Making History: The Second World War similar games & best alternatives

Making History: The Second World War - making-history-the-second-world-war_1.avif
Making History: The Second World War - making-history-the-second-world-war_2.avif
Making History: The Second World War - making-history-the-second-world-war_3.avif
Making History: The Second World War - making-history-the-second-world-war_4.avif
Making History: The Second World War - making-history-the-second-world-war_5.avif
Making History: The Second World War - making-history-the-second-world-war_6.avif

Making History: The Second World War

Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac • 2018

Should you play it?

Choose a nation and prepare for the greatest conflict in human history, World War II. Build your military and industrial power, form alliances and race to achieve the advanced technologies that will bring total victory in this global-wide turn-based Grand Strategy struggle.

What works

  • Deep and complex micromanagement
  • Robust scenario editor and modding
  • Historical and alternate history depth
  • Active developer support and updates
  • Many playable nations and strategic options

Things to keep in mind

  • Steep learning curve and poor tutorial/manual
  • Bugs and crashes especially late game
  • Clunky and outdated ui
  • Performance issues and memory errors
  • Limited multiplayer and social features

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Hearts of Iron III

  • Supreme Ruler 1936

  • Solar Nations 2

  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI with Power Up Kit

  • Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game

  • Supreme Ruler Ultimate

Less dominating

Games that feels like Making History: The Second World War but with less domination over others

  • Unity of Command II

  • Rebel Inc: Escalation

  • Hegemony III: Clash of the Ancients

  • Total Tank Generals

  • Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

  • Egypt: Old Kingdom

Less fantastical

Games that feels like Making History: The Second World War but with less imaginative fiction

  • Oriental Empires

  • Aggressors: Ancient Rome

  • Europa Universalis IV

  • Europa Universalis III Complete

  • Rise Of The White Sun - 白日升

  • Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete

Choose your own criteria ->

Similarity map

How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Making History: The Second World War: Broadly representative of its motivational profile, with a few distinct shifts. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Competition, Status, Fellowship, Domination. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Story, Leadership. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Intimacy.

Last update: 04/08/2026