Saddam Hussein: The Videogame

1up.com ^ | 10/20/2005 | Patrick Klepek

[Terpfen]

Mainstream media outlets have paused coverage of the trial against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein because of a delay into late November, but Kuma Reality Games plans on showing gamers first-person, interactive takes on the different crimes being charged against Hussein between now and then.

Coming up with an accurate representation of the events is accomplished through research the company pulls from traditional news outlets, first-person accounts, AP photo archives, original video footage and audio reports, declassified documents from the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense and its personal Military Advisory Board comprised of "decorated veterans who lend invaluable insight into tactical considerations and historical consequences that result from these conflicts," the company told 1UP.

'The Crime of Dujail: Saddam's Revenge', detailing the public execution of 143 villagers, death of 15 citizens and imprisonment of more than 1,500 residents in the Iraqi town of Al-Dujayl, and 'The Capture of Saddam: Operation Red Dawn', chronicling the eventual 2003 capture of Hussein from his hold in the ground, are the two missions the company has in the works.

These missions are being made available for free on Kuma Reality Games' website (the first one is available now). Kuma Reality Games CEO Keith Halped stated that "if anyone has forgotten what a monster Saddam was, we hope to remind them," in the announcement's press release. Such a politically loaded statement, however, could construe the company's products as out to paint Hussein as a villain, rather than let the facts speak for themselves.

Halper, on the other hand, feels it's educating the public on aspects of Hussein that haven't been as publicly talked about. "I think that Americans generally recognize that Saddam was on the shortlist of Very Bad Guys, but the specifics of what he did to join that club are a less well understood," he says. "Anfal, Dujail, Basra are just odd names with little resonance, not events that cost hundreds of thousand of Iraqi citizens their lives."

Still, that doesn't mean Halper isn't expecting the same outcome as he started predicing in the original press release. "If anyone considers Saddam to be a victim in this drama, check out our Chronology section [of the game]," he says.