Restart war crime simulator Six days in Fallujah got its official gameplay revealed yesterday in a new trailer that seems to confirm some people’s criticisms of the game as one-sided propaganda for the American war machine. The trailer made its debut exclusively by IGN, the same website that published an in-depth report a few days earlier on the problems surrounding the game and the apparent one-sidedness with which it “playable documentaryFrom one of the deadliest sieges in the US invasion of Iraq.
US Military Veteran Sgt. Jason Kyle and the developers of Victura and Highwire Games walk you through the very first gameplay video of Six days in Fallujah, the tactical first-person shooter with procedurally generated mission spaces based on real-life events from the 2004 Second Battle of Fallujah in the Iraq War, ” IGN‘s description of the free publicity reads.
The video focuses on the team tactics you use to break into people’s homes and ‘clear’ them of ‘enemies’. It shows how the layouts are constantly changing to make you feel like you don’t know what you’re coming across every time you step into a new room. The gameplay ends with the player entering a room where a family of four is hiding in the corner hoping not to get killed. The video then cuts to real-life documentaries as a Fallujah resident explains that their father refused to leave town during the attack.
What it doesn’t mention is that many people were forced to leave the city.
“Like [the U.S. military] believes that many of Fallujah’s men are guerrilla fighters, it has ordered US forces to return all men aged 15 to 55, “the Associated Press reported in 2004
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The trailer does not mention any reports of it random gunfire by the US military, or whether it reportedly used white phosphorus on attack, a chemical that literally melts through your body. The total number of deaths since the start of the invasion of Iraq is disputed, but the Iraq Body Count project It is estimated that 288,000 people have died today, most of them civilians. And reporters covering the war have the litany of apologies from the US government defending these dead as anything but war crimes.
It is this side of history that IGN last week dived into an important piece of report entitled ‘Six days in Fallujah is complicated and painful for those dealing with the real eventsThe article interviews several people – Alex, a Lebanese-Arab game developer; Yifat Shaik, an Iraqi Jewish game developer; and a Muslim developer who wanted to remain anonymous – about their concerns and skepticism about yet another gunman who glorified the sacrifices of those in the US military.
“When we look at a piece of media, we should really ask ourselves: what is it trying to tell us? Who does it serve? Who has the most to gain from the acceptance of these media as the truth? … I would say it’s not Iraqi citizens, ”Shaik said IGN
As a six-minute commercial for the game, these aren’t the kinds of questions that the latest trailer is tackling. When Peter Tamte, the head of the original studio behind the game and the current publisher, was pressed on these issues in yet another interview, this time on the last episode of IGN is unfiltered, he had no real answers. Iraqi stories and testimonials have been obtained for the game, but will make up a much smaller part of the game than the first-person tactics used by US Marines. He described the invasion of Iraq not as a serious injustice with a staggering death toll, but as ‘controversial’.
‘It really bothered me that we have this battle here, one of the most important battles in the Western world in nearly half a century, but Hollywood was afraid to tell these stories. Just because the Iraq war was controversial doesn’t mean there are no stories of sacrifice in it, ”said Tamte. IGNRyan McCaffrey.
Whose sacrifices are exalted and published, however, is precisely the problem.
“Few people are curious about what it is like to be an Iraqi citizen,” said Tamte said in an earlier interview with Gamesindustry.biz‘Nobody is going to play that game. But people are curious what it’s like to be in battle. It’s the same reason people play survival horror games – are in a situation beyond what we have in our normal life. The reason people end up playing this game is because they want a more realistic combat experience. That is mainly the experience we have to provide. “
Six days in Fallujah may eventually become a critical look at the myriad ways people suffered in battle – and by whose hands – but time and time again, the game’s shooter marketing has thwarted that possibility. Anyone can and should question how the game is presented, whether it should exist at all and what it will eventually become. What you don’t have to do is host and elevate a trailer that launder an embarrassing moment in history into a tactical simulation.
Six days in Fallujah is a shooter, because that’s what sells. But no one else has to help them.