Left Behind: Eternal Forces Fails to Live Up To Expectations

I was so looking forward to experiencing a bit of evil fun with the release of the PC game title Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Based on the popular book series of the same name, the game depicts the war between the forces of good and evil that occurs during the end times as prophesized in the Book of Revelations. It is highly unusual for a Christian-themed PC game to depict bloodletting of any kind, let alone the full-scale slaughter described as happening during the tribulation. In a pre-release report, The Southern Poverty Law Center claimed that the game “invites players to roam the simulated streets of New York on a quest to kill ‘non-believers’, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and gays.” The game’s producers also said that in the online version players could take on the role of the general of hell’s armies, commanding legions of heavy metal rockers, secularist college students, and U.N. troops. Now what cynical non-believer (such as myself) wouldn’t take the up most joy in getting online and challenging some holy roller to a game of Armageddon, commanding satanic armies as they annihilated the forces of righteousness and burned every cathedral in sight? Unfortunately according to both published reviews and Amazon’s feedback page, the game fails to live up to its initial promise. There in fact appears to be little killing involved, as the players spend most of their time trying to peacefully convert citizens to their line of thinking. The game play is also (as might be expected) crude and unimaginative, with some reviewers comparing it unfavorably to freeware games. And, to top it all off, the game is apparently riddled with bugs, making it difficult to get through a compete mission without the whole thing crashing. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to live out my fantasies of satanic jihad elsewhere for the time being.