Field guide · eight games

Video games set in the 1960s, and the year each one is set in

By Whale Development Studios, the studio behind Iron Curtain Call. Published 5 November 2026. Every date, price, platform and demo below was checked on the US Steam store on 6 November 2026; the sources are listed at the end.

Iron Curtain Call: Major Disaster, the first boss, a giant tin general, takes the finisher in a town square under bunting and comic sound effects — Iron Curtain Call, chapter 1, Rubbleton: Major Disaster, the boss at the end of the free demo. A real gameplay frame.

The short answer

Eight games, eight different sixties.

This guide covers any video game whose story takes place in the 1960s, shooter or not. Going by Steam and Wikipedia, the real years on offer are 1964 in the jungle of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, 1968 in New Bordeaux in Mafia III, the 1960s of the Cold War in Call of Duty: Black Ops, and 1960 and 1968 in the undersea city of Rapture in BioShock and BioShock 2. We Happy Few is set in what Steam calls an alternative 1960s England, and Cuban Missile Crisis is a strategy game set in 1962 in a world that went the other way.

Iron Curtain Call is ours, and its 1965 is an alternate one: year three of a cartoon World War III, fought by wind up tin robots and run by a customer service AI. It is a satire, not a history lesson. Its demo is free on Steam and has been since 28 October 2026.

Two of the eight had a free demo on Steam on 6 November 2026: Iron Curtain Call and Mafia III. The Iron Curtain Call demo is Mission 1 and has no parry; the parry comes with the full game on 11 March 2027.

At a glance

Eight sixties, side by side.

Checked on the US Steam store and the games’ Wikipedia articles on 6 November 2026. The setting year is the one in the game’s Steam text or its Wikipedia article. Prices are list prices in US dollars before any sale; Steam sets its own prices in other countries. The date in the last column is the one Steam shows for the edition it sells.
Game	The year or years it is set in	What kind of game it is	Free demo on Steam	US price	Out
Iron Curtain CallOur game	1965, an alternate one: a cartoon World War III (Steam: an alternate 1965)	Single player shooter; fast and close range, with tin robots that burst into bolts and springs	Yes, free: Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutes	Not priced yet	11 March 2027Free demo since 28 October 2026
Call of Duty: Black Ops	The 1960s, during the Cold War (Wikipedia)	First person shooter with a single player campaign, multiplayer and co op	No	$39.99	9 November 2010
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater	1964 (Wikipedia)	Single player stealth action in a Soviet jungle; camouflage, close quarters combat and hunting for food	No	$19.99	24 October 2023First released in 2004
Mafia III: Definitive Edition	1968 (Steam and Wikipedia)	Single player crime adventure in an open world city, as a Vietnam veteran out for revenge	Yes, free	$29.99	19 May 2020First released in 2016
We Happy Few	An alternative 1960s England, the mid 1960s by Wikipedia	Single player action adventure; hide, fight and conform in a drug fuelled city	No	$59.99	10 August 2018
BioShock Remastered	1960 (Wikipedia)	Single player shooter with genetic modifications, in a fallen undersea city	No	$19.99	15 September 2016First released in 2007
BioShock 2 Remastered	1968 (Wikipedia)	Single player shooter, played as a Big Daddy in the same city	No	$19.99	15 September 2016First released in 2010
Cuban Missile Crisis	1962 (Steam), as an alternative interpretation of what followed	Real time strategy with a turn based global mode, with single player and multiplayer	No	$4.99	25 March 2015

The games

One by one, who each is for.

Each entry says who the game is for, what it is, the year it is set in and how it differs from Iron Curtain Call. The facts under each come from its Steam page on 6 November 2026; the setting year from its Steam text or its Wikipedia article, and we say which.

Iron Curtain Call

Our game

Play it if you want a sixties that is a cartoon, a war run like a customer service line, and you want to try it for free first.

It is 1965, year three of World War III, and it is an alternate 1965. Humanity ran out of soldiers, so the war is fought by wind up tin robots run by the Supreme Chancellor, a customer service machine that was handed a country. You are Corporal Punishment, a silent soldier delivered to the front like cargo, and Colonel Panic is on the radio: “I’d send backup, but you are the backup.” Steam describes it as a rubber hose cartoon drafted into an alternate 1965.

We will not oversell the history. This is not the real Cold War: the look is a 1930s rubber hose cartoon with ink lines, in full color, laid over rockets, bunting and a war run by forms. The fighting is close: a punch gives you health, a can opener cracks a robot open for ammo. Robots burst into bolts, springs and scrap; there is no blood.

The free demo is Mission 1, Welcome to Rubbleton: about 15 to 20 minutes, ending with the first boss, Major Disaster. It has no parry; that comes with the full game on 11 March 2027.

Developer and publisher: Whale Development Studios
Out: 11 March 2027
Free demo out: 28 October 2026
On Steam: Windows and macOS (demo on Windows, macOS and Linux)
US list price: Not priced yet
Demo: Yes, free

Play the free demo Play 60 seconds in your browser, no download

Iron Curtain Call: tin soldier robots in red uniforms and space helmets guard a tipped over rocket on the Moon, the Earth rising behind them — Iron Curtain Call, chapter 10, One Small Step. A real gameplay frame.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Play it if you want the Cold War as a big, loud shooter with a campaign, multiplayer and co op.

Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops is, in Steam’s words, a campaign of covert warfare and classified operations in which you play an elite Black Ops soldier in deniable operations. Steam’s text does not name a year.

Wikipedia does: it says the game is set in the 1960s during the Cold War, and that its single player campaign follows the CIA operative Alex Mason as he tries to recall the memories that lead to a numbers station set to instruct Soviet sleeper agents. Its locations include Cuba, the Soviet Union, the United States, South Vietnam, Hong Kong, Canada and Laos.

The big budget way to play the decade, and the only entry with a real Cold War spy plot. It is $39.99 for Windows, with no demo on Steam on 6 November 2026.

Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Released: 9 November 2010
On Steam: Windows
US list price: $39.99
Demo: None on Steam

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Play it if you want a 1964 jungle spy story where stealth matters more than shooting.

Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is, in Steam’s words, the origin story of Naked Snake and his mentor The Boss. The game is set in a deep jungle, where you find your equipment, use camouflage and face paint to deceive the enemy, capture animals for food and fight at close range with the martial arts based CQC system.

Wikipedia says it is set in 1964, and that its Soviet jungle gives it a 1960s setting unlike the urban settings of earlier games in the series. Steam sells it as the Master Collection Version of the game, and the price below is for that standalone listing.

The one here you play slowly, hiding in the grass. It first came out in 2004 and is $19.99 for Windows on Steam, with no demo on 6 November 2026.

Developer and publisher: KONAMI
Released: 24 October 2023
On Steam: Windows
US list price: $19.99
Demo: None on Steam

Mafia III: Definitive Edition

Play it if you want to drive and fight through a 1968 American city, and try a demo first.

Hangar 13’s Mafia III is, in Steam’s words, part three of the Mafia crime saga: 1968, New Bordeaux, LA. After years of combat in Vietnam, Lincoln Clay is out for revenge when his surrogate family, the black mob, is wiped out by the Italian Mafia, and he builds a new family. Steam calls New Bordeaux a vast world ruled by the mob, detailed with the sights and sounds of the era, and offers a choice of play styles from brute force to stalk and kill.

Wikipedia says the city is fictional, based on New Orleans, and that much of the development work went into creating the game’s open world. The Definitive Edition on Steam includes the main game and its story DLC.

The best answer here to “games set in the 1960s in America” and to “open world”. Steam lists a free demo, for Windows, and the game is $29.99 for Windows and macOS.

Developer: Hangar 13
Publisher: 2K
Released: 19 May 2020
On Steam: Windows and macOS (demo on Windows)
US list price: $29.99
Demo: Yes, free

We Happy Few

Play it if you want a sixties England that smiles too hard.

Compulsion Games’ We Happy Few is, in Steam’s words, an action adventure game set in a drug fuelled, retrofuturistic city in an alternative 1960s England. You hide, fight and conform your way out of a delusional, Joy obsessed world as three quietly rebellious citizens of Wellington Wells.

Wikipedia calls the setting a retro futuristic version of the mid 1960s that follows an alternative version of World War II, and says its makers drew on 1960s British culture and on dystopias such as Brazil and Nineteen Eighty Four.

The same decade as Iron Curtain Call and the opposite mood: a dystopian horror where we have war satire. It is $59.99 for Windows, with no demo on Steam on 6 November 2026. Our retro futuristic games guide puts the two side by side.

Developer and publisher: Compulsion Games
Released: 10 August 2018
On Steam: Windows
US list price: $59.99
Demo: None on Steam

BioShock Remastered

Play it if you want to arrive in 1960 in the most famous city under the sea.

BioShock Remastered is, in Steam’s words, a shooter loaded with unique weapons and tactics, in which you are forced to genetically modify your DNA to become an even deadlier weapon. Steam’s text does not name a year.

Wikipedia does: it says the protagonist, Jack, is a passenger on a plane that crashes in the Atlantic Ocean in 1960. The city he reaches, Rapture, is the setting that the next game returns to.

The edition on Steam first came out in 2016 as a remaster of the 2007 game, and it is $19.99 for Windows and macOS, with no demo on 6 November 2026. Our alternate history guide lists BioShock Infinite too.

Developers: 2K Boston, 2K Australia, Blind Squirrel and Feral Interactive (Mac)
Publisher: 2K and Feral Interactive (Mac)
Released: 15 September 2016
On Steam: Windows and macOS
US list price: $19.99
Demo: None on Steam

BioShock 2 Remastered

Play it if you want Rapture again, eight years on, from a Big Daddy’s side.

BioShock 2 Remastered is, in Steam’s words, a blend of explosive first person shooter combat and storytelling in which you step into the boots of the Big Daddy and explore the fallen city of Rapture, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers.

Wikipedia says the game takes place in Rapture eight years after the first game, that Delta awakens in 1968, and that its multiplayer mode is set during Rapture’s civil war of 1959 and 1960.

It first came out in 2010. The remaster is $19.99 for Windows and macOS, with no demo on Steam on 6 November 2026.

Developers: 2K Marin, 2K China, Digital Extremes, 2K Australia and Blind Squirrel
Publisher: 2K
Released: 15 September 2016
On Steam: Windows and macOS
US list price: $19.99
Demo: None on Steam

Cuban Missile Crisis

Play it if you want the missile crisis as a strategy game, on a small budget.

G5 Software’s Cuban Missile Crisis is, in Steam’s words, a real time strategy game combined with a global turn based tactical mode, set in a world ravaged by the confrontation between the USA and USSR in 1962.

Steam says it offers an alternative interpretation of what followed the stand off: the stalemate collapses and the two superpowers use their nuclear arsenals. It has no English Wikipedia article on 6 November 2026, so Steam is its only source here.

The only strategy game here, and the only one that is an alternate 1962 in earnest, where Iron Curtain Call is an alternate 1965 for laughs. It is $4.99 for Windows, with no demo on Steam on 6 November 2026.

Developer: G5 Software
Publisher: Fulqrum Publishing
Released: 25 March 2015
On Steam: Windows
US list price: $4.99
Demo: None on Steam

How we chose

What counts as set in the 1960s?

We kept the games whose story takes place in the 1960s, in the words of their Steam page or their Wikipedia article. A game that only borrows the look of the era, or whose year we could not read in either place, is not here. Where the year is an alternate one, the table says so: Iron Curtain Call, We Happy Few and Cuban Missile Crisis all rewrite the history around them.

Wikipedia describes the 1960s as the decade that began on 1 January 1960 and ended on 31 December 1969, so a game set in 1960 and one set in 1968 both count. That is why BioShock and BioShock 2, eight years apart in the story, are both here.

Left out on purpose

Close, but not the 1960s

Mafia II is the one people ask about. Wikipedia says it is set in the fictional city of Empire Bay from 1945 to 1951, so it is the 1940s and the early 1950s, and the 1960s start only with Mafia III. Atomic Heart is retro futuristic and often mentioned with the sixties, but Wikipedia says it is set in an alternate history 1955, in the 1950s. Our alternate history guide covers it.

Games set during the Vietnam War, such as Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, did not make the list either: Wikipedia says only that it is set during the war, and a war that ran for many years is not a setting year we can print.

America, Japan, open world

Sixties games by place and shape

In America: Mafia III is set in a fictional New Orleans in 1968, and Wikipedia lists the United States among the locations of Call of Duty: Black Ops. In Japan: none of the eight is set there by what Steam and Wikipedia say; Metal Gear Solid 3 is set in a Soviet jungle in 1964. Open world: Mafia III is the one, with Wikipedia describing the creation of its open world as much of the development work.

Looking for the 1960s as a different mood? Our retro futuristic games guide covers the sixties that imagined the future, and the Iron Curtain Call home page has the rest of our story. Or skip the reading: play 60 seconds of Iron Curtain Call in your browser, no download.

Questions

Questions players ask

What are the best video games set in the 1960s?

By their Steam and Wikipedia pages: Mafia III for an open world 1968 crime story, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for a 1964 jungle spy story, Call of Duty: Black Ops for the Cold War, BioShock and BioShock 2 for Rapture in 1960 and 1968, We Happy Few for an alternative 1960s England, and Cuban Missile Crisis for 1962 as a strategy game. Iron Curtain Call is our own alternate 1965.

Which games are set in the 1960s in America?

Mafia III is set in New Bordeaux, a fictional version of New Orleans, in 1968. Call of Duty: Black Ops follows a CIA operative through a Cold War that includes the United States among its locations, per Wikipedia. Cuban Missile Crisis is a 1962 confrontation between the USA and USSR.

Are there games set in the 1960s in Japan?

Not among the eight here: by Steam and Wikipedia none is set in Japan. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the one most often searched with the decade, and Wikipedia sets it in a Soviet jungle in 1964.

Is there an open world game set in the 1960s?

Yes. Mafia III has a vast city, New Bordeaux, which Steam says is ruled by the mob and detailed with the sights and sounds of the era, and Wikipedia says much of its development work went into creating its open world. Its Definitive Edition is on Steam, and Steam lists a free demo.

Is Mafia II set in the 1960s?

No. Wikipedia says Mafia II is set in Empire Bay from 1945 to 1951. The decade the series reaches in 1968 is Mafia III.

Is Iron Curtain Call set in the 1960s?

In an alternate 1965, yes: year three of a cartoon World War III, with wind up tin robots and a customer service machine in charge of a country. It is satire, not history. You can try it with the free demo on Steam, Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutes, ending with the first boss, Major Disaster. The demo has no parry; that comes with the full game on 11 March 2027.

Which 1960s games have a free demo?

On 6 November 2026: Iron Curtain Call, and Mafia III, which lists a free demo for Windows. The other six had none on Steam. Our list of free FPS demos has more.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from these pages, read on 6 November 2026. Prices and dates change; the store page always has the final word.

Iron Curtain Call, Steam store page
Call of Duty: Black Ops, Steam store page
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Steam store page
Mafia III: Definitive Edition, Steam store page
We Happy Few, Steam store page
BioShock Remastered, Steam store page
BioShock 2 Remastered, Steam store page
Cuban Missile Crisis, Steam store page
1960s, Wikipedia
Call of Duty: Black Ops, Wikipedia
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Wikipedia
Mafia III, Wikipedia
Mafia II, Wikipedia
We Happy Few, Wikipedia
BioShock, Wikipedia
BioShock 2, Wikipedia
Atomic Heart, Wikipedia
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, Wikipedia

World War III now has a free trial.

Mission 1 of Iron Curtain Call is free on Steam. Play it, and if the war wins you over, wishlist the full war: it arrives on 11 March 2027.

Play the free demo Wishlist on Steam Play 60 seconds in your browser, no download