Publisher: Serious Games Interactive
Developer: Serious Games Interactive
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP 1600+ processor; 512 GB RAM; 64MB OpenGL compliant video card; CD-ROM drive; Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Genre: Adventure and Role-Playing
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

July 2007 was a busy month in terms of news from Palestine and Israel. The conflict between Hamas and Fatah in the West Bank and Gaza Strip managed to grab headlines away from sectarian violence in Iraq while paving the way for the Arab League to officially meet with the Israeli government for the first time. With all the headlines last month, it was sometimes difficult to remember that the stories were but the latest chapter in a series of events that reach further back than May 14th, 1948, when the State of Israel declared independence. The complex history of this region of the world is often read in biased terms by all parties involved, creating a morass of different interpretations that can confuse anyone.

It is within this intellectual chaos that Serious Games Interactive sets its first offering. Global Conflicts: Palestine attempts to go beyond educational games that add gameplay elements to rote learning and immerse you in the contemporary world of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an investigative reporter. As you pursue the news, you come face to face with both the larger aspects of the conflict, such as the bombings, kidnappings and military reprisals, as well as the smaller aspects, such as the security checkpoints, poverty and discrimination.

To achieve immersion, a CRPG dialog structure is employed that’s similar to how dialog is executed in games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II — The Sith Lords. As you speak to people, you choose dialog options, which in turn affect their responses and their level of trust. The more they trust you, the more willing they are to divulge important information. Furthermore, as your character publishes news articles, you become aligned to either the Israeli or Palestinian faction, further affecting how willing different people are to speak with you.

Further aiding in immersion is the use of small details that have little impact on gameplay. For example, when you try to walk through a security checkpoint between Jerusalem and Abu Dis, you’re usually stopped and asked for your papers. There’s never a problem with getting through, since you have your reporter’s papers and you come to know the IDF guards at the checkpoint, but it illustrates a little slice of life in the region, namely that the conflict complicates simple things like travel.