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Tags: pc, rts
Left Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game set in post-Rapture New York City. In the Left Behind Universe the Rapture refers to the simultaneous physical disappearance of “all adult Christians, all infants, and many children,” to quote from Left Behind Game’s FAQ. The demo’s opening cinematic shows these souls flying from the Earth, like so many thetans.
Take that, Peacekeeper!Those remaining fall into two camps: the Tribulation Force–new Christians who are seeking to save people and the Global Community Peacekeepers–followers of the AntiChrist operating out of a remodeled UN. The two camps engage in physical warfare, but also in spiritual warfare which is the only interesting aspect to the demo–and I am referring to the demo, not a preview copy (since I haven’t been able to establish contact with LBG and I’m not on the mailing list to get one of the million copies they are sending out to churches across the US).
Recruiting a Friend.The demo (beta demo, actually–why do people keep hiding behind the “beta” label?) weighs in at a petite 190 MB, but has three tutorial levels and four story missions. My first impression was that LBG had seriously overestimated the number of devout Christians in the Big Apple. The streets are deserted in the first mission, except for bands of evil musicians who can lower Spirit Points with their guitars. Jeff, the main character must skirt around them on his way to find his friend Brad. If he gets too close to their music, his spirit will drop below 60 and he’ll fall to the dark side.
With spiritual warfare, Eternal Forces brings something interesting to the table. It’s not uncommon to see morale breaks in RTS games, but without constant bolstering, your units’ spirits fade until they become neutral and walk away. Of course slamming the Pray button is the easiest way to bump up spirit points, but musicians, praisers, and evangelists have powerful area of effect… well… I guess spells isn’t the right word. And to get them, you’ll need to recruit lots of men.
I hope women like medicine, because that’s the only career path open to them. In the tutorial I was told to “select a male Friend” to become a Builder. Later on male Friends must be selected to train soldiers, musicians, and any religious unit, but they can also join the ladies and become medics. Hopefully the full version corrects this crap, but the error message that pops up when I tried to break the gender barrier makes me doubtful.
Brother Mumbo’s life story.Should I even mention that all the characters I saw were white, even a character named Brother Mumbo who is described as being the son of a tribal ruler? The regular inhabitants of NYC show some variety, but recruiting them into Friends turns them into Ned Flanders clones. Actually, it’s hard to differentiate between most units visually because they look like a group of people on their way to the Gap.
On our way to the subway.Props to the city visuals. The game looks good whether zoomed out to the half a block overhead view or zoomed in to a store front. Real stores are depicted: my Tribulation Force took over an AMC Theatre and set up turrets in front of a Washington Mutual. While the full game will feature ads fed from an ad server (which is another layer of controversy in the onion that is this game), the demo ads I saw were Ad Council PSAs and who can say no to McGruff the Crime Dog?
As far as actual gameplay, it’s just not here. Eternal Forces isn’t spreading the word, it’s preaching to the choir. Players of this game will more likely borrow a copy from their church than spring for LBG’s misguided $49.99 price point. Sure it’s just a demo, but the controls are wonky. Clicking on a unit requires hitting the right pixel, double clicking to select all of a particular unit type is hit or miss, and giving movement orders means relying on shoddy pathfinding.
Units have color bars over their heads: green for friendly, gray for neutral, and red for enemy. The color bar would be more useful if it referred to their Spirit or Health levels. Likewise, buildings have floating labels overhead, but the isometric distortion is deceiving, making building selection a chore. Unit grouping is possible, but the HUD doesn’t provide group information, just info about one of its members.
Hey, I am into computers!I have no doubt that there is an audience for this game, but it lacks the crossover appeal they anticipate on their website. Each character has a life story, which reads like a Chick Tract-lite. Missions end with the Tribulation Force finding a clue to the Rapture–a splash page with Biblical doctrine featuring a Christian pop song you can buy with a click and links to Don’t Be Left Behind.com. Setting the theology and the circumscription of roles available to women aside, Eternal Forces is a disappointing RTS entry. Left Behind Games should have farmed this one out, God knows they have enough money (He does, really). Their vision page mentions, “To date, not one high-quality video game has been marketed to this… audience.” I have to agree.