#Desert storm 2 manual#

Problems inevitably arise from trying to fit an historical event such as the Gulf War into the genre of an action video game.

With a follow-up game based on the Vietnam conflict in the works, I can only cringe along with Plato at how much history will be revised and reality distorted to make the Vietnam experience palatable for gamers in the way the designers have done with this war. One such screen tells of how US General Schwarzkopf offered вЂњsafe passage to Iraqis for withdrawal from Kuwait.вЂќ The game doesnвЂ™t tell us that this offer was followed up by the massive carpet-bombing of retreating Iraqi military units along a road soon to be called the вЂњhighway of deathвЂќ by Iraqis and disgusted US veterans alike.ДЇar from reality, Conflict: Desert Storm II reflects only a sanitized version of the Gulf War in which US and UK soldiers can do no wrong. In some of the gameвЂ™s loading screens, historical background information is provided. The instructions advise players to вЂњTry to avoid killing civilians,вЂќ but that is all the mention they get. But there is no mention of any incidents like this in Conflict: Desert Storm II. The US bombing of the Amiriyeh civilian bomb shelter, which incinerated hundreds, is perhaps the worst example of the damage done to innocent Iraqis. The Gulf War cost a substantial amount of Iraqi civilians their lives, as well as their homes, schools, churches, hospitals, and public utilities. Far from being realistic and accurate, the game seems more like a soldierвЂ™s fantasy of what the conflict should have been like. Reality and history are consistently betrayed by the gameвЂ™s inability to engage in any of the complexities of what the real Desert Storm operation entailed. Like most war games, Conflict: Desert Storm IIвЂs historical realism is limited to pedantic details like the names and differing performance of the weapons that your team members use. To even attempt such a feat is to knowingly mislead oneвЂ™s audience. A dangerous endeavour, Plato would say, for reality cannot be fully captured by any artistic representation. With details like this, the gameвЂ™s designers are purposefully attempting to blur the line between fiction and reality. ThereвЂ™s even a mission based on one actually carried out by SpenceвЂ™s SAS unit where your squad must destroy the Iraqi Victor-2 communications site. To boost realism and credibility, a British SAS agent named Cameron Spence served as the military consultant for Conflict: Desert Storm II, as well as its predecessor. Players can choose whether their soldiers are American or British, which affects very little aside from the accents you hear from the in-game dialogue.

#Desert storm 2 manual#

Your team - described in the instruction manual as вЂњa fighting manвЂ™s fighting menвЂќ - engages in operations such as stopping the Iraqi armyвЂ™s sabotage of KuwaitвЂ™s oilfields, rescuing downed comrades trapped in an Iraqi city, and disarming Iraqi missiles equipped with sarin gas. The game is set during the Gulf War of 1991 and allows the player(s) to control a squad of four men as they complete various stealth and combat missions ostensibly aimed at forcing IraqвЂ™s army out of Kuwait. Conflict: Desert Storm II is no different. While creators of war simulations often strive for painstaking realism and historical accuracy, their earnest efforts inevitably (Plato would say, necessarily) come up short.

Notorious for banning poets from his utopian republic for their dangerous distortions of truth in the name of art, the Greek philosopher would probably have advised that designers of history-based war games should just be executed on sight. Plato would have had a field day with video games like Conflict: Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad.