Shoot = 1. Wait = 0. Hit = 1. Miss = 0. The language of videogame technology lends itself to conflict. It's been part of its DNA since Spacewar! took MIT by storm in 1962, and we've been playing war on the tabletop, from Chess to Risk, for thousands of years. But...

War is a preoccupation of mine. As a writer of historical fiction, I'm immersed in battle. It's a dark fascination, especially for a pacifist of sorts, but wars show humanity at its very best and its very, very worst. They are the turning points of history itself. We are defined by them.

I'm also a gamer, and love sneaking and sniping, dropping bombs and torpedoing ships. However, that can often provoke moral questions that I struggle to answer. Besides, we're in a period of high-profile conflict, again, and it's on our screens, 24/7. We may crave escapism at times like these, but should we make fictional war when there are so many for whom it's a daily reality?

So, I set out to find war games playable today on PC that don't ask you to do that, at all. This was not an easy ride by any means, and I found varying degrees of success for sure.

THE RULES

1. Not just pacifist runs, but games that are built around their nonviolence.

2. Healer characters in squad shooters don't count.

3. No anti-war videogames, like Spec-Ops: The Line, or The Great War: Western Front.

RELEASED Jan 2024 DEVELOPER Brave Lamb Studio SA

War Hospital

Playing medical administrator on the Western Front

The First World War is solid ground for a pacifist narrative. Never has the futility of the whole mess been writ as large as on the Western Front. War Hospital puts you in charge of a failing field hospital on the very edge of the trenches in 1918, balancing morale, resources and staffing to save as many lives as possible.