History AlternateHistory / VideoGames

* The game ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'' takes place in an alternate history in which two key things changed - first, the Soviets invented the atomic bomb and used it to end UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in Europe, and secondly, the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved in their favor. The strategic and political repercussions of these changes allowed the Soviet Union not only to survive, but to begin an invasion of the US in the early 21st century.

** Ditto for Big Huge Games' ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'', which is essentially a blend of ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'', ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Risk}}''. It features a Conquer the World campaign, which can often result in a AlternativeHistoryWank or SpaceFillingEmpire.

* Forms the crux of the plot of ''{{VideoGame/Persona 2}}: Eternal Punishment.'': [[spoiler:Philemon erases the global-scale destruction that took place during ''Innocent Sin'' by erasing the day that the protagonists (Tatsuya, Maya, Eikichi, Jun, and Lisa) met as children, resulting in a brand-new timeline with several changes. Some are minor (Jun's father is alive and his family life is much more stable; the fake band that Lisa was set up to participate in is a real band made genuinely in ''Eternal Punishment''), some major (the new Joker is Tatsuya Sudou, who was TheDragon to the Joker in ''Innocent Sin''). The Joker curse itself is also different, as are the rumors that are spread and turned real. A point of conflict is the fact that Tatsuya retains his memories of the now-destroyed reality from ''Innocent Sin,'' which not only gives him two sets of memories, but allows for [[BigBad Nyarlathotep]] to repeat the events of that game in ''Eternal Punishment.]]

* According to the backstory of ''VideoGame/MaceTheDarkAge'', neither Christianity and Islam exist in this game’s timeline, and as such, Europe and Arabia are highly balkanized and divided thanks to the Covenant of the Seven's actions.

* ''VideoGame/MaceTheDarkAge'' exists in a world where neither Christianity nor Islam existed. Without these religions, Europe and Arabia is heavily Balkanized. Meanwhile in Asia, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan's descendants continue to rule.

* ''VideoGame/ProjectWingman'' has a worldwide catastrophe called [[ApocalypseHow the Calamity]], which saw tectonic and volcanic activity skyrocket along the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire Ring of Fire]], changing the world map and almost bringing humanity down with it. 400 years later, technology is back at a level similar to ours (save for artillery-sized railguns becoming standard weapons on ships and bunkers) with [[{{Unobtainium}} Cordium]] and geothermal energy becoming the world's most used energy sources. The biggest and most powerful nation of the world is the Pacific Federation (englobing all the Eastern Asian coast, a very large chunk of Russia, Japan, Indonesia, Hawaii and Australia) and it's member (or rather puppet) states, with the plot of the game kicking in when Cascadia (covering the whole American Western seabord from Alaska to southern Mexico), a Federation-affiliated states, breaks off to gain independance.

** Kaiserreich now has a DatingSim (yes, really) set in the same universe, titled ''{{FanWorks/Edelweiss}}''.

* ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' and its sequel, ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'', do this quite discreetly, by using the Japanese calendar and noting the year as Taisho 20, when in real history, the Taisho era only lasted fifteen years. It's noted in the first game that, should the timeline remain unpolluted, the result would have been the CrapsackWorld that is ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII''. After the modifications imposed by a time-traveling villain, the timeline's implied to have diverged irrevocably into the world where the other ''Devil Summoner'' games and the ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'' series all take place.

* The ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' games take place in an alternate future where an ultra-nationalist faction in Russia, nostalgic for the USSR of old, takes over the country and battles it out every now and then with NATO. Apparently, history diverged around the events of UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}.
** For ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar World at War]]'', ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', the point of divergence instead goes back at least as far as October 1945, with Germany developing another super-weapon that just so happened to fall into Russian hands after the war, with the consequences being that the Soviets are ready to unleash that weapon on America at the height of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. There's also more than expected going on with Manuel Noriega and Operation Just Cause - not to mention the whole VideoGame/NaziZombies business.

* ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' takes place in an alternate version of the early 20th century with steampunk technology and demons (in fact, the Demon Wars of 1918 replaced the actual UsefulNotes/WorldWarI). Additionally, Japan never falls under the control of ultranationalist militarists, and the Taishō emperor still reigns as late as [[VideoGame/SakuraWars2019 1940]] (in real life, the Taishō period ended in 1926).

* The Demon Wars of 1918 changed world history in ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' (for one thing, it replaced the actual UsefulNotes/WorldWarI).

* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' is set in a 1960's Britain where the Nazis lost control of Germany, which became the German Empire; instead of Hitler, ''Rommel'' got control of Germany. The Empire started World War II, and went through with a full-blown invasion of Britain. America retained its policies of neutrality due to Roosevelt being assassinated and replaced with a less competent leader, meaning Britain was by itself when the Germans invaded. ''However,'' the war ''still'' did not go well for them, with the Soviet side of the war progressing mostly unaltered, forcing Germany to take more and more desperate measures as the Soviets advanced, including conscripting everyone who was at least [[ChildSoldiers thirteen]] in the parts of Britain they managed to occupy in order to fight against the Soviet Union. Wellington Wells became involved when what appeared to be a German armored regiment surrounded their own and demanded their children; to save the town from apparent destruction they acquiesced to their demands, but later discovered that the "tanks" were fakes, having been built to conceal just how badly the German armies were struggling and that Wellington Wells could very easily have resisted their rule if they had chose to do so. To add icing to this horrifying cake, the children from Wellington Wells were killed before they even made it to the training camp when their train was bombed, essentially rendering Wellington Wells' surrender completely [[AllForNothing pointless.]] Wellington Wells was so [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified at their deeds]] that they devoted their entire society to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain forgetting it ever happened]] and [[FalseUtopia pretending everything was fine]].

* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' is set in a 1960's Britain where the Nazis lost control of Germany, which became the German Empire. The Empire started World War II, and went through with a full-blown invasion of Britain. The Germans proceeded to conscript everyone in Britan who was at least [[ChildSoldiers thirteen]] into a war against the Soviet Union. Ultimately, the desperate people of Wellington Wells did [[NoodleIncident A Very Bad Thing]] to drive out the invaders and save themselves, and whatever they did it was so bad that they devoted their entire society to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain forgetting it ever happened]] and [[FalseUtopia pretending everything was fine]].

** ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': Self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Hale Comstock, with assistance from Rosaland Lutece and the U.S. Government, creates the floating city of Columbia to champion American exceptionalism. The city appears at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, goes on a tour around the country and then the world. However, when Americans are taken hostage during the Boxer Rebellion, Columbia goes in and reveals itself to be a floating fortress. The United States ordered Columbia to return to sovereign soil, but Comstock responded by declaring their secession on July 6th, 1902. After that, Columbia disappeared into the clouds. The city then became something of an unsolved mystery to the world along the lines of the Bermuda Triangle. In March 1981, a building from Columbia was found high the alps, having apparently fallen out of the sky. [[spoiler:In at least one timeline, Columbia (lead by an elderly Elizabeth) goes on to destroy New York City in 1984.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' takes place in a timeline where once in every century, Count Dracula ravages Europe with his army of monsters and requiring a member of the Belmont family to put him down until the next generation. He has emerged during several periods in time, with Creator/BramStoker's [[Literature/{{Dracula}} novel]] being considered canon with the series' events (although the games are something of an alternate history to that novel; Quincey Morris dies without children in the novel, while in ''Castlevania'' he had a son), and according to ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines Bloodlines]]'', World War I was provoked by one of Dracula's minions. His allegedly final appearance would be in 1999, when a [[GreatOffscreenWar devastating war]] whose details seem intentionally vague, but was said to be so destructive that it couldn't be given justice if depicted in any game.

* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' takes place in a timeline where once in every century, Count Dracula ravages Europe with his army of monsters and requiring a member of the Belmont family to put him down until the next generation. He has emerged during several periods in time with the Bram Stoker's novel being considered canon with the series' events and according to one game, World War I was provoked by one of Dracula's minions. His allegedly final appearance would be in 1999, when a [[GreatOffscreenWar devastating war]] whose details seem intentionally vague, but was said to be so destructive that it couldn't be made justice if depicted in any game.
* The ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' reboot series is more explicit about being alternate history than the original continuity, since during 1047, Europe has fallen under the grasp of a {{Evil Overlord}}s trio and there is also a long-destroyed ancient civilization of immortal humans that created giant statues. In the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2 second game]], the centuries-long struggle between Count Dracula and the Brotherhood of Light are recorded historical facts by the modern day, as the final battle against him resulted in a great explosion that leveled the battlefield and could have been seen from space.

* It's ''implied'' at the end of [[VideoGame/RyseSonOfRome Ryse: Son of Rome]] that thanks to Marius' actions, the [[AncientRome Roman Empire]] never fell, surviving to the modern ages, as in the final shot of Marius' Triumphal Memorial Column, one can see both a church and the intact Coliseum.

* The English localization of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is this thanks to its insistence on the series taking place in California. The localization team had to handwave away the increasing amount of Japanese cultural elements, as well as the distinctly Japanese court system, by claiming that in the universe the series takes place in, California never enacted any anti-immigration laws, explaining the increased proliferation of Japanese culture, while the court system was revamped at some point in time to prioritize reaching verdicts as quickly as possible.
* ''VideoGame/IronHarvest'' takes place in an alternate 1920s Europe were HumongousMecha and PoweredArmor was developed instead of tanks during World War I. In addition, Europe has been changed in other ways such as Saxony-Goethburg apparently unified Germany instead of Prussia and Grigori Rasputin is a Russian rebel leader.

* It's ''implied'' at the end of [[VideoGame/RyseSonOfRome Ryse: Son of Rome]] that thanks to Marius' actions, the [[UsefulNotes/AncientRome Roman Empire]] never fell, surviving to the modern ages, as in the final shot of Marius' Triumphal Memorial Column, one can see both a church and the intact Coliseum.

* While the [[VideoGame/{{Homefront}} first game]] was initially a [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture future history]], ''VideoGame/HomefrontTheRevolution'' is explicitly set in an alternate timeline. North Korea lost the Korean war and embraced a progressive free market economy instead of communism or juche. After the disastrous failure of Apollo 10 forced the US to cancel their space program, the Soviets, who are still alive and well in the 21st century, were the first to land a man on the moon in 1971. This feat inspired North Korea, leading to an era of technological and economic growth throughout the 70's and the rise of the MegaCorp APEX, who hired people such as Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak. Kim-il Sung lost credibility after a series of floods devastated the country, which resulted in APEX taking control and North Korea becoming a corpocracy that manufactures the world's highest demanded technology, including weapons. The 2003 invasion of Iraq caused the situation in the middle east to spiral out of control, bringing the US into further military interventions in Iran, Syria, and Egypt. President John McCain's unwillingness to back down on American military activity in these regions, especially with Soviet control over many oil fields, lead to a smuggled Iranian nuke being detonated in Riyadh. This triggered civil unrest in the United States at the same time as the subprime mortgage crisis, resulting in a state of emergency, the suspension of the 2016 elections, and the US defaulting on its debt to APEX. North Korea saw this as an opportunity and invaded the country under the pretext of a humanitarian mission, using secret back doors they'd established to literally shut down America's military.

* The English localization of the ''VideoGame/AceAttorney'' series is this thanks to its insistence on the series taking place in California. The localization team had to handwave away the increasing amount of Japanese cultural elements, as well as the distinctly Japanese court system, by claiming that in the universe the series takes place in, California never enacted any anti-immigration laws, explaining the increased proliferation of Japanese culture, while the court system was revamped at some point in time to prioritize reaching verdicts as quickly as possible.

* The English localization of the ''VideoGame/ActAttorney'' series is this thanks to its insistence on the series taking place in California. The localization team had to handwave away the increasing amount of Japanese cultural elements, as well as the distinctly Japanese court system, by claiming that in the universe the series takes place in, California never enacted any anti-immigration laws, explaining the increased proliferation of Japanese culture, while the court system was revamped at some point in time to prioritize reaching verdicts as quickly as possible.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' does this by explaining that the Cold War happened because the Soviet Union, China and America originally plotted together to combat the Axis Powers and that after the war there has been a power struggle to reobtain the vast amount of wealth they have pooled. Other oddities created by this include the existence of the Cobra unit and mobile nuclear death machines. This, in turn, has also caused things like virtual reality training, nanomachines, various war robots, and cyborgs to become widespread across the world by 2018. As you can see by looking around, that sort of stuff isn't visible now.

** Used subtly in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'', to explain the differences in construction styles from history (which to the expert border on SchizoTech, but to the layman are nearly invisible and easily justifiable through SceneryPorn and RuleOfCool) and also to insert the [[MurderInc Assassins]] and the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Templars]] into the political mix. So, you have several buildings in a Gothic style that wouldn't come in vogue for hundreds of years, and several people who died historically during the time of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' were "revealed" to have been killed by Altair (your targets in-game). Also, the TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture framing story, with plagues sending people illegally migrating to Mexico and year round hurricanes, not to mention the presence of the Animus itself, suggest a far different history than our own. However, this is all covered up by the Templars.

** Generally speaking, a lot of discrepancies in ''Assassin's Creed'' concerning some locations is at least partly justified with the FramingDevice of the Animus--simply put, the game isn't portraying history exactly as it was in-universe ''or'' in real-life, but a computer reconstruction of it--and the in-game encyclopedia even lampshades it at time (the Queen's Staircase in Nassau in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' is explicitly stated to be included because it's such an iconic landmark despite not being built for half a century after the game takes place). Some others are justified by being a result of real-life hardware limitations, such as the attempt on Lorenzo de Medici's life in the second game taking place ''outside'' the Florence Cathedral instead of inside like it actually did because the developers couldn't get the scene to take place inside and then move outside. Most of the others can be handwaved by incomplete historical records in real-life, such as Anne Bonny's role in ''Black Flag'' working because no one really knows what happened to her after 1720.

** Cold fusion was discovered, (from [[{{Powered Armor}} Power armor]] research) and even some cars run on nuclear batteries (as evidenced in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', when you blow up a car and a ''mushroom cloud'' forms).
** There are minor changes in the history of the Fallout universe pre-[=WWII=]; witness, for example, Alien abductions at least since 1603 and the Sunset Sarsaparilla est 1918. UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln's [[http://americanhistory.si.edu/Militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=3 gold-plated Henry repeater]] actually existed -- although in the Fallout universe, it was chambered in .44 Magnum, rather than .44 Henry.
** On a more lighthearted note, an article in the old ''Boston Bugle'' building in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' notes that the Boston baseball team who played in Fenway Park (basically, the Red Sox) was up three games to none in the best-of-seven 2077 World Series, on the verge of breaking a 159-year-old championship drought - the {{Curse}} of the Bambino[[note]]the supposed explanation as to why the Red Sox did not win another World Series after selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919[[/note]] remains alive and well in the ''Fallout'' universe when the RealLife Curse was broken in 2004. Note the use of present tense - Game 4 was scheduled for the day the world nuked itself. (Yeah, when we said a more lighthearted note, keep in mind this is ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Fallout]]'' [[BlackComedy we're talking about]].)

** Some events from the Fallout universe also sync up with our own, but with different contexts. This can be seen with the space race: on May 5, 1961, the same date that Alan Shepard became the first American in space, Carl Bell became not only the first American but the first human in space...and also its first casualty. His orbit lasted twelve minutes and seven seconds, went once around the Earth, then crashed on reentry. The first moon landing also took place July 16, 1969, but the ship was called ''Valiant 11,'' piloted by Richard Wade, Mark Garris, and Michael Hagen.

** Kane making a cameo in the Soviet campaign (especially the final cutscene, which actively name-drops the Brotherhood of Nod) might be a pretty clear hint.
*** ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]]'' made it much harder to make a consistent timeline leading from an Allied victory to the Brotherhood of Nod running around in the open by 1996, leading to a persistent fandom interpretation that the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil mass-murdering Soviet forces]] winning against the Allies in ''[=RA1=]'' [[MissingStepsPlan somehow allows for the UN-backed Global Defense Initiative to be created]]. All WordOfGod eventually said on the issue was that the ''Red Alert'' and ''Tiberium'' series were now entirely separate from each other.

* Several realistically-toned {{RTS}}es and {{Simulation Game}}s released in the recent decade use the classic "The UsefulNotes/ColdWar [[WorldWarThree went hot]]" plot :

* Forms the crux of the plot of ''{{VideoGame/Persona 2}}: Eternal Punishment.'': [[spoiler:Philemon erases the global-scale destruction that took place during ''Innocent Sin'' by erasing the day that the protagonists (Tatsuya, Maya, Eikichi, Jun, and Lisa) met as children, resulting in a brand-new timeline with several changes. Some are minor (Jun's father is alive and his family life is much more stable; the fake band that Lisa was set up to participate in is a real band made genuinely in ''Eternal Punishment''), some major (the new Joker is Tatsuya Sudou, who was TheDragon to the Joker in ''Innocent Sin.'' The Joker curse itself is also different, as are the rumors that are spread and turned real. A point of conflict is the fact that Tatsuya retains his memories of the now destroyed reality from ''Innocent Sin,'' which not only gives him two sets of memories, but allows for [[BigBad Nyarlathotep]] to repeat the events of that game in ''Eternal Punishment.]]
* The game ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'' takes place in an alternate history in which two key things changed - first, the Soviets invented the atomic bomb and used it to end the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in Europe, and secondly, the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved in their favor. The strategic and political repercussions of these changes allowed the Soviet Union not only to survive, but to begin an invasion of the US in the early 21st century.

** The BigBad erases the Origin Points; Events/places/people where history began thus altering the intended future, however the heroes restore the Origin Points but instead of creating the intended history, they create alternate versions of it; for example in the intended history Aeroharmonics was never perfected, but after the heroes defeat Dr. Jaming, Aeroharmonics was developed and mastered.

* ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'' is a [[BlackComedy tongue-firmly-in-cheek]] {{RTS}} that lets you spark WorldWarThree and the following EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. However, its underlying hidden message about nuclear war is very serious in tone.

** For ''World at War'', ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', the point of divergence instead goes back at least as far as October 1945, with Germany developing another super-weapon that just so happened to fall into Russian hands after the war, with the consequences being that the Soviets are ready to unleash that weapon on America at the height of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. There's also more than expected going on with Manuel Noriega and Operation Just Cause - not to mention the whole VideoGame/NaziZombies business.

** The ''Sunset Invasion'' DLC for ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'' guarantees it, creating an alternate history where the Aztecs invade Europe in the Middle Ages[[note]]It's meant to be every bit as ludicrous as it sounds.

-->'''Grizzly One:'' [[UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} Armstrong and Shephard]] get all the credit. But we all wanted to win the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. And we were ready to commit our lives to getting more of the Bio metal... [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks They]] went looking for a [[AcePilot few cowboys]] to do the job. So in the end, they created the [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold world's biggest cover-up]].