After being in development for over 18 years, Six Days in Fallujah finally got released on Steam in Early Access. Was it worth the wait?
It’s no secret that most first-person shooters sacrifice realism for the sake of enjoyable gameplay and fast-paced action. Games like Call of Duty sell like hotcakes, not because of their recreation of the realities of war but thanks to rapid gunplay and approachability.
Six Days in Fallujah is not your typical FPS. Set during the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004, it revolves around the US military’s deadliest battle of the Iraq war.
Highwire Games created it in cooperation with over 100 soldiers and marines, as well as dozens of Iraqis, most of whom come from Fallujah itself. The developers didn’t only use these testimonies and interviews to set the stage for this team-based tactical shooter.
Takeaways from the conversations with marines, soldiers, and civilians who witnessed the battle first-hand were also translated into the gameplay, resulting in a fresh, unique take on the military sim genre.
Background and context
Six Days in Fallujah isn’t just a hyperrealistic shooter that used the infamous battle as a setting for the on-screen carnage. The game actively tries to commemorate fallen soldiers and educate players about what actually took place in Fallujah in November 2004.
While Six Days doesn’t glorify the Iraq war in any way, I can see how some people may have a problem with its portrayal in the game. From what I’ve played in Early Access so far, the title didn’t address the issues of countless civilian deaths or the legality of the war itself, which was dubious, to say the least.
This is not to say that the game won’t touch on them in the future. According to reports, the campaign will follow an Iraqi family trying to escape Fallujah amid the ongoing battle.
Whether or not the devs have a responsibility to tackle these subjects in their game is a whole other debate, and I don’t want to get into it in this review.
I do, however, want to give credit to Highwire for the informative mini-documentary at the start that does a great job of presenting raw facts and explaining the events leading up to the fateful battle.
Such sequences used to be commonplace in games of the past, but it is refreshing to see a short film with a high production value in a game in 2023.
Six Days in Fallujah gameplay
Gameplay-wise, Six Days in Fallujah is a hardcore tactical FPS that doesn’t pull any punches. The user interface is kept to a bare minimum. In fact, for the majority of your matches, you won’t see any of it on the screen.
As of right now, the only available game mode is Fireteam Missions. The Campaign and Operator Missions will follow throughout the Early Access period, but so far, there aren’t a lot of details on what they’ll look like.
Fireteam Missions mode
In Fireteam Missions, players are put into four-member squads with the goal of completing an objective that’s parallel to what troops were tasked with during the real-world Second Battle of Fallujah. So far, there are four missions to play:
- Secure an apartment with wounded marines inside
- Clear a specific area for air support
- Protect the convoy
- Clear a fortified Al-Qaeda compound
You and your squadmates can’t choose the mission you’ll load into. I hope the devs implement a voting system or another way to choose the main objective. During my sessions, I got dropped into the same mission I had just completed way too many times.
There are no maps to choose from in Six Days in Fallujah. This is not to say that every match takes place in the same area with an identical building layout.
The environments are procedurally generated, adding to the tension and excitement of every match. You can’t memorize your way to the objective or rely on a minimap to get your bearings.
Thanks to this approach, the dynamic of every mission changes radically. In some matches, a sniper targeted my team from a tall building near the spawn point. In others, insurgents made traversing across a whole swath of the map impossible with mortar fire.
Six Days in Fallujah is a game where you really can’t keep your mic muted. Without communicating with your squadmates, you’re doomed to fail the mission within its first moments. Every objective has a time limit, which forces you to coordinate your actions with the entire party to eliminate all major threats and complete the objective.
Combat and enemy AI
Comms are also a crucial aspect of engaging with the enemy. The enemy AI in most co-op PVE titles is quite dumb. Games like Destiny or Outriders rely on throwing ever-increasing hordes of opponents your way to make their gameplay challenging.
That is not the case with Six Days of Fallujah. Combat is devilishly hard here. Inspired by the urban combat tactics Al-Qaeda insurgents used in 2004, opponents will sit tight for the most part, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Every doorway is a death trap. Opening a door without cover from your squadmates will most likely result in certain death at the hands of an insurgent or two as soon as you enter the room.
They’ll also try to flank you and your team at all times. The ruined city streets and walls riddled with holes make for ideal ambush spots, and the fact that the insurgents are really good at blending in with the environment doesn’t help either.
A carefully thought-out approach will win skirmishes 90% of the time. Six Days in Fallujah is prohibitively difficult at first, but once you dissect the tactics of the insurgents and start to plan accordingly, it’s incredibly satisfying to see your strategies pay off.
Can you play Six Days in Fallujah solo?
As of right now, there are no dedicated single-player modes in Six Days of Fallujah. However, you can still play Fireteam Missions on your own, but you need to be prepared to die a lot.
The combat doesn’t get any easier once you enter a match on your own, and there are no AI teammates to help you out. Once you fall, no one will be there to revive you.
Six Days in Fallujah is difficult enough as it is. Playing solo introduces a whole new layer of difficulty. It’s impossible to establish fire superiority when you’re facing multiple insurgents by yourself, but you can’t keep yourself undetected for the entire mission.
You can succeed with masterful stealth, reflexes, and clever thinking, but when you play this way, it becomes clear that it’s not the intended way to play this game. After roughly one dozen solo attempts, I managed to complete the objective only once.
Graphics, sound, and performance
Highwire squeezed every last bit of power out of Unreal Engine 4 to make sure that the visuals in Six Days of Fallujah are as realistic as its gameplay. The faithful recreation of battle-ridden Fallujah looks stunning.
The framerate took a few dips at ultra settings, but playing on medium and high for over 15 hours, I didn’t experience any major issues or game-breaking bugs.
It took a while to fill up the party when matching with random players at first. Recently, the game experienced an uptick in popularity on Steam, so it’s less of a problem than just a week ago.
For a war shooter, Six Days in Fallujah is awfully quiet. You’ll hear explosions in the distance from time to time, but most of the time, it’s just you and your teammates’ footsteps.
Gunshot sounds are snappy and satisfying, and the anxiety-inducing shouts of insurgents reverberate across the empty hallways and city streets. All in all, the sound design is on-point, as it should be in a title where even the tiniest noise can give away the insurgents’ position.
Six Days in Fallujah pros and cons
Pros
- Great tactical gameplay
- Smart enemy AI that follows real-world tactics
- Well-implemented procedurally generated environments
- Realistic depiction of urban warfare
Cons
- Steep price tag for an Early Access title with only one game mode
- No AI companions for solo players
The Verdict
Six Days in Fallujah is an excellent war shooter. Highwire Games achieved its goal of creating a realistic portrayal of the Second Battle of Fallujah. Hopefully, new modes will come sooner than later. Despite being a great, challenging co-op PVE experience, the Fireteam Missions may not be enough to justify the $39.99 Early Access price tag for many gamers.
Score: 8.5/10
Six Days in Fallujah was released on Steam in Early Access on June 22, 2023.
