Under Siege is the sequel to Under Ash. Under Siege is a pro-Palestinian FPS shooter developed by Afkar Media. The original game got its share of media attention, since it portrayed a first person shooter game from the perspective of Palestinian (you had to kill Israeli soldiers). It was an interesting case of study for serious games, since in the Western World we usually brand as propaganda all games where you have to kill Israelis but we call "entertainment" games where you have to kill Arabs.
Certainly, the fact that the Palestinians want to kill their own real-life enemies on the computer screen is a very interesting fact, despite of what your or my position may be on the Israeli-Palestininan conflict.Under Siege is now available as a demo that runs on PCs (note: there was an issue with the files I downloaded. I had to create a new directory named "Files" under the root directory and place the data file within it, otherwise the game would not run).
I have played with it for about an hour and I must warn that this version still has some visual bugs. The AI of the enemy soldiers is really bad but, as I have argued before, we should not judge serious games just like AAA console games. This single-player demo may not be the next Counter Strike, but it is playable enough to make its point. Formally, it doesn't differ from your usual FPS: grenades, rocket launcher, sniper rifle and automatic weapons, they are all there, as well as your usual med kit and ammo. Click here for more information about the game including videos and screenshots.The most interesting part of the game is how it is framed. There is a tagline that shows at the end of the demo: "A real life story or a political propaganda? You have the right to decide".
Here's a game that is self-aware of its perception as propaganda and tries to use it for its own benefit. Other games, say, America's Army, do not include such disclaimer. The website also adds more information, saying that the criminal case hack game only depicts military fights, without involving civilians or any form of terrorism (no suicide bombers). It also brands itself as a docugame (without using that term), since it says all the missions are based on real conflicts documented by the UN Nations (they do not, however, point out to any UN documents. Michael Moore used the web quite effectively as a way to document the claims that he made on Farenheit 9/11, so I guess that if you are creating a docugame, that may be a good strategy, too).So, here's the link to download this demo.
As a political sidenote that is quite unrelated to the game itself, I must warn you that according to the laws (or lack of them) in certain countries, you may be accused, just by the fact of downloading this file or viewing this website, as being involved with terrorist activities. Click on the link if you do not care about having your government spying on you or being visited by men in black. If you doubted just for a second before clicking, congratulations! You just had a first-hand experience of what it is like to live under fascism! Maybe we should make a game about everyday fear in fascist-ruled countries. Here's the link to download the demo version of Under Siege.I must add that the demo states that the full game was scheduled to launch on April but, as far as I know, there is no place online where you can buy it yet.
Comment from Mohammad " Its not like any FPS you played there a story here a Real Story this whats makes US diffrents the full version of US is very very cooool and its had alot of action ... wait it in english soonRegards...Mk3, From Israel on August 21 "This is not only worst game I played in my entire life, it makes people think that Israelis are the evil dictators who rule gaza strip, but the truth is that the terrorists rule the gaza strip.after the israeli disconnection from the gaza strip I can assure you that there will be no peace, just more territory for the terror to have.
Comment from Arab on August 28 The Worst game you ever played???? Man you did not play plenty then..And why twist the facts here, we are only discussing a simple game, not politics, so let it be.The game is finally released, and it's not that playable, but as you best put it, it's a docugame, so do not expect much though, and those soldiers in the game, they are far-sighted that they will gladly kill you from the first bullet...Still, it's a major improvement over the first Underash game, and it's a nice change, every war game you find arabs dubbed as anti-humanity enemies of civilized people, and so, as one of the arabs, it's a nice change indeed.
