Foxhole is a massively multiplayer sandbox title aimed at letting players live out the lives of soldiers in a persistent online war. The concept taps into the player-driven stories that make games like Eve Online such a joy to read about, and even though Foxhole is still in Early Access, it’s generated plenty of war stories already. As part of our Making it in Unreal series, lead designer Mark Ng told us about his favourite.
“By far my favourite event has been what the community has dubbed the ‘Jade Cove Crisis,’” Ng tells us. “At the end of last year, we added super weapons to Foxhole in the form of ballistic rockets that more or less behaved like nukes. These required a monumental amount of player effort to build and launch, but for the first time ever players had the power to permanently wipe out an entire town from the world.
“During a pivotal battle in the war at town called Jade Cove, there was a disagreement on the side of the Wardens (one of the factions in Foxhole) as to whether or not they should launch a rocket at that town. A small group of Wardens that were holding a built and fueled rocket made an executive decision to launch at Jade Cove because their position was in danger of being overrun. This lead to civil war among the Wardens that ultimately led to their defeat in that war.”
Players have been inspired to tell those stories in their own ways, too. Ng pointed us toward a YouTube channel called PressCorps Gaming, where players have begun to make World War II-style radio reports breaking down the events, complete with interviews with players who served on the front lines.
You can hear plenty more about the Jade Cove Missile Crisis in the video above.
Foxhole has been in Early Access since July 2017, and while there’s still no release date in sight, a dedicated community has continued sticking with it for all this time. For more wartime gameplay, take a look at our best World War 2 games.