The main thing that stops me from getting interested in MMOs or MMORPGs is how they – by their nature – lack a kind of consequence, or a permanence. There are raids, bosses, and world events, but ultimately everything resets and no matter what happens, the in-game universe remains largely the same. I like games where it feels like things matter – where you get a sense of ardor, bitter loss, and hard-fought victory. Combining the huge-scale WWII combat of Battlefield V, the production and building systems of Factorio, and the persistent sandbox world of WoW, Foxhole is still an MMO that resets every few weeks, but there are some novel ideas to make it feel more weighty, more meaningful. It ought to be one of the biggest games on Steam, and the upcoming Airborne update will hopefully push it closer to the top.
Set during World War II, every game of Foxhole occurs over two or three weeks. These cycles are called, aptly, ‘wars’ – two years since the 1.0 release of the MMO, and we’re on War 118. You join one of the Allied or Axis powers from WWII, and then you’re turned loose on a gigantic map that is separated into hexes. The objective is to capture or destroy enemy strongholds within these hexes and gradually push them back. Every time you capture a town hall, you earn victory points. The first side to hit the victory points target wins the war, and then we start over.
What makes Foxhole unique is that there are no NPCs – every single soldier, medic, tank commander, or sailor is a player. Likewise, there are no weapon or vehicle spawns. Everything your army uses has to be made by players. As such, Foxhole players are broadly divided into two types, combat players and logistics players. Combat players will go to the front lines and fight and die over the precious strongholds.
All the equipment they use is built by the logistics players, who work behind the line in factories and manufacturing plants. They gather raw materials, create supplies like ammunition, weapons, bandages, and artillery shells, and transport them to the combat zones using trucks and ships. Everyone you see in Foxhole is a player. Everything they’re using is player made.
This is what gives the multiplayer game weight and gravitas. Yes you can die, respawn, and try again, and yes the entire world cycle inevitably restarts after a few weeks, but every single battle represents a coordinated effort between dozens, perhaps hundreds, of players. If you run out of ammo, someone needs to make you some more. If your artillery gun is destroyed, it’s going to take time and labor to provide a replacement.
Right now, Foxhole has a solid ‘very positive’ rating on Steam, and each day averages a peak of just over 2,000 concurrent players – but it deserves more. The new Airborne update, just announced by developer Siege Camp, could do the trick. As it stands, combat in Foxhole is fought by infantry soldiers, tank groups, and fleets of battleships.
The Airborne expansion will add fighter planes and bombers. Just like the rest of the WW2 game, every pilot and paratrooper will be a player, and every aircraft will be built by players, too. We don’t have a specific release date, but Siege Camp says the Foxhole Airborne update will arrive in summer 2025. If you want to try the game in the meantime, head right here.
Otherwise, you might want to try some of the other best co-op games, or maybe the best war games ever made.
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