Last Updated on May 31, 2024 by Jhonni Jets

Time travel has long captured the human imagination. The idea of being able to visit different eras of history is intensely fascinating. Over the years, many films, books, and TV shows have explored time travel concepts and plots. Not surprisingly, time travel has also become a popular theme for video games. This article will explore 8 of the best time travel games that enable players to travel back in time and experience famous periods of history firsthand through interactive gameplay.

Assassin’s Creed Series

The massively popular Assassin’s Creed franchise from Ubisoft is perhaps the gold standard for historical time travel in gaming. While the main plot involves an antiquated technology that allows genetic memories to be accessed across generations, players essentially get to freely explore detailed recreations of various historical settings from different eras. Some of the best entries for experiencing history include Assassin’s Creed Origins (ancient Egypt), Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (ancient Greece), and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Viking age England and Norway). With meticulous recreations of major cities, towns, and landscapes, these games truly transport players back in time like no other.

What’s great about the Assassin’s Creed series for history buffs is that it serves as an interactive history lesson as much as an action-packed game. Players can seamlessly move between main story missions and simply exploring their surroundings, taking in historical landmarks, architecture, costumes, weapons, music, and more. Dialogue and text found throughout provides rich contextual details about the time period. It’s undoubtedly one of the most immersive franchises for living history.

Life is Strange Series

While not exactly centered around time travel mechanics like jumping to different eras, Dontnod Entertainment’s Life is Strange series still qualifies as it involves protagonist Maxine Caulfield gaining the ability to rewind time at will. 2015’s first Life is Strange game is set in the fictional American town of Arcadia Bay in 2013 but features many aesthetic nods to indie teenage culture of the late 2000s.

2018’s Life is Strange 2 takes things to an even deeper level of historical authenticity by putting players in the shoes of Sean Diaz, a Mexican American teenager who goes on the run with his brother Daniel across the American Southwest in the aftermath of a tragic incident in Seattle. Over the course of 5 episodes spanning several months, fans are exposed to the regional cultures and environments of Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico throughout 2016.

While the rewind gameplay is more focused on conversation choices than action, Life is Strange remains one of the most culturally and historically authentic franchises. Both games do an impressive job of transporting players to a specific place and time through attention to detail.

Back to the Future: The Game

Based on the iconic 1980s film trilogy, Telltale Games developed this episodic point-and-click adventure game that serves as a direct sequel to the 3 movies. Players control Marty McFly as he joins forces once more with “Doc” Emmett Brown for a time traveling romp that spans several classic eras of American history including the Old West, 1930s New York, and the futuristic 2015.

Like the best Telltale titles, this game lets players shape its narrative through dialogue choices. But what really makes it captivating for history buffs is the ability to seamlessly hop between periods and experience iconic settings like Hill Valley in 1885 or New York 1931 firsthand. Interacting with environments, objects, and characters of each time period through puzzles and exploration feels authentically cinematic. Overall, it’s a must for Back to the Future fans and those seeking an interactive continuation of the beloved trilogy’s time traveling adventures.

Red Dead Redemption 2

While not strictly about time travel between eras, Rockstar Games’ ultra-detailed open world western Red Dead Redemption 2 may as well be for history fans. The masterfully recreated America of 1899 feels so lived-in and authentic thanks to impeccable environmental storytelling and attention to tiny period details. From the frontier towns, expansive countryside and evolving cities to the clothes, weapons, music and slang of the time, this is arguably one of the most immersive historical settings ever achieved in a video game.

Players experience the twilight of the Wild West era as an outlaw amidst the lawlessness and emerging civilization. Side activities like hunting, homesteading, gambling and simple exploration result in seamless history lessons about everything from Native American culture to advances in infrastructure and technology starting to encroach. More than just a gorgeous digital landscape, Red Dead Redemption 2 truly transports players back over a century to experience what life was like during this fascinating transition period in the country’s history.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan

The first game in Supermassive Games’ Dark Pictures Anthology horror anthology, Man of Medan takes place aboard a haunted ghost ship drifting the South Pacific in the present day. But throughout the branching narrative and multitude of endings, players will experience ghostly flashbacks that provide insight into the ship’s troubled past during World War 2.

While the main interactive story unfolds in modern times, these WW2-era sequences are haunting and atmospheric depictions of life aboard the vessel during wartime. Authentic details like sailor uniforms, propaganda posters, and wartime slang help immerse players in this historical setting within a setting. Like Telltale and Quantic Dream interactive narratives before it, Man of Medan effectively blends choice-based gameplay with supernatural scares to deliver both thrills and historical context through its ghostly period recreations.

Life is Feudal: Forest Village

For a wholly interactive medieval experience, Life is Feudal: Forest Village lets players build and oversee their own small hamlet in a procedurally generated pre-renaissance forested setting. Starting with just basic tools and clothing, fans must gather resources, craft tools and structures, engage in basic agriculture, trade for goods and defend against threats to help their tiny community grow and thrive.

While light on deep historical accuracy or narrative, Forest Village nonetheless delivers an engaging sandbox medieval sim for those wishing to experience at a grassroots level what daily life may have entailed for our peasant ancestors. Figuring out basic survival through subsistence farming, hunting, and rudimentary crafting without modern conveniences feels thoroughly authentic to the medieval time period the game is inspired by.

Assassin’s Creed Unity

Set during the French Revolution, Assassin’s Creed Unity was praised at launch for its incredibly detailed recreation of late 18th century Paris. Down to the smallest alleyways and architectural flourishes, Unity lets players fully explore a bustling pre-industrial capital in a state of violent upheaval. While glitches marred the online multiplayer at launch, played single-player today it delivers one of gaming’s most immersive historical tourism experiences.

Wandering the crowds and landmarks of revolutionary Paris feels incredibly authentic thanks to meticulous art direction. Subtle anachronisms are hard to spot amidst the period fashions, slang, and lavish yet gritty environments evoking the tense political climate. With both action gameplay and a wealth of environmental storytelling peeking into the Revolution’s impacts on all classes, Unity remains one of the most successfully transportive historical games to date.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Ubisoft’s acclaimed 2003 reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise may be set in a fictional kingdom, but its intricate portrayal of a Persia-inspired medieval Middle Eastern setting remains extremely authentic and immersive for history fans nearly two decades later. Intricate architecture, flowing architecture, spices and culture evoke the glory days of grand empires like those of the Ottoman Caliphate and Achaemenid Persia.

Beyond just aesthetics and level design, Prince of Persia goes deeper with fleshed out characters speaking in Farsi-inspired dialogue and familiarizing players with concepts like Zoroastrian theology and royal intrigue. Paired with gracefully fluid and cinematic platforming/combat, The Sands of Time delivers both an unforgettable time-bending adventure and one of gaming’s most lovingly recreated historical settings from this region and era.

Conclusion

As this list has shown, video games have come an incredibly long way in their ability to authentically recreate different historical settings and periods through both environmental storytelling and interactive gameplay systems. Beyond just providing virtual tourism experiences, the best historical time travel games serve to educate players on important cultural, social and technological aspects of the past. Whether exploring ancient Egypt or the Wild West, experiencing interactive narratives set in our real world’s richly documented history remains one of gaming’s most compelling genres.

As technology and development budgets continue advancing, one can only imagine the level of authentic historical immersion future games may achieve. For now, these 8 titles remain some of the gold standards for transporting armchair historians back in time in a seamlessly engaging digital form. Their loving recreations help satisfy our collective fascination with visiting epic moments from our shared past.