Marines Ask Konami for War Game

Konami has announced a new third-person shooter centred around the stories of real US marines in a real Iraq war or liberation or whatever we're currently supposed to call it.

The game, titled Six Days in Fallujah, will follow three dozen US Marines from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in the battle the game's named for. The game is set for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC release next year.

The title, developed over at Atomic Games (Close Combat), will feature documentary-style video interviews featuring marines telling stories of their experiences. The subjects of the videos will then turn up in the game itself.

The way Konami tells it, the publisher was actually approached by soldiers to make the game. "The soldiers wanted to tell their stories through a game because that's what they grew up playing", said John Choon, senior brand manager for the game over at Konami.

"Our goal is to give people that insight, of what it's like to be a Marine during that event, what it's like to be a civilian in the city and what it's like to be an insurgent", said Atomic Games' president Peter Tamte. "For us, the challenge was how do you present the horrors of war in a game that is also entertaining."

Therein, of course, lies the problem. The pure experience of war is not all that much fun. Can a game be faithful to the reality of the experience and still be entertaining? If it somehow succeeds, is it doing a disservice to those involved? The likes of Call of Duty and Medal of Honour present a stylised, cinematic depiction of war and, though they show real conflicts, the people who fought in them are a long way removed from their events (either by time or death).

Tamte says he wants to present the player with some of the decisions troops in the conflict were faced with, such as deciding under fire who was a civilian and who was an insurgent. "Our opportunity for giving people insight goes up dramatically when we can present people with the dilemmas and the choices that faced these soldiers", Tamte said.

It sounds, however, that Atomic may be bottling it to some degree, anyway. "We're not trying to make social commentary. We're not pro-war. We're not trying to make people feel uncomfortable. We just want to bring a compelling entertainment experience", said Anthony Crouts, VP of marketing for Konami. "At the end of the day, it's just a game."

Did anybody say Atomic was pro-war? What's wrong with making social commentary in a video game? Sounds like the dev might be a wee bit nervy. Give us your thoughts in the Forum.

^{Sources:
LA Times
Wall Street Journal}