Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
This article is part of a promotional campaign for Six Days in Fallujah.
It’s time to get your fire team together in what could well be your biggest mission yet. Six Days in Fallujah is now available via Steam early access. The game strives to offer the most realistic experience of the events running up to, during, and after the harrowing battle for the city of Fallujah.
To ensure authenticity, developers HighWire Games interviewed more than 100 individuals – ranging from US Marines, Iraqi soldiers, historians, and Iraqi civilians in an attempt to create the most realistic experience possible. Their aim was to share the stories of courage that emerged from the traumatic experience as well as tackling the psychological aspects of the battle – and the scars it left.
CLICK HERE TO PLAY EARLY ACCESS
In the early access build, the focus is on the sandbox cooperative multiplayer experience, which will test teamwork and courage against a formidable AI-controlled insurgency in a world where unpredictability and danger lurks around every corner. Rushing into battle unprepared will lead to failure – you’ll need to gather a team you can trust and coordinate every move with military-like precision. Each mission will require its own specific strategy, which promises to test decision-making under extreme pressure.
“We believe the conventional ways of thinking about videogame realism, such as one-shot kills, don’t do enough to create realism,” said Peter Tamte, CEO of HighWire Games. “Yes, we do have one-shot kills, but so does almost every other game.”
“True realism comes from much deeper ways of stimulating the feelings of combat, such as the way procedural architecture creates uncertainty because the buildings change shape inside and out each time the game is played, how the game’s AI stalk, flank, ambush, and coordinate attacks against you, how high contrasts between light and darkness continually keep players off balance, and how grenades kick up so much smoke and dust inside rooms that you can’t see where the door is. These are the things Marines talk about when they describe combat.”
While some games allow the player to ‘scan’ for threats behind a door, or concealed area, there is no such mechanic in Six Days. There are no optical devices – these were not available during the battle and so soldiers were operating in a hostile 360-degree environment. To tackle this, Marines had to employ what’s called the OODA loop – observe, orient, decide and act. In the game, you and your team will need to do the same: plan every move before breaching the area and overwhelming any target you encounter with a barrage of firepower.
Supporting up to four players and featuring procedurally-generated environments, your team will be dropped into the northern region of the city and experience the first two days of the battle. Here, you’ll make your way through war-torn urban streets, using whatever you can as cover, as you clear buildings and make your way towards the objective.
The early access build contains four cooperative four-player missions – but don’t expect to complete these easily. Bullets and explosives will not be the only factor you’ll need to consider if your team is to make it out alive. Six Days’ open, non-linear environments mean that even the smallest of mistakes will cost your fire team dearly.
“Fundamentally, the goal is to make sure mistakes have a high cost, because this causes players to behave more realistically,” explains Tamte. “So, for example, just how it’s very difficult to return fire while you’re getting shot in real life (we’ve interviewed many Marines who were shot during combat), in Six Days we also make it difficult to return fire while you’re getting shot. We also increase lethality, and we use a bleed-out method that requires self-aid or buddy-aid to return to stability.”
Elsewhere, nighttime missions, weather effects, and more enemy types will be arriving during the early access period to build on the challenge. The early access build also supports solo players – although AI teammates will not be around to help… yet. These are promised, along with other features as the early access period develops.
Six Days in Fallujah is out now via Early Access on Steam.
