Left Behind Review

In the past I've blogged about the "Left Behind" video game. It's been out now for awhile and I've been looking to see reviews. Not surprisingly, it seems to have fallen flat. One of the few I've seen is from Wired.


The review is surprisingly positive. Before the game was released, expectations were that it would follow the actual Left Behind books in which, at the end of times, Jesus returns and "proceeds to slaughter all unbelievers, dissolving their tongues and bursting their bodies like overstuffed sausages. As millions die in transports of agony, the ground becomes a swamp of blood and mud, and some extremely unpleasant things happen to the Jews who refuse to convert."


Yet it appears that the game designers opted to take a few creative liberties, leaving that out entirely. Instead, the game is takes the mechanics of popular fantasy games like World of Warcraft and slaps Christian names on what used to be spells while having a fantastically rendered version of Manhattan to explore.


I have to admit that I find it slightly ironic that the game uses the same mechanics as "Pagan" games. It follows the long Christian tradition of slapping a new name on things and thinking people won't notice. Hey, it worked for intelligent design...