The controversial and headline-attracting - and definitely not a political statement - shooter Six Days in Fallujah is arriving on PC through Steam's Early Access program on June 22.
Claiming to offer an experience that will put players in a position of experiencing modern "through the eyes of those who were there", the tactical shooter is offering a particular take on true stories from a real-world battle that's still fresh in the memory of many.
For context, the game is based during the Iraq War and in the midst of one of the most sensitive battles of it. The Second Battle of Fallujah was particularly awful where at least 800 Iraqi civilians were killed by US and coalition forces.
Six Days in Fallujah as a game offers some interesting propositions, and the likes of procedural architecture remaking each building with every playthrough, an intense take on realistic lighting, dust, smoke, and weather, and what's claimed as a "dramatic new approach to AI" might offer something for tactical shooter fans, and those looking for a modern urban warfare experience. Whether this is worth digging into a battle that will still be recent memory for some remains to be seen.
Having endured a long development process, the game has been plagued by controversy along the way - ever since it was first announced in 2009. The game's desire to adapt a recent, high-profile battle from real-life events into video game action has been a particular source of controversy on several levels, but particularly when looking at the representation of the Iraqi citizens in trailers, and a seeming glorification of the role of US soldiers in the Iraq War and battle, as well as the war itself.
The team behind the game initially took a position that the game was not a political statement about the war in any way but later had to backtrack on this, admitting that making a game set in the Iraq War was undoubtedly couched and intertwined in politics.
Despite the developer and publisher gaining the input of more than 100 soldiers who were present during the battle, and "more than two dozen Iraqi civilians and soldiers", the game is still very likely to create controversial waves now as we head to an Early Access release that's only a few weeks away.
Six Days in Fallujah will also launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S but no release date has been confirmed for those platforms.
