Six Days in Fallujah revealed (PS3)

A new survival-horror military shooter set in the most controversial battle in the Iraq War...and that's just for starters.

READ: Six Days in Fallujah: Controversy and survival-horror in newly unveiled Iraq War shooter


Six Days in Fallujah revealed

Six Days in Fallujah adds survival-horror influences to this next-gen console and PC military shooter.

"Honestly, I think people are afraid of it," Peter Tamte says. "Obviously the Iraq War is a controversial topic." Tamte is the president of Atomic Games, a game studio that is readying a bold new military shooter called Six Days in Fallujah. The game is set in the bloodiest combat of the Iraq War, the battle of Fallujah, and it won't pull any punches concerning its mature subject matter. "If this were a movie, a TV show, or a book, people wouldn't question portraying the war in Iraq," Tamte continues. "So why wouldn't that apply to a video game?"

Shock and Awe

The genesis of Six Days in Fallujah -- what is perhaps the most controversial mainstream game premise we've ever heard -- stretches back to 2003. "One of the divisions in our company was developing training tools for the US Marine Corps," Tamte explains, "and they assigned some marines from the Third Battalion First Marines to help us out." By an unfortunate coincidence, some months later that same battalion was called into action in Iraq to engage in the bloodiest battle of the war -- the Battle of Fallujah. "Fallujah was, and still is, the largest urban assault since the Vietnam War," Tamte says, "and just under half of the Marines in that battalion were killed or wounded." Tamte's team had already grown very close to these marines and considered them friends. "When they came back from Fallujah, they asked us to create a videogame about their experiences there," Tamte reminisces. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

Six Days in Fallujah revealed

The game is based in the Iraq city of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest battles in modern military history.

The stated goal of Six Days in Fallujah is to create the most realistic military shooter possible. "Ultimately, all of us are curious about what it would really be like to be in a war," Tamte says. "I've been playing military shooters for ages, and at a certain point when I'm playing the game, I know it's fake. You can tell a bunch of guys sat in a room and designed it," he says. "That's always bothered me." So the team at Atomic Games began to piece together accounts from a wide variety of sources: the returning marines, Iraqi civilians, enemy insurgents, war historians, and senior military officials. All told, more than 70 individuals shared their detailed accounts concerning the battle. The result is what Atomic Games describes as a meticulously recreated in-game version of Fallujah, complete with real-life marines lending their names and likenesses, as well as recreations of the specific events from the battle. "It's almost like time travel," Tamte adds. "You're experiencing the events as they really happened."

After all the interviews and research, what the developers learned about the battle was surprising in its psychological complexity. The game's creative director, Juan Benito, elaborates. "Through our interviews with all of the marines, we discovered that there was an emotional, psychological arc to the battle of Fallujah." Benito explains that many of the marines were relatively young - "boots" in marine slang -- and that they entered Fallujah amped-up and ready to fight. "Marines are trained to not back down from anything," Benito explains, "so what we had in Fallujah was the irresistible force meeting the immovable object." When the marines first penetrated the northern edge of Fallujah, they were energized and enthusiastic. But by the third and fourth days of the battle, the combat high had "turned into the depths of despair," Benito says. "The marines weren't prepared for the ferocity of the resistance in Fallujah...this was a very new situation, and they had to adapt." Adapt they did.

Comments [17]

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Swarley92

This looks like the best thing ever. I have been waiting for a game where everything is destructable. Hopefully I won't be disappoint.

miamifinfan

slm90031 wrote:

I want this game to be made by Infinity Ward!!

......why? Let Infinity Ward make the fun fictional stuff. This game is meant to scare you from war, so you won't feel compelled to sign with the Marines just B "ECUZ U PWN AT TEH CAL OF DUTY 4"

kratos91

if the environments are fully destructible, combined with the whole premise of the game, this could be a real hit

slm90031

miamifinfan wrote:

slm90031 wrote:

I want this game to be made by Infinity Ward!!
......why? Let Infinity Ward make the fun fictional stuff. This game is meant to scare you from war, so you won't feel compelled to sign with the Marines just B "ECUZ U PWN AT TEH CAL OF DUTY 4"

Okay Dr. Phil

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