Admittedly, I have nothing to contribute to the discussion whether these video games would've always been patriotic or end up going 'soft'. My first thought was that these games would end up detracting from this vitriolic and fervently nationalist culture, and even end up as critiques of the Nazi state and its past actions--much like how many games today, like Spec Ops: The Line and especially the MGS series, are terribly critical of wars and more. Despite that, as we know, the Nazis are a terribly repressive and authoritarian genocidal regime, and I frankly don't know if state censorship of video games would soften as the years pass, or just remain as oppressive. Furthermore, I have to wonder if Nazi dogma would encourage gaming or see it as some sort of degenerate or lazy product.
So, all that aside, I have maybe three ideas jostling in my head. I'm not great with naming, so I honestly couldn't think of a way to make these game titles more.. Nazi-like.
Gunpowder & the Gun
At one point a highly controversial game, Gunpowder & the Gun (often plain called Gunpowder) is a post-apocalyptic RPG set in RK Moskowien, in the aftermath of a nuclear war between Nazi Germany and the United States, a year or two after specifically. It's a fairly bungled analogue for OTL's Fallout, in essence. The protagonist is customizable: anything from your hair and eyes, to your race and gender, to nose and facial structure--and so on. These options give buffs or debuffs, with ridiculous examples such as..
- picking a Slavic character means you take longer to sort or loot items, an intended jab at their supposed laziness
- giving your character blue eyes is only possible if you pick Aryan, granting a buff to your visibility and eyesight, as well as charisma--weirdly enough, the game gives you the option to eventually get surgery for blue eyes with said buffs were you to pick another race
- playing as a female character makes your character physically weaker and easily exhausted
..among other things. Outside of the robust character customization, the worldbuilding and environmental storytelling is often what grabs players--despite being an RPG, the game's NPC's and companions are immeasurably shallow and uninteresting, likely explained by how Aryan wastelanders and survivors tend to be flawless pinnacles of human-being, and other races/ethnicities predictably depicted as spiteful, thieving, uncaring, or plain murder-barbarians. The game's plot has the protagonist arrive by ship to Rostov-on-Don after a perilous voyage in the Black Sea, where the protagonist is sent on a mission to re-establish remnant German control over Southern Russia (consisting of the Don and Kuban areas, the northern Caucasus, and parts of Ukraine). While there are several factions in the game, none are exactly joinable. Outside of the Nazi remnants, other factions include..
- bands of loose German deserters and raiders who've turned to banditry and pillaging, with the option to "bring them back into the fold"
- Slavic raiders that, outside of ethnicity, resemble the Mongols and Golden Horde in organization and apparel
- American agents, who are often depicted working alongside Jews with cartoonishly evil behavior
- ..and various loose settlements and cities.
Outside of the German remnants an American agents, the protagonist is the only character capable of using firearms, with the Slavic raiders resorting to bows or spears, and even the German deserters having merely clubs, pikes, and sword, explained by the Slavs regressing, and the deserters being sluggish and wasteful with ammo. Despite being numerically inferior, the American agents and their Jewish sidekicks are the main antagonists of the game, with their mission being to sabotage and detonate an unused German ICBM within its silo before it could be used. The climax of the game is at this silo, where the protagonist has the option to:
- prevent its sabotage, but don't fire the ICBM (ending #1; technically neutral but heavily implied as bad)
- fire the ICBM at the US (ending #2; a good ending, showing an end-slide where Bakersfield, an impromptu capital of the US govt's remnants, is obliterated)
- fire the ICBM at Stalingrad, the home and capital of the Slavic raiders (ending #3; another good ending, with an end-slide akin to #2's)
- detonate the ICBM (ending #4; a bad ending, killing everyone at the silo including yourselves, with an end-slide showing Rostov-on-Don being overran by Slavic hordes)
- fire the ICBM.. at Neu Berlin, the new administrative center of Nazi Germany's remnants (ending #5; a bad ending, with an end-slide showing Jewish-Soviet-Golden Horde state lording over most of Europe)
The game sparked controversy for several reasons, and acquiescing to censorship guidelines took around a year despite the product being finished. One of the largest controversies was the game giving the player to play as a Jew, which would give insurmountable debuffs, but ultimately still playable. It was received poorly by critics for this very reason, believing it to be insulting and showcasing Aryans as weak when up against a Jewish protagonist. It was removed, although enough content remained within game files that modders would restore this feature. This sparked even further controversy, leading to a series of arrests by the modders, and these mods taken down by any platform that hosted it. Other controversy came from the fact the game permitted the player to nuke Germany and Germans, and aside with the enemy, although it was eventually permitted after the developers plead that they were "distinctly and clearly negative."
(please do note that when i say "good ending" that i don't literally think it's good, rather that's what the developers believe)
DALMATIA
A sort of "failed game", DALMATIA was banned as soon as it hit the shelves in Germany, after it somehow flew under the radar of censorship; around 4,300 copies were sold there. However, it has gained a substantially large following in the international market, with sales reaching around ~800,000 in the US. The game posits the protagonist as a soldier in the Wehrmacht during a fictional war in the early 2000's, sent among several others to put down a Croatian uprising in Zara. Gameplay-wise, it resembles an FPS akin to the Call of Duty or Battlefield series, with almost little to no dialogue and depth in regards to the protagonist. The plot essentially has the player put down this uprising brutally in conjunction with Italian soldiers and settlers, both unable to handle it on their own. The game, expectedly, is extremely linear, with no variation of endings or dialogue, with the game's action and characters compensating for its linearity. What makes the game so controversial is its obscenely gory and brutal depictions of war and how it impacts civilians, and while sympathetic to the Wehrmacht, holding disdain for the Schutzstaffel and Germany's Italian allies. At its core, it essentially depicts the Clean Wehrmacht myth in a world where they won. The player helps Croatian, Italian, and German civilians, and very often spare soldiers or insurgents instead of summarily serving 'justice' or blatantly murdering civilians just as the Wehrmacht had done IOTL. The game depicts Wehrmacht soldiers as heroic, with a particular cutscene showing Wehrmacht personnel escorting Croats to safety as tomatoes are hurled at them by Italian settlers as one of many examples. Ultimately though, the game was banned in Germany as the game perpetuated a terribly biased view of Italy and Italians, gave a sympathetic view to Croats, and elevated blame to the Schutzstaffel. Its impact outside of Germany was much more impactful, however. American education cut no corners when it came to discussing Wehrmacht war crimes and the Holocaust, but the game challenged these views, often infecting the minds of young Americans with a more sympathetic and even knightly Wehrmacht. While historians criticized the game to no end, it was a hit among American youths, and would end up perpetuating the myth.
Stripes over Europe
A stand-in for Wolfenstein in this universe, SoE takes place in a setting where America has bested Nazi Germany. Unlike Wolfenstein, where German advancement in technology managed to explode after uncovering Da'at Yichud's vaults, SoE explains America's victory by stating it entered a sort of "communion" with the literal devil. Whereas Wolfenstein's aesthetic was built around a greater level of technological advancement, SoE shows a world where society and technology is regressing, being nigh the same as it was in the late 40's. Replacing the high-tech and sleek aesthetic was occultism, black magic, and sorcery. American soldiers retained their uniforms like the M1943, but all of it adorned in blood, pentagrams, and other occultist imagery; soldiers operating M2 Brownings would often be clad in robes and hoods, and chant some kind of demon speak (it pretty much was just the VA's being told to speak gibberish). The protagonist is depicted.. predictably, being white, with blue eyes and blonde hair, and chiseled like some kind of muscle demon. Predictable one-liners, blatant racism, and a white knight complex, has made the protagonist loved by audiences in Germany, even with all the cheesiness involved. The game would kill the player if it attempted to use the black magic the Americans had harnessed, and would also make American weapons unpick-up-able, with an emphasis on using distinctly German weapons and engineering.