While Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and Battlefield became the established juggernauts, there were some other games that tried out the WWII genre craze, but also helped propel it into the dirt. Some franchises were successful such as Day of Defeat, Red Orchestra, Sniper Elite, and others. Some weren’t so successful, in fact, some were so bad they weren’t even playable or enjoyable. WWII was an easy genre to make money off of and some even tried telling their own non-fictional story through the war. A lot of these games just missed the point, recreating a war that was devastating and intense. The games either didn’t get the tragedy across, the action wasn’t what you would expect, or more often than not, the games were just poorly made. A lot were low budgets and were rushed. Many featured terrible enemy AI and a lot of them had terrible graphics which were a selling point with WWII games.

Hidden & Dangerous

Release Date: 7/29/99 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 75%

Publisher: Take-Two Interactive

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: Unknown

Hidden & Dangerous was one of the first forays into the WWII genre. It offered tactical gameplay that was very solid but featured many bugs and glitches that made the game nearly unplayable. It still received high enough marks despite these complaints. The game was a step in the right direction but needed a lot more polish before being truly great.

Hidden & Dangerous

Release Date: 7/9/00 — DC

GameRankings: DC: 71%

Publisher: TalonSoft

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: Unknown

Illusion ported the game over to Dreamcast to reap the revenue from the hot new system. Take-Two dropped Illusion after the poor sales and reception of the first game. While the game was the same experience as the PC version, it suffered from interface issues and didn’t fix any of those bugs and glitches, and also had audio problems. Hidden & Dangerous wouldn’t stop here though, the series would be rebooted half a decade later.

WWII: Normandy

Release Date: 1/31/01 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 57%

Publisher: Third Law Interactive

Developer: ValuSoft

Sales: Unknown

Here we have a winner, Normandy is considered one of the worst WWII shooters ever made. The game was ugly (even for back then) and was only 2 hours long, can you believe that? The game was bad in just about every corner you could imagine. Only 4 weapons, bad AI, lack of any suspense, stiff animations, bad hit detection, and just overall broken. The game was only $20, but it proved that budget games back in the day were exactly what you paid for. Take that $20 and buy the Saving Private Ryan Blu-Ray instead.

Deadly Dozen

Release Date: 10/31/01 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 61%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: Unknown

Deadly Dozen passed under most people’s radar because 2001 was a busy year for WWII shooters mainly because Allied Assault was on the way, and Serious Sam was just released. It was a fun bargain bin game, but nothing more. It suffered from terrible AI and an overall lack of polish like most cheap games back in the day. It’s worth a play-through now if you have a hankering for a squad-based WWII shooter. Deadly Dozen was one of the last low-budget/one-off WWII shooters to be released in 2001, however, everyone was ready for the 2002 releases.

WWII: Desert Rats

Release Date: 5/17/02 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 69%

Publisher: ValuSoft

Developer: Canopy Games

Sales: Unknown

Desert Rats managed to do something a bit different in the budget WWII arena and that was by letting you drive a jeep with a machine gun on it everywhere you went. You weren’t on foot here, instead, you were in the back of the jeep during the Africa theatre. This was a budget game done right, but still lacked the fine-tuned gameplay and various other things that made Call of Duty and Medal of Honor so popular. The game had terrible cut scenes, a lot of audio was drowned out due to bad editing, but overall a fun shooter until the next big-budget WWII game came out.

Prisoner of War

Release Date: 7/19/02 — PS2

GameRankings: PS2: 73%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Wide Games

Sales: <10,000

Prisoner of War was released first on PS2 and it was liked for the nice stealth elements, but the game was short and easy. However, it was a breath of fresh air from the one-man-army shooters and the bland budget WWII games. The PS2 version was knocked down a peg for having pretty bland graphics and having typical graphical issues with the PS2 like aliasing and poor animations. This game is worth a play-through (PC version is recommended) for people wanting a more slow-paced approach to their WWII game.

Prisoner of War

Release Date: 8/26/02 — Xbox

GameRankings: Xbox: 68%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Wide Games

Sales: 80,000

Prisoner of War debuted a month later on Xbox, but nothing changed from the PS2 version. Everyone expected better graphics on the more powerful console, but everything remained nearly the same. The excellent stealth gameplay was intact, but Xbox owners had the game under their thumb because Splinter Cell was due out soon and everyone quickly forgot about this game. The Xbox version was the best selling of the three.

Prisoner of War

Release Date: 9/30/02 — PS2, Xbox, PC

GameRankings: PC: 64%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Wide Games

Sales: <10,000

The PC version came out last, while everyone had already played it on consoles, PC owners finally got a crack at it thinking they had the superior version. PC owners were disappointed that nearly all previous problems existed and the graphics weren’t enhanced really at all. The draw distance was pushed back a bit but that’s about it. The game is still solid and was being compared to No One Lives Forever 2 and other PC shooters at the time. This game was put under a lot of heat for each consoles’ heavy hitters, but it stood up well, surprisingly. Three months of Prisoner of War and everyone was done and ready for the next big thing. The series sold less than 100,000 copies across all systems and was considered a retail failure.

Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theatre

Release Date: 10/31/02 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 78%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: Unknown

Deadly Dozen proved to be popular enough to garner another budget sequel. Pacific Theatre addressed all the problems from the first game but was still rough around the edges. It did have improved visuals and slightly better AI, but it still was lacking. The game finally had a multiplayer component and co-op which really won PC gamers over. This is probably one of the best budget-priced WWII shooters out there and is still fun even to this day. Deadly Dozen was one of the last budget WWII shooters for 2002 and somehow saw some light through the AAA WWII titles.

Day of Defeat

Release Date: 5/6/03 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 78%

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Valve

Sales: Unknown

Day of Defeat was one of the surprise hits of the year, while everyone was waiting on Half-Life 2, Valve released Day of Defeat to collect on the popular WWII craze at the time. It was an online-only shooter and it was well-liked for having addictive class-based multiplayer, but was released with tons of bugs and it looked really dated from using the original Half-Life engine. The engine was 4 years old and just couldn’t compare to games that were out at the time. It became very popular with a niche group and WWII shooter fans loved it. The game was later patched over time and became more stable and balanced.

The Great Escape

Release Date: 7/23/03 — PC, PS2, Xbox

GameRankings: PC: 59%

PS2, Xbox: 58%

Publisher: Gotham Games

Developer: Pivotal Games

Sales: PS2: 200,000

Xbox: 60,000

PC: <10,000

The Great Escape was one of the few WWII movie-based games, and like all movie-based games, it was pretty bad. The game was sloppy, had pointless stealth mechanics, and was full of boring fetch quests. It didn’t help that the game didn’t look all that great, and the PC version wasn’t improved at all. Splinter Cell really turned people’s minds around about stealth games at the time so everyone was comparing all the stealth games to Metal Gear Solid 2 and Splinter Cell. The Great Escape was a huge disappointment. I remember seeing this at Blockbuster as a kid and passed on it several times, I’m glad I did. The game sold about 260,000 copies across all systems and bombed.

Hidden & Dangerous 2

Release Date: 10/21/03 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 76%

Publisher: Gathering

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: <10,000

I told you it would be back! The unpolished, yet decent budget squad-based shooter came back with a sequel, but many issues from the first game returned. The mistake was using the dated LS3D engine which was used in Mafia. It was a bad engine, rendered blurry textures, and just didn’t look good overall. The game was still a lot of trial and error because it was based on stealth and you would reload quick saves constantly. The AI still sucked, and just lacked the polish that this sequel needed. The illusion had to get a third publisher, and by now everyone pretty much gave up on this series, but it would come out with an expansion before saying goodbye for good. Hidden 2 was pretty much the last budget WWII shooter for 2003, everyone was starting to get tired of the genre by now thanks to Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, but PC players were in the background playing all these budget shooters.

Hidden & Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron

Release Date: 10/21/04 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 69%

Publisher: Global Star Software

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: <10,000

The illusion had really bad luck with this series by going with their fourth publisher. This budget expansion just didn’t do enough for fans hoping for that amazing fix that would bring the series to the forefront of the genre. A lot of new missions felt recycled and the same AI problems existed. The only appealing feature was that missions could be played co-operatively. That wasn’t enough to keep fans interested and the series finally died. 2004 was a slow year for budget WWII shooters and but it was a nice break for PC players.

Airborne Troops: Countdown to D-Day

Release Date: 1/7/05 — PS2

GameRankings: PS2: 39%

Publisher: Mud Duck Productions

Developer: Widescreen Games

Sales: 120,000

Want a way to start the year off? How about one of the worst WWII games ever made? Airborne Troops was so bad that it was literally unplayable. The controls were actually backward, up was down, and left was right. The graphics were God awful, even on the PS2. The animations were bad, the game would do things all on its own, the AI was terrible, the list goes on. Thankfully this game is hard to get a hold of and hopefully, no one will have to experience this mess of a game. The game sold about 120,000 copies worldwide so it did surprisingly well for budget games, but not well enough to continue the series.

Day of Defeat: Source

Release Date: 9/26/05 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 81%

Publisher: Valve

Developer: Valve

Sales: Unknown

After the huge success of the first game and the launch of Half-Life 2 the previous year, Day of Defeat comes back using the (then) state-of-the-art Source engine. The game is less buggy than the last one and more balanced but only comes with four maps at launch. The game still has a strong fan base to this day, 7 years later, and is one of the finest online multiplayer games out there. Despite it being WWII, and right at the peak of the genre, PC gamers ate it up regardless of the setting. After the abysmal Airborne Troops and various other WWII games were released, this is the best WWII shooter out right next to Call of Duty 2.

Sniper Elite

Release Date: 10/18/05 — PS2, Xbox, PC

GameRankings: PS2, Xbox: 76%

PC: 72%

Publisher: Namco

Developer: Rebellion

Sales:

Ps2: 190,000

Xbox: 90,000

Wii: 80,000

PC: 10,000

 

Finally, a high-budget stealth shooter set in WWII. While better than Prisoner of War it has its issues. The game had very satisfying headshots and long-range combat, the missions were very fun to play through but they were way too long. The game also required a lot of trial and error which was common in stealth games back then. The PC version looked slightly better than the consoles, but the graphics overall were very bland and boring. Sniper Elite hit it off well with WWII fans and the game sold pretty well. It just requires a lot of patience. The game would see a reboot several years later. The game only sold 220,000 copies and 10,000 on PC. That’s hardly any at all. Namco didn’t like those figures and dropped Rebellion shortly after.

Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers

Release Date: 11/21/05 — PS2, Xbox

GameRankings: Xbox: 60%

PS2: 59%

Publisher: SouthPeak Games

Developer: BattleBorne

Sales: 

PS2: 60,000

Xbox: 30,000

The holidays of 2005 were the biggest release period for WWII shooters. Three Call of Dutys were out, and all these low-budget shooters. Combat Elite was an utter failure, so much so that the PC version that was released four months later sold nearly zero copies. In fact, there isn’t a single review for the game. The game tried an over-the-top approach to the action but was just so boring and dull that you just didn’t care. The game featured a weird shooting mechanic and had bad camera angles, you couldn’t see the action coming at you. Another low-budget WWII shooter proved that this type of model just didn’t work out well. Thankfully this was the last crappy low-budget WWII shooter for 2005, but 2006 held a lot of surprises. The game only sold 90,000 copies and was considered a failure, those 90,000 people suffered.

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

Release Date: 1/24/06 — Xbox

GameRankings: Xbox: 22%

Publisher: Groove Games

Developer: Direct Action Games

Sales: 30,000

Here it is everyone! The king of the crappiest WWII shooter ever made. This game actually went on to make a sequel! I have no idea what the developers were thinking, but the game was actually unfinished. The friendly AI shot at you, the graphics looked 6 years old, and it was just no fun. Not a single thing worked in the game. It didn’t help that no one was playing online. This was probably one of the biggest bombs of 2006. This was a perfect example that low-budget WWII shooters just shouldn’t exist. This game was just bad on every level, I recommend playing this game just for something to laugh at. This is also the lowest selling WWII shooter that I can imagine. It only sold 30,000 copies and so few on PC that there’s no record of it (assuming less than 10,000). I feel sorry for every one of those 30,000 lost souls.

WWII Tank Commander

Release Date: 2/14/06 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 50%

Publisher: Merscom LLC

Developer: Sylum Entertainment

Sales: Unknown

Oh boy, the crappy budget WWII shooters kept on coming through 2006, this was the worst year for them. Tank Commander was playable, it was just so boring you wouldn’t want to. You literally just drove a tank around and shot other tanks in bland empty areas. It didn’t feel like WWII at all. In fact, you would find more action in a McDonald’s bathroom than these battlefields. The game was heavily scripted and the same tanks just came at you one after another. There was no online component so why even bother?

The Outfit

Release Date: 3/13/06 — X360

GameRankings: X360: 70%

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Relic

Sales: 220,000

The Outfit was one of the most anticipated games of 2006 because it was for the shiny new Xbox 360. A WWII shooter that promised to be rawer and has memorable characters. The fact is that the game just didn’t play right. The shooting didn’t work, it wasn’t satisfying, and it looked like a really good Xbox 1 game. It let fans down quickly and the game sold poorly and was quickly forgotten about. 2006 was a bad time for WWII shooters and the year just didn’t start out right for them. The reviews really hurt the game because it only sold 220,000 copies and THQ quickly scrapped the game. I’m surprised they didn’t drop Relic for it, but they were selling millions with their Warhammer strategy games on PC.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Release Date: 3/14/06 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 79%

Publisher: Bold Games

Developer:  Tripwire Interactive

Sales: Unknown

Finally, the year was looking up! A realistic WWII simulator that was online only. While everyone was enjoying Day of Defeat still, Red Orchestra came along. The game was a literal simulator. Multiple players had to work together to operate vehicles, there were one-shot kills and various other things that other WWII shooters didn’t incorporate. It was a little much, and the game lacked graphically using the Source engine which was starting to look dated. The learning curve was really steep and it turned most players away, however, there is a lot of fun to be had in this game and each kill was satisfying because you had to work at it.

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

Release Date: 4/3/06 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 20%

Publisher: Groove Games

Developer: Direct Action Games

Sales: <10,000

Why would this game be released on PC 2 months later? What was the publisher thinking?! Probably fulfilling a contract most likely. The problem is the game was just as bad on PC with nothing fixed. The devs could have gone back and fixed many issues, but I guess it wasn’t worth it. The game sold almost no copies and every gamer turned the other way.

Commandos: Strike Force

Release Date: 4/4/06 — PS2, Xbox, PC

GameRankings: PS2, Xbox, PC: 63%

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Developer: Pyro Studios

Sales:

PS2: 60,000

Xbox: 20,000

PC: <10,000

While the strategy games were really successful and doing well, the series thought to jump ship and go for an FPS before the genre died. It didn’t do very well and was just another boring WWII shooter. The game looked fairly decent, but the levels were boring despite being open-ended. You could control a couple of soldiers and that’s about it. It also didn’t help that no one was playing online thanks to the bad reviews. It was another crappy WWII shooter swept under the rug by gamers. The genre was really hated at this point and no one really cared. Being on the then-dead Xbox and dated PS2 didn’t help either. Why it wasn’t on Xbox 360 is beyond anyone’s guess. The sales alone proved that they should stick to RTS. only 80,000 copies were sold, what a failure.

 

World War II Combat: Iwo Jima

Release Date: 7/21/06 — Xbox, PC

GameRankings: Xbox, PC: 25%

Publisher: Groove Games

Developer: Direct Action Games

Sales: 10,000

I’m not sure if this $20 budget game was released as a joke or to prove that Direct Action Games are awful developers. The game was just as bad as the last one, there isn’t a single redeeming thing in this game, not a single one. Usually, in bad games something is at least done right, but not Iwo Jima. This was just another crappy budget WWII shooter, and there’s a reason why this publisher and developer vanished off the face of the Earth. The PC version was released four days later, but once again it sold nearly zero copies and bankrupted the studios. Thank goodness for that! World War II Combat is probably the worst WWII franchise ever made. Iwo Jima was, thankfully, the last low-budget WWII shooter for 2006 and these started to taper off as console development got more and more expensive. The game sold only a third of the copies of the first game, just 10,000. What a surprise. That’s barely enough to pay a couple of people’s salaries on the development team. What a waste.

Hour of Victory

Release Date: 6/25/07 — X360

GameRankings: X360: 38%

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: 120,000

2006 was just full of awful WWII shooters. Nfusion, makers of Deadly Dozen, made a huge comeback with the highly anticipated Hour of Victory. It turned out to be the second-worst WWII shooter ever made right next to World War II Combat. The game was just unfinished, it was buggy, ugly, and extremely short, there was no challenge to the game, and most people couldn’t even finish it because it kept crashing. Why Midway allowed this game to be released is beyond me, but I remember playing the demo and it froze up three times. Good job guys, way to ruin your already shaky reputation. The game would be re-released on PC to just Australia and UK due to the poor reception of this version. Thankfully, Hour of Victory was the one and only awful WWII shooter for 2007, it was a nice break. The game actually went on to sell 120,000 copies anyways which is quite a lot or such a poorly rated game.

Death to Spies

Release Date: 10/16/07 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 69%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Haggard Games

Sales: <10,000

Death to Spies was a nice change of pace for lower-end WWII shooters. Death to Spies is probably the best WWII stealth action game ever made. It wasn’t perfect, but it won genre fans over and sold pretty decently. The game was praised for being very realistic and having great level design but was extremely difficult and a lot of the interface design got in the way of the game. If you have an itch for a stealth action game Death to Spies comes highly recommended.

Hour of Victory

Release Date: 2/22/08 — PC

GameRankings: 84%

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: <10,000

What a way to start off the new year. WWII was quickly fazing out of the console market, but Midway thought it would be funny to release Hour of Victory to the PC suckers with almost no changes. The 84% review is just from one site that reviewed the game, however, that review is nowhere to be found. Why it got 84% is beyond me, maybe the game was actually better? Hour of Victory was the only budget WWII shooter for 2008, gamers got a nice long 2 year hiatus from them the games would continue to pepper the shelves throughout the next few years, however.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Release Date: 2/26/08 — PC, X360, PS3

GameRankings: PS3: 45%

X360: 44%

PC: 40%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Spark Unlimited

Sales: 

X360: 280,000

PS3: 230,000

PC: <10,000

Oh man, the bad WWII shooters just didn’t stop coming. 2008 also had only one awful gem and that was Turning Point. It was highly anticipated and had a fairly big budget. It promised to do something new, but the game was just awful. I remember renting this and turning it back in halfway through the game. It was extremely frustrating, the guns didn’t fire where you aimed, and the controls were terrible. The animations were stiff and there were so many bugs and glitches, the game froze up a lot and the FPS dropped own into single digits often. I don’t know what it was but 2006 onward just bred so many bad WWII shooters. Call of Duty and Medal of Honor were pretty much done at this point in time, yet these just kept coming. I would pin Fall of Liberty as one of the top 5 worst WWII shooters ever made. Surprisingly, many gamers were suckers for it because it sold 500,000 copies globally. Why such a bad game sold so well is anyone’s guess, but it was highly anticipated so those could be pre-orders.

Velvet Assassin

Release Date: 4/30/09 — PC, X360

GameRankings: PC: 60%

X360: 58%

Publisher: SouthPeak Games

Developer: Replay Studios

Sales:

X360: 140,000

PC: <10,000

2009 wasn’t much better. Velvet Assassin was a highly anticipated stealth action game because it had a female as the protagonist which was never done in a WWII shooter. I remember renting this game for that alone, but the stealth mechanics were just broken and didn’t work. Sneaking around was pointless because enemies saw you no matter what you did, the kill moves were slow, and her crouch walk was like wading through molasses. The animations were stiff and the AI was just terrible. The levels were also badly designed because they were confusing mazes. I bought the game a few years later on PC to give it a second chance and the problems were just more obvious. Another example of how the WWII genre was kicked around like a sick dog in the late 2000s. The poor reviews weren’t in the game’s favor because it only sold 140,000 copies. That might be why we haven’t seen a sequel.

Death to Spies: Moment of Truth

Release Date: 8/10/09 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 71%

Publisher: 1C

Developer: Haggard Games

Sales: <10,000

Death to Spies didn’t sell well enough so Atari dropped Haggard, 1C liked their new game idea so they picked them up. Moment of Truth was another solid sequel, but the game suffered from the same insane difficulty that seriously hampered the last game. The AI also was pretty bad so when the action kicked up the game acted like it had down syndrome. It was still a very realistic stealth game and remains the best WWII stealth action game to date.

The Saboteur

Release Date: 12/8/09 — PC, X360, PS3

GameRankings: X360: 75%

PS3: 74%

PC: 73%

Publisher: EA

Developer: Pandemic

Sales: 

X360: 460,000

PS3: 410,000

PC: 20,000

The Saboteur was a highly anticipated action game set in WWII. It had high production values and was one of Pandemic’s last games before they went belly up. The makers of The Mercenaries and various other open-ended games were masters of their craft, but the elements never really blended together right. The Saboteur had a great story and looked amazing, but all the mechanics didn’t work right. It suffered from clunky controls, climbing around was boring, and the stealth just didn’t work right. I enjoyed this game a lot (hey there’s nudity!) and was very enjoyable. If it had some more development time it could have been perfect. 2009 was a year of WWII stealth games and Death to Spies won the show. None of these games were perfect and had many flaws, but it was nice that developers were taking more time with the much-dated genre and steering it in a different direction. This was probably the most successful underdog WWII game selling 890,000 copies. That’s quite a bit, nothing to scoff at all. However, EA quickly dropped the franchise because it wasn’t a million-seller like their other franchises.

Dino D-Day

Release Date: 4/8/11 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 50%

Publisher: Digital Ranch Interactive

Developer: 800 North

Sales: <10,000

Dino D-Day was a highly anticipated indie game, it was late to the WWII game because the genre died a while ago. It promised Nazi online shooting with dinosaurs. It was supposed to be funny, and who would have thought it could go wrong? Well, everything went wrong. The game was just boring and sloppy. The guns didn’t feel powerful, the controls sucked, the maps were boring and badly put together. Overall it was just lacking in every department and players quickly forgot about the game.

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Release Date: 9/13/11 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 74%

Publisher: Tripwire Interactive

Developer: Tripwire Interactive

Sales: 90,000

The self-published game returns with excellent visuals and is one of the most realistic reenactments of WWII infantry. The game was still knocked down for having such a steep learning curve, but the game was a lot of fun and had well-designed maps. It had some really bad single-player AI that nearly killed that portion of the game. Red Orchestra is still the most realistic WWII shooter ever made and still has a strong online following. 2011 is a bit late to release a WWII shooter since everyone has moved on from that genre craze. However, the shooters kept coming.

Sniper Elite V2

Release Date: 5/2/12

GameRankings: PS3: 71%

X360: 68%

PC: 65%

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: Rebellion

Sales:

PS3: 600,000

X360: 590,000

PC: <10,000

After the not-so-great reception of the first game Rebellion needed another publisher. V2 had an amazing kill cam that would show X-Ray kills of the bullet entering the body and was really gory, but the game rest of the game was a total mess. The shooting was sloppy, the game was overly difficult, and the stealth was broken. It was highly anticipated but just fell flat and disappointed everyone. Despite the poor reviews, the game sold really well at 1.18 million copies across all systems. I guess that wasn’t enough for 505 because they dropped Rebellion shortly after the game’s release.

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 

Release Date: 2/28/13 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 60%

Publisher: Rebellion

Developer: Rebellion

Sales: Unknown

Here we go, the last WWII shooter to come out, and what do you know, it sucked. Rebellion isn’t all that great of a developer anyway and they never learn their lesson. Nazi Zombie Army tried a Left 4 Dead/Call of Duty: Zombies spin-off of their game. It was boring, frustrating, and had all the problems from V2. It was released at a budget price, but no one caught the bait. It shows that WWII shooters just don’t have the care they used to.

So there it is. Almost every WWII shooter that came out and as you can see 80% were really bad. Not a single one really shined, it just made the whole genre look bad. It is a lot of money that can only make WWII shooters good? Call of Duty and Medal of Honor always had high production values but even they started going downhill after a while. These games were in the background being slammed by critics and ignored by gamers. A majority were on PC so only a niche group could get a hold of them. Prisoner of War proved to be a great stealth action game early on, while World War II Combat crowned itself genius by being the worst WWII shooter ever made. Death to Spies helped raise the genre from the ground a bit, but others like Velvet Assassin brought it right back down. The WWII shooter era peaked in 2005 and slow dripped out after that. Very few of these games are worth playing but go ahead anyway for a good laugh.