There are other games that introduce historical techniques and tools. Treasures of the Aegean is a Tin Tin-style tomb raiding adventure game with a surprisingly accurate bronze age Aegean civilisation. The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure set in the final days of a cursed Roman city. Through the Darkest of Times is a strategy game that conveys the sombre mood of the dark period of history between January 1933 and May 1945. Or, like in This War of Mine, what is was like for those caught up in conflict as civilians.īeyond warfare, games offer a wide array of accurate depictions of different civilisations and eras. This might also be offering the player to experience battles not from the perspective of the victors. This might be something as simple as accurately creating period-appropriate weapons and uniforms, like in War Thunder or Enlisted. There are, however, all sorts of games that use history as more than window dressing. Many games do treat historic periods or military battles to embellish the visuals with a realism. Video games are sometimes criticised for pillaged historical cultural contexts as places to pitch their shooting battles. His book, Locally Played, encourages us to “collaborate in the creation, deployment, and study of playful ways to build local connection and restore a critical sense of vitality and even possibility to our civic lives.” Or games like Everything, that invite us to physically inhabit space in a massive range of bodies – from pollen to mountains, antelope to power pylons.Īnother interesting voice on the intersection between play and place is Benjamin Stokes. Then there are games like Buildings Have Feelings Too, that disrupt the usual remote dispassionate planning of the lived environment by giving voice to it. Then there are games like Thousand Threads and Fable that shine a light on inter-related tensions in groups, where helping one person may negatively impact another.Ĭommunity Memory: Games like Heaven’s Vault, Treasures of the Aegean and Deep Time Walk illustrate the power of community memory and tradition, and how these things are lost (and recovered) through language.Ĭommunity Planning: Games like Mini Metro, Townscaper or Conduct Together put us in the role of planning transportation and provision as opposed to experts. Others, like Pilgrims, invite us to understand the interrelated needs of a small community and then use their existing resources to meet these needs. Reimagine Community: Games like One Hour One Life invite us to contribute to a community for the benefit of future players. Not that we need to minimise harm, but that we need to understand our presence and impact so we can balance benefits ecologically. Reimagine Space: Games like Eco and Terra Nil underline our relationship with the land. The video games here offer a range of experiences that reshape and challenge our thinking in this direction: “Communities can’t know what they need from outside sources until they know what they have themselves internally. For 25 years Cormac has helped communities, agencies and governments solve urban and rural development problems not by focusing on the deficiencies of neighbourhoods, towns, villages but by understanding that people, their families and communities, have unique competencies in building community. This list has been created with the help of Cormac Russell, Managing Director of Nurture Development. But they can also offer ways to reconnect with those around us and find a fresh (helpfully disruptive) perspective on our neighbourhoods. Video games can be a part of this dislocation as screen time diminishes engagement with the real world. In a world of technology, it’s easy to become disconnected or forgetful of the people we live with and the places we live in. However, we recommend the following games that offer a similar experience or theme: Unfortunately, Heaven's Vault is not available on Android, Mac, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S or iOS. An ingenious timeline documents every move, and a brief synopsis each time you start playing keeps things accessible even to infrequent players. Intelligent guesswork is required to translate a large number of inscriptions, while deciphering the motivations of those around you. In turn, this directs the branching narrative in different ways. Your choices can open or close vast swathes of investigative opportunities. While doing real linguistic work you interact with companions and locals. In Heaven’s Vault you play an archaeologist translating an ancient alien language whose decrypting weaves through an unfolding drama. Our experts have spent time searching for great games similar to Heaven's Vault and have found the following:
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