Author - Jerry Paxton

After 18 years, some of Sgt. Eddie Garcia’s Marine memories in Fallujah can now be experienced by others through Steam’s Early Access program. The release of the first-person tactical shooter Six Days in Fallujah by Victura and Highwire Games features the most realistic simulation of urban combat to date.

Garcia approached game developers almost two decades ago with the idea of giving others a better perspective on what Marines and civilians experience during combat. Along with Garcia, Six Days in Fallujah was developed with help from more than 100 Marines and Soldiers who served in the Second Battle of Fallujah, as well as more than two dozen Iraqi civilians and soldiers.

Based on true stories from the battle, Six Days in Fallujah requires players to overcome real-world scenarios with their fire team by using real-life military tactics.

These missions are set in urban maps that are generated procedurally every time the game is played to recreate the uncertainty of combat along with unlimited replayability. The game is available on Steam today for $39.99.

“Everyone has an opinion about war but very few people have fought in one and truly understand the experience,” says Sgt. Garcia, who was wounded during the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004. “Six Days in Fallujah will provide a window into what it feels like, the enormous responsibility every young Marine experiences as they enter combat, and the visceral terror and human cost of combat.”

“When we got home, we felt the love, but people didn’t have the knowledge – about Fallujah, or about combat,” Sgt. Garcia continued. “Perhaps participating in these real events through this highly realistic videogame will give people a new perspective on something most of us will always struggle to understand.”

In Early Access, Six Days in Fallujah focuses initially on the experiences of U.S. Marine fire teams on the first day of the battle. As Early Access develops, players will also choose to play cooperatively as special operations, or as Iraqi soldiers fighting alongside coalition forces. Players will also begin to encounter civilians as the battle progresses. Victura also plans to release additional co-operative missions, as well as story campaign missions recreating real stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah from the perspective of both coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.

In the coming months, additional features and content will be introduced, including:

• Night-time Missions – Knowing what lies around the next corner is hard enough during daylight hours. Gameplay evolves with even more tension with the addition of night-time missions, as more are added throughout Early Access.
• Weather variation – While night-time missions will add to the procedural architecture, weather variation will challenge players and add to the complexity of missions.
• “Go” Command – Later this year, take control of your AI teammates with unique tactical control, drawing inspiration from real-life tactics.
• Single-Player Missions – Specific moments from the second battle of Fallujah from those who were there, including Special Operations Missions, Civilians and more.

Six Days introduces many new technologies that make combat more realistic:

• Procedural Architecture re-shapes the inside and outside of every building each time the game is played. Just like the real battle, players never know what to expect.
• Block-scale AI is a dramatic new approach to AI based on insurgent tactics from the battle. Unlike games in which AI is constrained to move in very small areas, AI enemies in Six Days can go anywhere on the battlefield, and they will stalk, flank, and ambush players while coordinating their attacks with each other and luring players into difficult situations.
• Global Dynamic Lighting simulates real weather and lighting effects dynamically, so visibility shapes gameplay, especially as players move between blindingly bright outdoors and terrifyingly dark indoors. Realistic smoke, dust, and weather effects complicate visibility in unpredictable ways.
• Tactical Indoor/Outdoor Sandbox. Players — and their AI enemies — are free to approach challenges from any direction in Six Days in Fallujah Rather than breaching a house through a front door, for example, players might choose to climb to a rooftop, or cross rooftops on wooden planks, to attack from the top down.

In Early Access, Six Days in Fallujah will focus initially on the experiences of US Marine fireteams on the first day of the battle As Early Access develops, players can also choose to play cooperatively as special operations or Iraqi soldiers fighting alongside coalition forces, and players will begin to encounter civilians as the battle progresses.

Victura also plans to release additional co-operative missions, as well as story campaign missions recreating real stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah from the perspective of both coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.

The Second Battle of Fallujah began in November 2004 after Al Qaeda in Iraq seized control of the city of Fallujah. Six months later, Iraq’s prime minister ordered a military operation in which Iraqi soldiers fought alongside American and British forces to re-take the city. Within a few days it had become one of the world’s bloodiest battles in half a century.

Six Days in Fallujah began development 18 years ago, just months after the battle ended. Conceived by a Marine who was wounded during the battle, more than 100 Marines and Soldiers, along with more than two dozen Iraqis, have helped with its development. The game was canceled in 2009 by the game’s original publisher, Konami. Development restarted in 2017 when publisher, Victura, partnered with developer Highwire Games, a studio founded by many of the original Halo and Destiny leadership.

The PC version of Six Days in Fallujah will launch into Early Access on the Steam store on June 22, 2023 at a price of US$39.99. The full release of the game is expected to be available for both console and PC in 2024. More information about Six Days in Fallujah is available at www.sixdays.com. Six Days in Fallujah is also on Twitter (@VicturaGG), and YouTube.