Left Behind Panned
I've mentioned it before, but that was just a preview of what was to come. Apparently I misjudged the kind of havoc that a brand-new game company could wreak in its first attempt to create a viable Real-Time Strategy game based on the precepts of a very badly written work of evangelical porn masquerading as biblical prophecy.
Gamespot, who is usually pretty reliable, gives Left Behind: Eternal Forces a 3.4 out of 10.0, which is, for them, a pretty damn miserable score. To quote pertinent parts of the review:
Nobody has enough faith to endure a game with such a hokey story, terrible mission design, serious problems with the interface and graphics, and loads of crippling bugs.
And
Well, the battleground between the true believers' Tribulation Force and the Antichrist's Global Community Peacekeepers is a heathenish New York City. Your units include gospel-singing musicians, missionaries, healers, and medics. Enemy units feature college-trained secularists, devils, and foul-mouthed rock stars with their electric twangers.
And:
On a purely basic level, you do have to at least appreciate the interesting twist on the RTS genre the game takes. But beyond that twist, there's nothing remarkable about it--other than the fact that it is a remarkably bad game. Let's hope it inspires designers to experiment with the genre, if nothing else.
I can't say as I'm surprised. It would take a very good team of experienced designers to put together an engine that could deal with the conflicting demands of a peaceable religion fightning non-passive opponents. That game may yet come. What I really find odd is that anyone thought this model could work at all. One of the things I've noticed is that it's hard to create a game based around "converting" other people to a different religion without making the religion slightly silly, and not at all serious. If you try to take religion, and conversion, seriously, you're right back with "Bily Graham's Bible Blaster", and the whole game just becomes silly. There are some things that gaming just isn't capable of doing yet, and converting the heathens seems to be one of them.
In the meantime, while I wait for a decent religious game, I can exhult in the boot that the Left Behind conglomerate has just taken in the mouth. If the other game reviewers agree, they may not churn out an even-duller sequel ("Left Behind 2: Vice City"). I'll take that as good news any day of the week.
The full review is here
Gamespot, who is usually pretty reliable, gives Left Behind: Eternal Forces a 3.4 out of 10.0, which is, for them, a pretty damn miserable score. To quote pertinent parts of the review:
Nobody has enough faith to endure a game with such a hokey story, terrible mission design, serious problems with the interface and graphics, and loads of crippling bugs.
And
Well, the battleground between the true believers' Tribulation Force and the Antichrist's Global Community Peacekeepers is a heathenish New York City. Your units include gospel-singing musicians, missionaries, healers, and medics. Enemy units feature college-trained secularists, devils, and foul-mouthed rock stars with their electric twangers.
And:
On a purely basic level, you do have to at least appreciate the interesting twist on the RTS genre the game takes. But beyond that twist, there's nothing remarkable about it--other than the fact that it is a remarkably bad game. Let's hope it inspires designers to experiment with the genre, if nothing else.
I can't say as I'm surprised. It would take a very good team of experienced designers to put together an engine that could deal with the conflicting demands of a peaceable religion fightning non-passive opponents. That game may yet come. What I really find odd is that anyone thought this model could work at all. One of the things I've noticed is that it's hard to create a game based around "converting" other people to a different religion without making the religion slightly silly, and not at all serious. If you try to take religion, and conversion, seriously, you're right back with "Bily Graham's Bible Blaster", and the whole game just becomes silly. There are some things that gaming just isn't capable of doing yet, and converting the heathens seems to be one of them.
In the meantime, while I wait for a decent religious game, I can exhult in the boot that the Left Behind conglomerate has just taken in the mouth. If the other game reviewers agree, they may not churn out an even-duller sequel ("Left Behind 2: Vice City"). I'll take that as good news any day of the week.
The full review is here