The best military games

Strap into your Spitfire, because Aces Over Europe (1993, DOS) is here to show you that flying over 1940s Europe was as dangerous as it was polygonal. As a follow-up to Aces of the Pacific, this one tightens the mechanics, adds grit, and lets you dive-bomb with dignity. It’s smart, serious, and filled with the kind of moments that make you ye...

ATAC (1992) is what you get when someone says, “What if we made SimCity, but for waging the War on Drugs?” You play as the head of an anti-narcotics task force, deploying units, tracking smugglers, and launching airstrikes like it's your daily to-do list. The tone is serious, the mechanics are complex, and the politics… let&rsquo...

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat is a combat flight simulation video game released in 1991 by Electronic Arts. The game is named after and endorsed by the real-life aviation legend, Chuck Yeager, who was the first pilot to break the sound barrier. In Chuck Yeager's Air Combat players take on the role of a World War II fighter pilot, flying various ai...

Explosions? Check. Missiles? Check. Graphics that look like someone spilled gray soup on your monitor? Double check. A-10 Tank Killer lets you pilot a flying war machine and rain chaos upon tiny pixel tanks that may or may not be enemy vehicles. Missions include dramatic objectives like "blow stuff up" and "don't crash," which is harder than it sou...

Ever wanted to experience the grim, claustrophobic life of a WWII submarine captain without leaving your desk? Aces of the Deep (1994, DOS) delivers that dream in spades — torpedoes, sonar, periscopes, and lots of tense waiting. It’s haunting, quiet, and deeply strategic, like chess played underwater with depth charges. If you’re ...

This one’s a flight sim for people who think Top Gun didn’t have enough fuel gauges. 1942: The Pacific Air War puts you in the cockpit of World War II fighter planes, complete with dials, switches, and enough acronyms to confuse a NASA engineer. The dogfights are intense, the strategy is deep, and landing your plane without crashing fee...

B-17 Flying Fortress (1992) is the kind of game where you don't just fly the plane—you are the plane. One moment you're the pilot, the next you're the nose gunner swatting Luftwaffe pests like you're at the world’s angriest carnival. There are ten crew positions to manage, and every one of them can go wrong in some exciting, explosive w...

Aces of the Pacific (1992, DOS) takes to the skies over WWII’s Pacific Theater, where you can dogfight in legendary aircraft and prove your piloting prowess — or spin into the sea with style. The graphics are dated, but the ambition was sky-high. You’ll battle Zeros, manage fuel, and wonder how pilots did any of this without save ...

Conquest of the new world is a turn-based strategy game that lets you control one of 6 different nations in their attempt to colonize the new continent. The gameworld is represented in an isometric point of view. Combat is a mini-game taking place on a battlefield where victory can be achieved by killing enemy troops or capturing the enemy's flag.

Strap in and crawl through the mud - Airborne Ranger (1988) is here to chew bubblegum and infiltrate enemy lines. And it's all out of bubblegum. This tactical action game lets you drop behind enemy territory, blow things up, and look extremely cool doing it (in blocky, 8-bit fashion). It's part stealth, part shootout, and somehow still manages to b...

Welcome to the skies of World War II, where dogfights are fast, fuel is low, and you probably forgot to raise your landing gear. Battlehawks 1942 (1988) is a flight sim with just enough realism to make you sweat and just enough arcade to keep it fun. Missions are intense, planes explode spectacularly, and there's something very satisfying about yel...