Six Days in Fallujah, the controversial shooter game that made the headline back in 2009, is coming back in full force, Highwire Games and Victuria announced. Helmed by Halo and Destiny veterans Jaime Griesemer and Marty O’Donnell, they plan to launch the game for PC and consoles this year without mentioning any specific release window. Both companies haven’t said whether they’re targeting next-gen only releases or not but promised to reveal more details about Six Days in Fallujah in the coming weeks.
The game will be a tactical military shooter covering events that took place in the Second Battle for Fallujah in 2004. When the US, British, and Iraqi soldiers were involved in tight close-quarter urban battles against Al Qaeda, the group seized the city. The conflict was said to be the bloodiest battle of the entire Iraq War for US troops. To ensure its historical accuracy and authenticity, Highwire said it has interviewed over 100 Marines, soldiers, and Iraqi civilians. The developer also claimed to have created “unique technologies and game mechanics” to properly replicate modern combat’s uncertainty and tactics in a way “other games do not.”
Initially, Six Days in Fallujah was announced 12 years ago by Atomic Games with Konami as its publisher. However, the project was instantly criticized by war veterans and anti-war groups. The conflict was still too fresh in the public’s mind, and thought it made light of the heavy civilian collateral damage, which claimed to have numbered in hundreds. Konami decided to ditch the controversial shooter game, although officially, Atomic Games never said anything about canceling it.
Later Atomic Games closed down, and former CEO Peter Tamte set up Victura to work on a new version of the title since 2016. Tamte said that he and his team want to challenge “outdated stereotypes” of games through this project.
“It’s hard to understand what combat is actually like through fake people doing fake things in fake places. This generation showed sacrifice and courage in Iraq as remarkable as any in history. And now they’re offering the rest of us a new way to understand one of the most important events of our century. It’s time to challenge outdated stereotypes about what video games can be.”
Right now, some people already up in arms about the revival of Six Days in Fallujah, concerned about it solely becoming American propaganda. Primarily since Tamte was known to have worked with the FBI and CIA to build a training simulator. Personally, I think we really need to see how the game shapes up to be able to judge it properly. After all, games like Spec Ops: The Line manages to convey somewhat the terrible mental burden of taking lives. Maybe Six Days in Fallujah could end up doing the same. What do you think? Please share with us your thoughts in the comments below.