The End of Days… The Rapture… Armageddon… these are the kinds of words that conversely manage to strike both fear and hope into the hearts of Christians worldwide. And no one had exploited human fear/hope better since the heady days of Shylock – until now. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind series has managed to leverage that fear/hope into a worldwide empire of books, music, and D-quality movies starring Kirk Cameron. But there must be one more way to spread the word about the impending return of Jesus; some way to reach those darn kids with their Game-boxes and Video-playsets and such. Enter Left Behind: Eternal Forces.
And Lo, He gave His only begotten Game
Published on the heels of the last book in the series, Left Behind: Eternal Forces is a real-time strategy game that takes up somewhere in the plot of the third book. For those that aren’t familiar with the series, here’s a quick recap: a couple of years ago, millions of people around the world disappeared suddenly. To right-thinking believers, this is the Rapture and those folks have gone to heaven. In the ensuing chaos, the young Romanian hotshot Nicolae Carpathia rockets to world power, establishing a global government with himself at the head. He’s clearly the Antichrist. Your job is to lead the Tribulation Force, a guerrilla Christian militia, to save as many souls as possible in sinful New York City before Jesus comes. ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE!?
I’ll see you in Hell
As an RTS, much like Blizzard’s Starcraft and Warcraft series, Eternal Forces attempts to put a lot on your communion plate. You control a number of heroes, but instead of producing new units you must proselytize converts into the fold. This is mainly achieved through spiritual warfare: you have to win the hearts and minds of your enemies. Sound familiar? There is some level of actual physical fighting in the game, but any deaths will severely negatively impact the spirit of your flock.
In order to win followers you have to convert the citizens of New York to your cause. Once they are believers, they can be trained into a number of different professions, from simple disciples to missionaries and from plain ‘ol gospel singers to prayer warriors. Additionally, you can train builders to acquire buildings in which to train, house, and feed your growing congregation.
Sure, it sounds like a lot to do, but the tasks get point and click repetitive after a while: recruiting converts is only so much fun for so long. Additionally, there is a huge amount of micromanaging to deal with. The AI just isn’t smart enough to know what you want it to do. And while you get bogged down with these particulars, some upstart satanic rock star might be converting your troops back to devil-worship.
The Appearance of the Beast
Left Behind: Eternal Forces takes great pride in its mapping of New York. The payoff, however, leaves much to be desired. The streets feel cramped, without much room to maneuver what can become an enormous army. And for all the bragging about realistically portraying the Big Apple, there are only a few building models. That might be excusable if you could acquire them, but the game only lets your attain buildings it wants you to get. Hey, in the real world, EVERYTHING’S available for a price!
Speaking of uniformity, everyone in the game looks exactly the same once you convert them; it’s as if the army of the Lord only shops at Sears for red sweater-vests and Dockers. Classy. After you train them to various professions, the believers do wear different outfits, but until then it’s awfully hard to tell them apart.
Finally, some of the animations come off hazy and confusing. Whenever you pray or listen to Christian rock in order to raise your spirit, a spark hovers over your head. With more than four or five disciples at once, you just get a glowing mob.
Online, Christian Soldiers
Arguably the biggest draw to Eternal Forces is the online multiplayer. That’s right, you can invite up to seven of your friends to engage in spiritual battle online – a four on four religious battle royale. The online game is the only time you can play as the Global Community Peacekeepers. You gain access to all of their demonic units – like doctors! – and buildings – like colleges! Who knew that the only price of that undergrad degree in Sociology would be your eternal soul?
The Final Judgment
The most impressive thing about Left Behind: Eternal Forces is that they actually crafted a game out of the books; a game, mind you, that really isn’t overly heavy-handed on religious piety. Some of the Christian overtones can get a bit creepy, but just think of it as a fantasy game with magic and it’s not so bad.
The real problem is the bland graphics, micromanagement, and repetitive gameplay. Good RTS games know that and tend to create missions you can complete in a variety of ways. Not so here. If you’re buying this for its fun factor and not for its religious content – and let’s be honest, who would? – you’re going to be disappointed. Thus spaketh X-Play.
Article by: Joel Rubin
Video produced by: Jonathan Solin
