Just Less than Total War:

Enjoying My Time in the Animus: A Quantitative Survey on Perceived Realism and Enjoyment of Historical Video Games

“…For instance, one aspect of historical game research has focused on how forms of cinematic realism are often used to make a video game simulation of the past seem authentic (cf. below), by drawing on the players' prior media knowledge or past film experiences (Campbell, 2008;Chapman, 2016;Salvati & Bullinger, 2013). While not necessarily (Chapman, 2016), realism in this context can also go together with considerations of historical accuracy, for example, of historical events (Hatlen, 2012;Shaw, 2015) or weapon design (Machin & Suleiman, 2006).…”

“…Recent successes, both critical and financial, like Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions, 2020) or Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal, 2020) indicate that the genre shows no signs of slowing down. Academic interest in historical games has also grown in recent years (Chapman, 2020) and is primarily focused within the field of historical game studies which, at its core, aims to study ‘those games that in some way represent the past or relate to discourses about it, the potential applications of such games to different domains of activity and knowledge, and the practices, motivations and interpretations of players of these games and other stakeholders involved in their production or consumption’ (Chapman et al, 2017, p. 362).…”