Highlights
- Gaming offers a way to explore iconic European cities and experience their rich history and culture from the comfort of home.
Europe is brimming with rich history, diverse cultures, and breathtaking scenery. While travel may not always be feasible, gaming has provided an alternative means of embarking on epic adventures and experiencing the wonder of Europe right from the comfort of one's home.
Games have evolved and improved significantly throughout the years, offering an immersive open-world experience allowing players to traverse the streets of iconic European cities. For history enthusiasts and architectural lovers, there are a host of games that can provide a detailed depiction of several European cities, both present and historic, and here are some of them.
10 Euro Truck Simulator 2
What better way to explore Europe than by driving trucks that deliver and pick up packages across some of Europe’s most iconic cities? The game lets players select their starting point from a host of locations across Europe. They are given a time limit to deliver said goods in good condition to earn the maximum amount of money and experience points available.
The in-game currency can be spent on refueling, toll gates, and maintenance costs. The journey from hired driver to owner of several truck garages can be thoroughly enjoyed while experiencing Europe at the same time.
9 Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
The last entry in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise takes players on journeys across Africa and Europe, with Nathan Drake coming out of retirement to find Avery’s treasure with the help of Sullivan. The players visit Madagascar, Italy, and Scotland as part of missions, where they get to drive around the town in a supercar while escaping from bad guys.
The rural parts of Italy are correctly depicted with breathtaking views that can be seen when climbing a cliff to infiltrate a villa. Although some featured locations, like the De Rossi estate, are fictional, several other places are not.
8 Assassin’s Creed Unity
The eighth major installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, released in 2014, is set in Paris during the French Revolution between 1789 and 1794. The playable character, Arno Dorian, tries to uncover the secrets behind the revolution and avenge his father's death.
The third-person perspective in this game allows for wide-angle views of the big open world that encourages exploration and sightseeing through synchronizing. The incredible parkour system also makes getting around very easy and thrilling, combined with a co-op multiplayer mode that allows friends to join in for four times the fun.
7 Steep
Steep was developed by Ubisoft, just like the previous entry in 2016. It is a sports game set in the Alps, an extensive mountain range with the highest mountain in Europe called the Mont Blanc.
It features numerous sports fit for snowy environments, like skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, and wingsuit flying. It is lauded for its impeccable graphics, realistic physics, and open-world setting that the players can easily explore; however, the game is criticized for requiring a strong internet connection. Some DLCs can also be added to explore parts of North America and Asia.
6 The Saboteur
The Saboteur is an open-world action-adventure game set during World War II in Paris, which Germans still occupied at the time. It follows an Irish driver who became a part of the French Resistance after the death of his friend at the hands of Nazi officers.
Some rural areas in France and parts of Germany are also open to exploration, which can be done by a combination of Sean’s driving in the streets and parkour skills that allow him to climb and traverse tall buildings quickly.
5 Watch Dogs Legion
Set in a dystopian version of London, the game follows the hacker group DedSec as they try to clear their name after being falsely accused of terrorist attacks. They must also free the city of London from under the thumb of the private military organization that oppresses its citizens in the name of protecting them.
Watch Dogs: Legion is a shooting, driving, and hacking game, just like its predecessors, but it also possesses a recruitment system that allows the players to recruit NPCs in its open world. The setting is a bit futuristic but still provides the general feel of London and its important landmarks.
4 Resident Evil 4
Capcom’s smash hit survival horror game released in 2005 follows Leon Kennedy, the special agent sent to a rural area in Spain on a mission to rescue the daughter of the United States President whom a cult kidnapped.
As usual, there are hordes of zombie-like enemies mind-controlled by a parasite. The camera angle is more dynamic than before, allowing a better view of the environment due to the game’s focus on action and shooting rather than the survival theme fans of the franchise are used to.
3 Sniper Ghost Warrior 3
The Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise was redesigned in this entry, featuring an open-world environment instead of the familiar linear gameplay. This multiplayer first-person shooter game set in the Russian-Ukrainian border is filled with different activities and side missions called war crimes that players encounter when they explore the open world.
Players can select different approaches to combat that suit them, from stealthy melee combat to more technological long-range ones. The sniping mechanic is one of the best features in a video game and can be influenced by up to ten factors, including the shooter’s breathing rate.
2 Call of Duty: WWII
Reminiscent of its name, Call of Duty: WWII was set during World War II, just like the first few games in the franchise. It brought the franchise back down to earth, featuring traditional weapons and combat instead of the more advanced warfare technology featured in the other entries.
It also removed the auto regeneration mechanic featured for a while, with players needing to find medkits to heal from their injuries. Most of the campaign is set in the European theatre, which served as a battleground for many of Europe’s superpowers.
1 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Fans of ancient Greece will soon find themselves entrapped in this expansive and immersive game that accurately depicts the country's beauty during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.
As one of the few Assassin’s Creed games that are RPGs, it encourages exploration with an exploration mode that removes map markers and requires players to discover the areas on their own by looking around; according to Ubisoft, that is the way the game is meant to be experienced. Players take control of a Spartan mercenary who aims to locate their family members and take down the group behind the war.