Six Days in Fallujah interview: Even the smallest of mistakes will cost you dearly
We chatted with Highwire games ahead of the early access launch for Six Days in Fallujah
Share this article...
WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
*SPONSORED POST*
Six Days in Fallujah early access on Steam is here, so it’s finally time for you and your mil-sim friends to jump in and experience the rather harrowing battle for Fallujah. The game is already showing promise to be the most immersive tactical shooter on the market, offering early players a rather unique co-op gaming experience.
Developed by Highwire Games, the goal is to bring players authenticity and immersion. The devs interviewed over 100 people, including US Marines, Iraqi soldiers, historians, and Iraqi civilians to piece together one of the most realistic gaming experiences in the FPS genre. The overall aim was to give players a more accurate understanding of what combat is really like, something that can’t be found in other military games.
CLICK HERE TO PLAY EARLY ACCESS: http://steam.gs/l/4fjsk/AGMRContent
While Six Days in Fallujah is currently in its early access stage, there is quite a lot of content for the average FPS gamer to enjoy. The focus has primarily been on the whole co-op multiplayer experience, which drops you and your friends into the sandbox against a rather impressive AI enemy. Running and gunning your way about town will almost certainly end in failure (death), so teamwork is key. The game’s unique Procedural Architecture technology ensures that no mission ever plays the same way twice, and recreates the uncertainty Marines experienced every time they entered a building in Fallujah.
Striving for realism
While one-shot kills in a game might go a long way for realistic combat compared to those with high TTK values, Highwire Games feels these are just a small part of actual realism.
“We believe the conventional ways of thinking about video game realism, such as one-shot kills, don’t do enough to create realism,” said Peter Tamte, CEO of Highwire Games. “Yes, we do have one-shot kills, but so does almost every other game.”
“True realism comes from much deeper ways of stimulating the feelings of combat, such as the way procedural architecture creates uncertainty by reshaping the inside and outside of every building each time you play, how the game’s AI stalk, flank, ambush, and coordinate attacks against you, how high contrasts between light and darkness continually keep players off balance, and how grenades kick up so much smoke and dust inside rooms that you can’t see where the door is. These are the things Marines talk about when they describe combat.”
This take on realism sounds refreshing, with some games offering assistance to players through the ability to scan for threats behind concealment. Six Days ditches this and tries to put you in the boots of those at Fallujah, giving you a constant threat from your surroundings, at all times. This type of gameplay will encourage thorough communication and strategy, with precise movements and correct decisions being essential to your success.
You and your fire team of up to four players will be dropped into the procedurally generated environments, experiencing the first two days leading up to the battle of Fallujah. As you work your way through the ruined streets, you will need to use what cover you can find as you are potentially attacked from 360 degrees. The main objective of Six Days in Fallujah is to complete mission objectives based on true stories from the battle, and the non-linear environments mean that even the smallest of mistakes will come at a high cost.
“Fundamentally, the goal is to make sure mistakes have a high cost, because this causes players to behave more realistically,” explains Tamte. “So, for example, just how it’s very difficult to return fire while you’re getting shot in real life (we’ve interviewed many Marines who were shot during combat), in Six Days we also make it difficult to return fire while you’re getting shot. We also increase lethality, and we use a bleed-out method that requires self-aid or buddy-aid to return to stability.”
Early access has more content on the way too, with nighttime missions, weather effects, and more enemy types set to arrive. AI teammates are also on the horizon, along with many other features that make Six Days in Fallujah one hell of a gaming experience.
