Almost a month after distancing himself from political statements, the editor of the controversial military sniper Six days in Fallujah stepped back and now says that the events of the game are “inseparable from politics”. The game, which takes place during the Second Battle of Fallujah in the Iraq War, is under scrutiny for apparently portraying a US-centered focus on a campaign in which about 800 Iraqi civilians were killed, according to the Red Cross.
“We understand the events recreated in Six days in Fallujah are inseparable from politics, ” Victura publisher said in a statement on Twitter. “We believe that the stories of this generation’s sacrifices deserve to be told by the Marines, soldiers and civilians who were there,” continues Victura’s statement. “We are sure that you will find the game – as well as the events it recreates – complex.”
The statement follows comments from Victura’s founder and CEO, Peter Tamte, about how one of the goals of the Six days in Fallujah it is to help players empathize with the decisions that American troops made during the war and not to “make a political comment”. Tamte, in an interview with Polygon, said:
“For us, as a team, it’s really about helping players understand the complexity of urban combat. It is about the experiences of that individual who is now there because of political decisions. And we want to show how the choices made by policymakers affect the choices that [a Marine] need to do on the battlefield. Just like that [Marine] we cannot question the choices of policymakers, we are not trying to make a political comment about whether the war itself was a good idea or a bad idea ”.
The game uses a mix of military shooting gameplay and documentary segments to tell its story, based on information from “26 Iraqi civilians and dozens of service members [who] shared the most difficult moments of their lives, ”says Victura. Much of the game will focus on playing as soldiers, but there are also “high-intensity stealth missions”, in which you play as an unarmed Iraqi civilian.
And although these missions are “informed” by interviews with Iraqi civilians, “very few people are curious about what it’s like to be an Iraqi civilian, ”Tamte said in a February interview to GamesIndustry.biz. “Nobody is going to play that game,” he added.
“Ultimately, the reason people are going to play this game is because they want a more realistic combat experience,” he continued. “This is, above all, the experience that we must offer.”
The game was first announced in April 2009, but its concept has been widely criticized. Konami, the game’s original publisher, abandoned it later that month. The game was announced again in February, now being developed by Highwire Games, whose co-founders include areola veterans Jaime Griesemer and Marty O’Donnell, ex-Bungie. Tamte de Victura also worked at Bungie, leading the marketing of the first areola, according to his LinkedIn.
Six days in Fallujah is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S and Windows, aiming for a release “in the end of 2021”, according to a FAQ.