Left Behind: Eternal Forces

While glancing through the News headlines today, I saw this very interesting story from Yahoo News of a popular Christian book spawning a video game.

The only popular Christian book that I could think of was the Left Behind books. And I was right. There is going to be Left Behind Games.

Here is the description from the Left Behind Website:

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!

• Lead the Tribulation Force from the book series , including Rayford, Chloe, Buck and Bruce against Nicolae Carpathia – the AntiChrist.
• Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.
• Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices.
• Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City .
• Control more than 30 units types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks!
• Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode – fighting in China Town , SoHo , Uptown and more!
• Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!

This could be a very good game. There is a downloadable demo of the game from their web page which I probably will download and give a shot.

The news article talks about how some people are in an uproar because this game is violent.

"It's reprehensible," said Florida attorney Jack Thompson, a critic of video game violence. "They're basically using the phrase — Christian game — to disarm parents into thinking it's going to be OK for our kids."

Well, I have a something I'd like to point out to this guy. No one said the Bible was not full of violence. It is. Lots of it. The Bible is full of lies, murder, deception, adultry, wars, insest, and probably much more stuff that I can't think of as I sit here and type.

Now, the Bible isn't a "How to" book on doing these things, but this stuff is in there.

Also, this is a GAME. Suppose to be fun to play. The developers are also trying to reach people with the gosple of Jesus Christ and at the very lease talking about things that will have eternal importance. A game with a Teen rating is about the same thing as a PG-13 movie. Most parents don't flinch an inch about letting their teen's watch PG-13 movies.

I acutally like how the developers responded when asked if the violence was needed to make the game fun. They replied "Violence is not required to make a fun game. However, it is required to make a game about the end of the world in the Left Behind book series. We have taken great care to make certain that there are real consequences for poor gamer behavior, unlike most games in the market. For instance, unnecessary killing will result in lower Spirit points which are essential to winning."

The game is expected out in October, but as I've said before, a downloadable demo is already available. I think I read they expect this game to cost in the $50 range and be rated Teen.