November 12, 2006
Given all of its pre-release controversy, Left Behind: Eternal Forces
slipped into retail channels rather quietly last week.Scribe Hiawatha Bray of the Boston Globe has reviewed Left Behind, but GamePolitics is less interested in Bray's report on its design elements than his take on the social, cultural and political aspects of the game. Here's what Bray has to say:
...staying alive may sometimes lead to the taking of life... And that raises a knotty moral conundrum for any game designer who worships Jesus, the Prince of Peace...
Every time (the good guys) kill, even if it's justified, it weakens their moral fiber. Force them to kill too often, and they'll fall away from the faith and move to the Dark Side.
(Left Behind) also provides interesting and sometimes amusing insights into the cultural crotchets of evangelical America. Characters keep shouting "Praise the Lord!" at odd moments. Bad guys fight back with the devil's music -- rock 'n' roll.
The theory of evolution comes in for a good deal of rough handling along the way, and there are friendly invitations to the faith for unbelieving gamers...
It's easy to jeer at a group of Christians seeking to make their mark in an industry that so often celebrates amoral savagery. Yet you can't help respecting the effort that went into Left Behind: Eternal Forces.
GP hasn't yet seen any reviews of LBEF by other outlets, although reader reviews on GameSpot gave the game a so-so 7.1 rating.
Comments
I'm getting ready to try it out right now.
nightwng2000
NW2K Software
But are the creator's against rock and roll or something? or are they just commenting on it?
Indeed - and how, may I ask, do they 'fight you' with it?
Regardless of the issues Left Behind has had over its development cycle, I think people interested in a religious game seem to finally have something to point to. There have been a lot of awful games that use religion as an excuse to generate more sales than they otherwise would. If Left Behind does pan out as a generally solid game, it is nice that someone made the effort to create a legitimate product.
According ot the article, listening makes people "loose their religon" so it's prayer in reverse.
I can't say of that makes anti-rock n' roll or it's just toung-in-cheak however, we'd need to see it in game to know.
Thanks for the heads up.
It was soem form of in game advert was it not?
Pretty straight forward RTS for the most part. Instead of building your special building, you "Acuire" buildings and remodel them to your purposes. You can level up buildings and "Friends" for better purposes as well. A clinic becomes a Hospital. A Cafe can become a Food court and so on.
I'm a little nitpicky about how your deciples can recruit "Friends who are under your control". Makes it sound like brainwashing. But really, it's just a matter of going to a Neutral unit, recruiting them which turns the unit to a "Friend" and therefore a unit under your direct control.
From what it sounds like, in the Single Player game, you can only play on the "good side", while in multiplayer mode, you can play on either side. The opposing side is called the "Global Community Peacekeepers". Not really a horrid sounding name. In fact, a rather good name for the followers of the Anti-Christ.
A function that seperates this from many RTS games I've played is that each unit seems to be a specific character. Whether this is random or they are actual characters from the book series, I don't know. But each character actually has a name and "Life Story" that you can view and seems to be updated as you play.
You don't wage battles but rather "Spiritual Warfare" which begs the question: If it's "Spiritual" Warfare, is War still Hell? Sorry, had to do it. :)
Another addition which stands out from most RTS games, but I don't think it's unique, is that units can carry additional equipment, thereby enhancing their abilities.
The tutorial did not indicate if you can "recruit" or use vehicles. But passing the arrow over some moving vehicles displays the grey "neutral unit" circle. So I wonder if you can make use of vehicles in the game itself.
I'm not sure of the 7 deadly sins is a factor in the game, but since food and money (as well as banks) play a part, one would think that over indulging in food (glutoney) or money (greed) would have a negative impact on players. Would be an interesting addition and, moreover, would serve as an interesting counterpoint to cheating (such as infinite food or money).
I also noticed something else. You can recruit male or female characters. Most of the unit types seem generic. Deciples, Musician, Builder, and so on. But for medic, you have Medic (Male) and Medic Woman (Female). Fascinating.
I don't know if you have to for the full game, but after installing the demo, when I double clicked to start the game the first time, it asked for my name and email address. I simply entered a fake name "James Kirk" and gave them my bondage.com email address... what? I never use it. Really. :)
I'll try the first mission in a little and see how difficult it is.
My big dislike though, is the camera. A bit of a pain to get it properly moved into position.
nightwng2000
NW2K Software
True, RTS games usually start out pretty boring. Simple get from Point A to Point B without dying.
Still, the camera is a pain having to swing it around manually.
And the demo has a flaw in Mission 2, not sure if it is in the real game or not. A secondary objective appears to have been placed in an unreachable position outside the accessible map area. At least it wasn't a required objective.
Despite the background of the storyline (The Rapture), I would think that a government would come up with a more plausable excuse for a good deal of the population around the world disappearing. However, a claim that a significant portion of the world's population disappeared because of an EMP wave seems very difficult for even me to believe. And supposedly claiming that the government's excuse that some disappeared while others didn't because those who did were "weak" is, frankly, a pretty "weak" storypoint.
Will this game promote violence? Only out of the aggrevation of the camera difficulties or the need to sit through a reload time to restart a mission. Will it promote bigotry? No more so than the book series or any particular religious belief in general.
As RTSs(es? ies?) go, in general, you'll be looking at the quality of an RTS from around 2001-2003.
If you're a follower of the book series, it might be worth it. If you're open minded enough to treat this as an alternate reality possibility, it may not be high on your list based on plausible excuses given by the government, but it may be an acceptable diversion.
If I were to give it a 1-10 rating like Gamespot, then I might say around 7.4. Demo is decent enough. But overall, nothing spectacular.
nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Also I've heard that conservative Christians tried to get a game called 25 to Life banned. Also please think about this. Why would Gamepolitics.com exist if no one was making a stink about banning some games and how do politicians, or even Jack Thompson for that matter, know so much about these games and attack them so much? Who is it that brings these games to their attention and calls for them to ban these violent video games? Anti-game activists don't pull their ideas out of the air. They must come from someplace. I personally believe that politicians like Leland Yee woudn't be trying to pass anti-game laws if it weren't for the fact that somebody is bringing it to their attention. I think it's Christians, more than anyone else. Now I don't want you to think that I'm condemning Christianity because I am not. I have also been around Christian gamers who love gore fest games as much as I do and I have absolutely nothing against them. Christianity is a good religion and it's not that I'm against.
One more thing I'd like to add is that years ago, when I was hated by some Christians for no reason, these games were my only real escape and I started to realize that not everything is bad. I then got completely into the games and it was one thing to say negative things about me, but saying negative things about the only escape I had was more than I could stand. I sometimes get overzealous about defending violent video games, just as Jack Thompson does at attacking them, maybe you're right and it wasn't made for the purpose I initially thought it was. However, everything I said about coming agianst all game legislation stands firm. I sent an email to my representative urging her not to support the Family Entertainment Protection Act. I may have been wrong about somethings, but I'm not wrong about this. It says in the web site of the Video Game Voters Network that this act would dramatically decrease the number of violent video games out there. Maybe many Christians aren't against violent video games, but someone is and that someone won't give up without a fight. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, that certainly wasn't my intention. My sole purpose in posting things is to defend violent video games that's my sole purpose. Just for the record, I might still be against violent media and would probably be on the other side of the issue had it not been for a Christian. Very early in my life, I had a friend who was a Christian who got me interested a little bit in violent video games, but my mother kept saying they were evil and the last time I saw him, we played a game called Ares 51 and Mortal Kombat. After playing Mortal Kombat with him on that Tuesday in May of 1998, when I was eleven, I couldn't stop talking about how much I wanted violent video games and I finally conviced my father to let me have them because my mother never would have allowed it in a billion years, so a Christian friend of mine got me interested and I didn't mean to stereotype Christians many of them are good. I only have a problem with the bad ones that made me feel inferior for many years and attack the best thing I ever had in my childhood and my life.
Thank You,
A Concerned Video Gamer
These people need to shut up and one way to help is to protest the Family Entertainment Protection Act. I urge all of you gamers out there to contact your local representative and tell him or her to oppose this act in Congress that would severely limit our access to the games we love. Our games are under attack by Christian groups, politicians and even lawyers. We must fight back and make them shut up by voting against them and helping to attack the anti-game legislation that no one has any right to pass. Game legislation is totally communistic because in a communistic government, the government says, "We don't like this, so no one should have it." Fight back and please don't buy this mockery of a video game. Please don't support anybody who is against violent video games and join the Video Game Voter's Network. I could be wrong, but I really think that this game was created to attack the violent video game industry and if I'm right, I hope no one buys it. Please, fellow gamers, don't fall into the trap of hysterical Christians. I am almost certain that Jack Thompson is in favor of this game because he is in favor of anything that attacks the innocent violent video game industry. This game was created for a very bad purpose and should be destroyed. Please don't buy it because that would support the hysterical Christians who want to mock the good video games.
Thank You,
A Concerned Video Gamer
Please dont generalize or stereotype christians. Not even a tenth of the Chrisitan majority nor thier leaders give a damn about video games. They are misunderstood enough thanks to a very small, but loud group of hard right rich fatcat evangelicals warping an otherwise great misunderstood religion.
And I am not sure what sort of evil purpose Left behind was created for. The novels they are based on (really just fan fiction for Revelations enthusiests) sold quiet well. Its just a game for a different audience, nothing more.
And Jack Thompson doesnt like this game at all. GP has an article on the that in the past.
Dude, what? Seriously, what? Hysterical Christians are attacking this game, not supporting it! And it's no more of an attack on the games industry than any other peace-nik game, e.g. The Sims. It's PART of the industry! It can't attack itself! You want to talk about generalizations and unfounded attacks, look at your own post!
"Christianity demands the crucifixion of the intellect." Søren Kierkegaard
"I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct of revenge, for which no means are venomous enough, or secret, subterranean and small enough -- I call it the one immortal blemish upon the human race." -
"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"If Christ existed today there is one thing he wouldn't be...a Christian"
Go on call Voltaire and Nietzsche satanists,sinners,evil and devils. The rest of the planet calls them geniuses... No wonder why...