Counter-Strike has gone to the next level – to Bin Laden’s Pakistan compound.
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The popular game, which pits a team of counter-terrorists against terrorists in a first person shoot out has imitated reality with its latest level, replicating Osama Bin Laden’s hideout compound in Abbottabad, invaded by US Navy Seals just last week.
The game allows users to replicate the killing of bin Laden and pull the virtual trigger leading to his demise.
The latest level to the game, made by Valve Corp is available on free download, created by a game developer known as ‘Fletch.’
And it looks to be just one of several gamers jumping on the Bin Laden bandwagon. Kuma War also released a free game, Episode 107:Osama 2011 at the weekend, which reads as follows:
“After months of surveillance and growing amounts of Intel, 79 Navy SEALs aboard two US Black Hawks and two more Chinooks cross into Pakistan under the cloak of darkness.
“The commandos quickly breech a secret compound, one designed for defence and manned by al Qaeda killers. In forty minutes and a rain of hot lead, a decades-long, worldwide manhunt for Osama Bin Laden will be ended… by you.”
The gamer took its latest creation very seriously and carefully recreated every detail of the Pakistani compund and expects demand for the game to be strong in light of the widespread hatred for the man accused of mastermininding the 9/11 New York terrorist attacks.
“Since we have to reproduce events in 3D we care deeply about esoteric details like distances, heights, vegetation, furniture and the like that have to be re-created in the game. Sounds — dogs barking, helicopters orbits, pyrotechnics — those are important too,” Kuma Games CEO Keith Halper told The Hollywood Reporter.
And interestingly, Kuma War has even gone so far as to create an image of a dead bin Laden with a shot wound to the head, something which the US forces have refused to make public.
“Bin Laden was a bad man, and people feel relieved that he is gone. To be able to recreate his death is just an added bonus,” Halper said.
Kuma has previously released games based on real events including the capture of Saddam Hussein and the failed rescue of American hostages in Iran in the 1980’s.
The release has already come under fire from some who feel the controversial assassination of al Qaeda leader bin Laden is not appropriate gaming content, given the sensitive nature of the operation.
However, the Counter-Strike developer hit back, saying: “I can see how people would think it is in bad taste, but honestly if that’s your opinion you may as well protest the whole game (as well as many others).”
