8 Realistic Video Games Set in the Middle Ages That Will Take You Back In Time

My two sons are hardcore gamers, and both of them married girls who also seem to love gaming. I have zero interest in them; however, when I was visiting my granddaughter last week, one of my sons was enjoying some time on his PlayStation, and I was interested to see it was a historical game.

The Middle Ages are perfect for video games. A thousand years of warring kings, scandalous royal weddings and the odd outbreak of plague is catnip for game designers.

In fact, even Classic FM, my favorite radio station, now has a gaming music segment on a Saturday night. It’s been great for getting younger listeners hooked on classical music.

8 Realistic Video Games Set in the Middle Ages

Below are eight of the best games set in the Middle Ages, with a clear look at what each one is, what you actually do in it, who it suits, and a score out of ten for how closely it sticks to real history.

A quick word on those accuracy scores. A high mark means the world, the clothing, the buildings and the daily detail are true to the period. It does not mean the story is real. Even the most careful games invent their heroes.

1. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II [The Most Historically Accurate of the Lot]

Historical accuracy: 9/10 

Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S 

Year of release: 2025 

Developer/Publisher: Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver 

Average playtime: 92 hours

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a first-person action role-playing game set in the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1403. It unfolds during a real civil war that broke out after King Wenceslaus IV was captured by his half-brother, Sigismund. 

There is no magic and no fantasy. The armor, the food, the coinage, and the layout of the towns are all built to match the period as closely as a game reasonably can.

You play Henry, a commoner swept up in the conflict, and the game makes you earn everything. Sword fighting is slow and technical; you need to eat, sleep, and keep your gear repaired, and even reading is a skill you build over time. 

Real events and figures anchor the story, and you can watch early gunpowder weapons starting to appear on the medieval battlefield.

My verdict: The closest thing to actually living in the 15th century. Best for players who want a real challenge and don’t mind a steep learning curve.

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2. Manor Lords [Best Medieval City-Builder]

Historical accuracy: 8/10 

Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S 

Year of release: 2024, in early access 

Developer/Publisher: Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse 

Average playtime: 16 hours

Manor Lords is a city-building strategy game set in late-medieval Franconia, part of the Holy Roman Empire. It blends town planning, resource management, and real-time battles, and it is unusually faithful to how medieval settlements actually looked and grew.

You begin with a small plot of land and a few families, then grow a hamlet into a working market town. Buildings follow the contours of the land rather than snapping to a grid, trades and supply chains matter, and when rival lords or bandits threaten, you raise a militia and fight for your territory. 

My verdict: A must for anyone who loves a builder and wants historical texture over fantasy. Deep, handsome, and made largely by a single developer.

3. Pentiment [Best for Art and Story Lovers]

Historical accuracy: 8/10 

Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 

Year of release: 2022, with the PlayStation and Switch versions in 2024 

Developer/Publisher: Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios 

Average playtime: around 15 hours

Pentiment is a narrative adventure and murder mystery set in a small Bavarian town and its abbey, beginning in 1518 as the medieval world starts giving way to the Reformation. The entire game is drawn to look like a hand-painted illuminated manuscript, right down to the shifting handwriting.

You play Andreas, a journeyman artist working in the abbey’s scriptorium, who is drawn into a series of killings that play out across several decades. There is no combat. Instead, you investigate, talk to townspeople and make choices that shape the community’s fate, all steeped in the religion, class and daily routine of the time.

My verdict: One for readers, history lovers and anyone who appreciates art. Slow, thoughtful and beautifully made. Best if you want a story rather than a fight.

4. Crusader Kings III [Best for Medieval Politics and Intrigue]

Historical accuracy: 7/10 

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S 

Year of release: 2020, with the console editions in 2022 

Developer/Publisher: Paradox Development Studio / Paradox Interactive 

Average playtime: 156 hours

Crusader Kings III is a grand strategy game in which you don’t so much run a country as run a family. You take charge of a real medieval dynasty at a start date between 867 and 1066, and try to keep your bloodline in power all the way to 1453.

The focus is people and politics rather than pure warfare. You arrange marriages to build alliances, manage restless vassals, plot the odd murder, fight wars of succession, and raise heirs who might turn out brilliant or completely unfit to rule. 

The history is deeply researched, but the story is yours to rewrite, which is how a Norse pagan can end up ruling a reimagined Europe.

My verdict: The pick for schemers who love politics and family drama. Endlessly deep, and a serious time sink, as that 156-hour average makes plain.

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5. A Plague Tale: Requiem [Best Dark, Story-Driven Adventure]

Historical accuracy: 6/10 

Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 

Year of release: 2022 Developer/Publisher: Asobo Studio / Focus Entertainment 

Average playtime: 20 hours

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a story-driven action-adventure set in southern France in 1349, against the backdrop of the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death. It continues the story begun in the 2019 first game, Innocence, following two siblings, Amicia and her young brother Hugo.

You guide the pair as they flee soldiers and the Inquisition, solving puzzles, sneaking past enemies, and surviving tides of rats. The war, the plague, and the constant fear are true to the period. The supernatural rat swarms and Hugo’s magical affliction are pure invention, but they carry a tightly told, emotional story.

My verdict: Best for players who want atmosphere, character and a strong story over an open world. Bleak, beautiful and deeply moving.

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6. Total War: Medieval II [A Timeless Classic of Historical Strategy]

Historical accuracy: 6/10 

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS 

Year of release: 2006 

Developer/Publisher: The Creative Assembly / Sega 

Average playtime: 70 hours

Total War: Medieval II pairs turn-based empire management with enormous real-time battles. Its grand campaign runs from 1080 to 1530, letting you lead a major power such as England, France, the Holy Roman Empire or the Ottomans through the heart of the medieval period.

On the campaign map, you handle diplomacy, trade, religion and expansion. 

When two armies meet, the game drops you onto the battlefield to command thousands of soldiers at once. The factions, units and events are rooted in history, even if the empire you carve out is your own. Nearly twenty years on, it still has a devoted modding community keeping it alive.

My verdict: The one for armchair generals who want to command armies rather than a single hero. A classic fans still hope to see remade.

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7. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla [Best Open-World Viking Adventure]

Historical accuracy: 5/10 

Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S 

Year of release: 2020 

Developer/Publisher: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft 

Average playtime: around 60 hours

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a vast open-world action role-playing game set in 873 AD, during the Viking expansion into a fractured England. You play Eivor, a Norse raider leading a clan in search of new land to settle.

You raid monasteries, build up your settlement, forge alliances with local kings, and wade into the wars between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Real figures such as Alfred the Great appear, and the landscape and place-names are carefully researched, though the map is heavily compressed and the series’ science-fiction framing sits oddly against the history. 

Running underneath it all is the series’ long fascination with the spycraft and stealth of the medieval world.

My verdict: Best for players who want an enormous Viking world to disappear into. Strong on atmosphere, looser on fact.

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8. Ghost of Tsushima [Best Medieval Setting Beyond Europe]

Historical accuracy: 5/10 

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows 

Year of release: 2020, with the PlayStation 5 Director’s Cut in 2021 and the PC version in 2024 

Developer/Publisher: Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment 

Average playtime: around 25 hours

Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world action-adventure set during the first Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274. You play Jin Sakai, a samurai defending the island of Tsushima after the Mongol fleet lands on its shores.

You fight with sword and bow, roam a striking open landscape, and slowly trade the rigid samurai code for the stealthier tactics of “the Ghost.” The invasion itself is real history, and brutally depicted. Jin and the plot are fiction, and the game leans on the tradition of samurai cinema more than the fine detail of 1274, with some armor and weapons that belong to later centuries.

My verdict: The pick for a medieval world outside Europe, and for anyone who loves samurai films. Gorgeous, if more legend than lesson.

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A Few More Worth a Look

Plenty didn’t make the main list but still deserve a mention.

• Age of Empires II has you refighting the campaigns of Joan of Arc and Genghis Khan. Windows, Xbox and PlayStation. First released in 1999 and remade as the Definitive Edition in 2019.
• Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord lets you rise from a nobody to a warlord in a medieval world in all but name. Windows, PlayStation and Xbox. Released in 2020.
• Chivalry II is chaotic multiplayer sword-fighting, more spectacle than scholarship. Windows, PlayStation and Xbox. Released in 2021.
• Stronghold remains the castle-builder of choice for anyone who has ever fancied pouring boiling oil on an invader. Windows. First released in 2001, with a Definitive Edition in 2023.