Revitalizing World War II: An Alternate History

With England out of the picture, and Russia desperately trying to hold its lines, the United States is left to defend itself against a mainland invasion.

June 6, 1944, D-Day. Nazi Germany uses recently conquered Greenland to launch the most massive amphibious assault in the history of man. Traversing through a stormy Atlantic, Hitler’s forces land on the eastern shores of Canada and parts of the United States. As the American and Canadian defenses are bombarded, German and Italian paratroopers drop behind enemy lines. Axis forces slowly battle their way through, and Hitler begins to smell blood as he has Washington D.C. within his sights.

Now there’s a World War II game I would like to play.

History is shaped by many things. Ideas, natural events, and people are just some of them. But the most intriguing one of them all are decisions. Decisions made throughout history have all culminated into the present. We are here today because of what has happened in the past.

We all know Germany and the rest of the Axis lost the war, but that still doesn’t stop me from asking myself “What if?”

Decisions always have two outcomes. Either you go along with the idea or you don’t. So, what if things had happened differently?

Perhaps if Hitler had held off invading Russia? Then he could have defeated England or at least neutralize them by forcing a treaty. Perhaps if the Japanese brought the fight to the Americans in the wake of Pearl Harbor? Then they would not have been doomed to an entirely defensive war. Perhaps the Allied D-Day invasions failed, and Hitler was able to fight Russia using troops from the Western Front? Then either Russia or Germany would have conquered mainland Europe. Perhaps…

With so many exciting scenarios available, it is puzzling to see how an alternate history WWII game has never been done. Of course there is the Resistance series for PS3, but that deals more with science fiction rather than actual history (I don’t remember Chimera being involved with WWII).

After doing the Normandy D-Day landings 900 times on 900 “different” games, one would think it’s about time to explore new options. Activision certainly thinks so, and Call of Duty now deals with contemporary warfare.

However, the only reason the WWII genre is essentially dead, is because no game has found a way to present an original version of it for years, which is a shame because the WWII genre is just so damn exciting.

The only issue that may prevent such a game from being created, is perhaps if a developer made the awfully dumb and controversial decision to make the Nazis win…then there would have been a public outrage that would probably dwarf the tensions surrounding Six Days in Fallujah.

But who wants to see the Nazis win anyways? What I do want to see though, is a revitalization of the WWII genre. And the only way this can be possible is by exploring many of the pathways of history that were not taken.

Plus, I think it would be pretty bad ass seeing and defending against the Japanese Navy as they sail into the San Francisco Bay. Sigh…what if.