Russian developer MiST Land South's forthcoming Tactical Combat Simulator claims to tackle 15 years of modern day Russian urban warfare with unparalleled accuracy. The game recreates battles which have up until very recently been official secrets and SPOnG will endeavour to find out from war historians exactly how accurate the game is to these real life wars on terror in our time.
The game takes its name from the ALFA Group, which was formed in Russia in 1974 as a counter-terrorist and crime-fighting division of the KGB. ALFA operators oversaw service in Afghanistan and Chechnya, as well as domestic operations. They continue to exist to this day.
ALFA: Antiterror, which is to be published by Strategy First in North America early in 2006, has not yet been rated, but SPOnG would imagine that it’s not really suitable for minors, NRA crazies or anyone with any slight sociopathic tendencies. However, if you hate terrorists, which of course we all do – living as we are in the middle of our great leader Dubya’s War On Terror – then ALFA: Antiterror could well be for you.
The press release blurb tells us that ALFA: Antiterror is a turn based tactical combat simulator that lets the player control a special operations force through a four episode campaign based on the real life experiences of former ALFA members from 1984 to 2001. Gameplay takes place in a variety of settings including the desert, mountains and valleys, forests, small cities and towns and features a whole host of terrorist-killing weapons from well-renowned international manufacturers of murder, sorry warfare, such as AKSU-74A, Colts, sniper rifle SVDs, grenade launcher RPG-7s and many more.
If all that guntalk sounds like it might float your boat, check out the official English Language version of the game's website at http://www.alfaantiterror.com . A full playable demo level of the game is also available now to download from http://downloads.gfi.su/Alfa_eng_demo.exe (361 Mb). This level transports you to Chechnya in 1996, where there have been battles in Grozniy for several days. Large groups of unlawful military units lead by the field commander Aslan Maskhadov have entered the city from different directions and taken control of most of the strategically important spots. MIA RF hostel and headquarters are blocked by the large terrorist force. After a long and fierce battle to defend the FSS hostel, where terrorists use heavy arms and armored vehicles, the Russian command decide to break through the terrorists' ring. After that the group must advance for several blocks and go out to the tram depot to the post of the MIA RF army.
All the missions in ALFA: Antiterror are based very closely upon their real, historical counterparts - some of which, as we mentioned, have been kept officially secret until recent times. Which makes SPOnG think of the spoof news scene in TV News satire, The Day Today, where we are all watching a war unfold on the television news almost before its happening in reality.
Is this to be the future of historically accurate war games? Will we be playing Gulf War 3 in 2008 a mere 6 months after the real thing? Gulp. More frighteningly paranoid future war predictions to follow as we track the development and critical reception of ALFA: Antiterror.
In the meantime, check out the demo and let us know what you think.