's effort to conquer Middle-earth.
Shadow of Mordor is a large, $19.99 open-world game with dozens of hours of gameplay, and later this year an all-new sequel will be released, dubbed Shadow of War.
Wrapping up
There are dozens and dozens of other great war games on Xbox One, but these are our favorites. Is this list missing your favorite war game? Let us know in the comments, and we might add it in at a later date.