Ever wanted to write up a biased report on a country’s political stance without ever hearing the backlash?  If so, Global Conflicts: Palestine presents players with a chance to step in the shoes of a rookie journalist as they investigate events such as a suicide bombing and many other terrorist activities.  It’s up to the gamers to report the truth or put a few blemishes on the news.

Global Conflicts pits players in a 3D environment that is set in and around Jerusalem.  The gameplay is reminiscent of the old-fashion text-adventure games from the early nineties.  Players will walk through the environments interviewing people they meet for critical information.  When in dialogue, players will be forced to pick quotes from the conversation to write in their notebook.  The quotes are the most important thing about Global Conflicts due to that they are needed for every story.  At the end of each mission, players then must submit their story to the editor.   After all that, it’s then scored on the basis of the quotes and the political bias of the paper.  There are three papers to write for: Israeli, Palestinian, and a European paper -- each having their own stance within the journalism community.

At the start of the game, players will choose the gender and name of the character.  It doesn’t particularly matter, but having the ability to customize the character to my liking helped feel more personal.  In total, there are six missions to play through that players must decide the fate of their character.  The storyline is engaging with different endings based on the player’s choices throughout the game.  There are several different strategic elements to consider and the implications that it comes with.  If players deliver more pro-Israeli articles, the Palestinian newspaper will refuse to publish their articles and to work with them in the future.

The main goal is of course to create and publish an article for a newspaper based on the quotes players obtain from NPCs.  But they’ll have to be aware that they need to build up trust with an individual side to dig up the dirt on what actually happened.  I made the mistake of taking no allegiance and that didn’t work out because the NPCs wouldn’t leak any information I wanted.

Graphically speaking, GC: Palestine is lacking.  The 3D environments aren’t a visual treat by any means.  Though, the interface is simple enough to navigate through and provides players with a chance to understand the situations they are being thrown into.  The 3D worlds aren’t gigantic – it literally takes a few minutes to travel to one end to the other.  Playing Global Conflicts made me feel as if I was in the year 1998 playing the original Playstation.

GC: Palestine is primarily an educational game (at least in my opinion) that helps identify problems that the players may not be aware of.  It comes with a small learning curve that is easily overcome after an hour of playing.  As for tips on how to get better stories, I suggest players make sure they maintain trust with both sides.  Maintaining trust is a key element that I cannot stress enough – if players break the trust of the NPCs, their news articles will suffer.

System Requirements:

1 GHz CPU

512 MB RAM or higher

Open GL Compliant Graphic Accelerated card.

1024 x 768 pixels or higher display

Windows 2000/XP/Vista

250 MB free disk space
 

Gameplay: 6.5

While I had fun with what is presented, Global Conflicts doesn’t seem more than a barebones point-and-click adventure.  One thing I am glad the developers did was that they tackled current affairs rather than creating a futuristic world.

Graphics: 4.5

Any 3D graphics accelerated card should manage to play Global Conflicts.  The graphics are below expectations for today’s standards.

Sound: 5.0

The audio is basically non-existent -- there’s not much to say about it.  It’s dull, derivative and uninspiring.

Difficulty: Easy / Medium

It’s accessible to all gamers that have time to dedicate to understanding the value of a good story.  If players don’t have patience to uncover the truth, they may not make it through the first few missions before quitting.

Concept: 8.0

I hope many other developers take a chance at tackling more real-world scenarios.  The issues presented are authentic and I am glad someone is daring enough to try their hand at it within a video game.

Overall: 6.1

Global Conflicts: Palestine provokes a lot of thought and patience.  Placing gamers in the role of a journalist overseas does shed a lot of new light of what is happening in today’s society.  But overall, Global Conflicts doesn’t conjure up enough fun to make it worth everybody’s time.