Mixing history and video games together, a gamer has made a timeline charting the rise of humanity and civilization using a variety of popular game titles. From the beginnings of humanity to predictions of what the future could hold, the timeline showcases a collection of games that have covered different points of history.
Through the years, video games have grown to tell deeper and more vibrant stories that dive into humanity and what it means to be human. With this evolution in game narratives, telling stories of humanity through historical games have been one of the many ways studios have enriched the messages of their projects. Not only do video games like to visit the past to recreate already-known worlds, but looking towards what lies ahead is another way games have explored humanity, predicting what the far or distant future might hold for civilization.
A creative Reddit user by the name of Ucankabak took the initiative to make a timeline of how video games have explored the history of humanity and what some studios have predicted future civilization to look like. With a list consisting of twenty-six titles, the list unsurprisingly begins with Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey which starts the timeline out at 10,000,000 BCE. Throughout the years and eras depicted, the timeline ends with Horizon: Zero Dawn in the year of 3020 CE.
One funny aspect about the homemade timeline is the sheer amount of Assassin's Creed games that are listed. With the extensive list of Assassin's Creed games that have been released throughout the years it's definitely understandable, but it's pretty entertaining to see that the franchise makes up almost half of the timeline with ten out of twenty-six titles being Assassin's Creed installments. There still is a great variety of titles to observe, though, with games ranging from A Plague Tale: Innocence, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Detroit: Become Human.
This timeline serves as a really great breakdown of just how wide video game studios have cast their nets when searching for enthralling stories to tell about where humanity has been and where it could possibly go. Whether a story takes place in medieval Europe or it's set in a never-before-seen world like Night City in Cyberpunk 2077, humanity's history and future serve as great bases for video games to explore and elaborate on fascinating worlds that help tell rich narratives and make a game's characters feel even more real to many players.