PeaceMaker
Ages: Everyone

I follow the events between Palestine and Israel hoping for peace. Often I have said. "Why don't they just…" Here comes an opportunity to play out your plans – and I discovered that peace making is complex and difficult.

This is a video game simulation about the core struggles and multiple perspectives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The game accurately depicts the Mid-East peace process, and how real and alive it is speaks to the work of its creators - a mixed American, Israeli, and Palestinian team. PeaceMaker incorporates actual news footage and events, giving you the feeling of having just read the events in yesterday's paper. Events move so fast that updates will be necessary. You can play either as the Israeli Prime Minister or as the Palestinian President and can set the difficulty level as calm, tense, or violent.

Which ever position you choose, you will have to deal with the economy, leadership, bloodshed, security, and your support base. As you react to in-game events, from diplomatic negotiations to military attacks, your popularity meters indicate your support and strength from both sides. You can try your skill at diplomacy and leadership or take a more militant line.

Sitting and looking at a birds-eye view of Gaza, I realized that I have never seen that view before. This one shows mountains, cities, buildings, settlements. It brought new understanding of how small the area was. Perhaps I can succeed where others have failed. I'm keeping at it, glad for the opportunity to get closer to the problems. If you want to do more that shoot monsters, and figure out mazes, have a go at PeaceMaker. It can be downloaded from www.manifestogames.com/PeaceMaker. For more information about the game and its developers go to www.PeaceMakergame.com.

Fun Factor: A serious, challenging game -- not exactly fun.

Reviewed by: Editor - 08/07