Peacemaker is an interesting and pleasant anomaly in the world of gaming these days. I call it an anomaly now, but look forward to the day when gaming of this nature is more standard: gaming with a purpose, gaming with a message. Peacemaker is more aptly called a simulation than it is a game, as it deals with real-life events in the political morass that is the Israel-Palestine conflict. However, while one might expect a conflict such as this would result in an FPS with covert actions against the terrorists that chip away at whatever fragile peace might exist in the region from time to time, Impact Games has made a careful, turn-based strategy/simulation title that places the gamer at the helm of either Israel or Palestine and charges them with the task of forging a lasting peace between the nations.

The Israel/Palestine region has been almost continually mired in a conflict over the territories there for decades, with each cultural group asserting its separate claim, and the rest of world attempting to broker a peace. The nations are in a careful balance between leaders and citizens who wish for peace, and those who hold fast to their ideals and see compromise as a failure. This is the great difficulty of the conflict, as well. Each side has a claim to the lands involved, and each has suffered attack from the other. The Israel-Palestine conflict is probably the very definition of situation that needs to be viewed in shades of grey, rather than black and white.

Okay, enter the game. The gamer chooses to play as either the Israeli Prime Minister of the Palestinian President in an effort to reach peace. The actions and concerns for each leader differs, but each has the same basic courses of action to explore: Policing Actions, Diplomatic Actions and Infrastructure Actions. Among these types of actions are choices to consult with your or opposing governments, increase and decrease security and military actions in your nation, and fund projects meant to enrich the life of your people. Before picking any action, the gamer can refer to the words of two advisors who present each side of the potential results from each action, essentially one speaking for peace and the other for the spirit of nationalism.

Once an action has been chosen, a week of time will pass in the game (the length of a standard turn) and a message will be displayed showing the result of the action. Based on the result of each action, coupled with the general state of the moods of each nation and its peoples, Events will take place, easily viewable on the map of the region that forms the game�"s backdrop. Good and neutral events appear as white dots on the map, with bad events standing out in bright red. Events can be anything from a protest of your policies, to a militant group declaring it will lessen its activities, to a suicide bomber shattering the peace.

The people will react very clearly to your policies as a leader. Commence with concessions to the opposing nation without securing some peace or incentive for your people and there will be outrage. The key to the game is creating a delicate balance between advances for your nation, concessions to your opposing nation and reasonable demands made in the diplomatic arena at the right time. Progress is displayed via a number of factors conveniently displayed at the screen�"s bottom. Gamers can view how the political parties, leaders and general public of each nation view them. They can also see how nations in the region and on the world stage view them. For more esoteric metrics, gamers can also see how people feel they are as a leader, how close they are to achieving peace and more. For a very clear indicator of progress, the gamer can look to two scores, which vary depending on which nation you play. As Palestine, your success is measured on a scale (-50 to 100) showing the satisfaction of your people side by side with the satisfaction of the world with your efforts. Have either dip to -50, and your game is over. Have both reach 100, and you have succeeded in achieving peace.

The game is thought-provoking, and it�"s instantly obvious what the problems are in the region and why it�"s so difficult to broker peace. Build some homes for you people… why are you forsaking the security of your nation? Increase police funding… aren�"t you just playing into the hands of the opposition, creating a state of fear? Ask your opponent to consider lessening their aggressions… you are weak to use words against your opponent while they use bullets against your people. It�"s a precarious situation and the game communicates that well to the gamer.

As each nation, you can play on three “difficulty levels” with the people of your nation being Calm, Tense or Violent. This increases the likelihood that a misstep from their leader will lead the people to take matters into their own hands. However, one of the hardest parts of the game comes from the one major flaw I could find in the otherwise seamless interface, for all the game�"s focus on history (since that what defines the present day conflict), there�"s no way to track the history of your own actions short of actually writing it all down on a post-it. It makes it hard to keep track of what you�"ve attempted recently and in what order to strategize your approach to peace.

Ultimately, it�"s not too difficult to find the formula for peace that Peacemaker expects you to arrive at, but it doesn�"t make it any trickier to achieve. Once you�"ve solved the game for each leader on any difficulty level, though, it�"s not terribly difficult to repeat the feat on the other levels, leaving the game with limited replayability. However, the game is immensely valuable as a tool to educate. It gives a great feeling for the difficulty of the scenario by presenting both sides of the issue and, of course, it leaves your only choice to pursue peace, which is how it should be dagnabbit.

Graphics:
The interface is static, except for the occasional news footage of an event from the region. All the icons and the map of the region itself are very polished. The icons are well rendered in 3-D and everything is crisp and clean and easy to use.

Sound:
The music is sweeping and dramatic, as befits a title portraying a conflict of global interest and high human drama. The rest of the sound effects give the game a suitably news-ish feel, not unlike tuning in to CNN and hearing all the sounds that accompany their graphics these days.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is very simple in Peacemaker. Once the proper sequence to approach a problem has been arrived at, it can basically be repeated at any difficulty level. The lack of a history of your actions just serves to obscure progress in the game. However, the two leaders present very different play experiences and everything works perfectly in the game.

Concept:
This is an excellent, educational idea executed well. Like Democracy and other politically inclined titles on the market, Peacemaker is a game that deserves to be played and is part of a genre that gamers should be embracing. This is a game that is reaching for global social change and should be applauded for the effort.

The game doesn�"t deal too much in the history or roots of the conflict, but in fairness that might not be possible in the span of a game. This is a conflict that has brewed over centuries and is intensely complicated.

Value:
$19.95 is pretty much exactly the price I would expect for Peacemaker. The title includes two scenarios with three difficulty levels apiece. It�"s well put together and worth playing… but is undeniably part of a niche market.

Overall:
I keep saying it, I�"ll say it again. You should play this game. It�"s worth your time to get educated. The game isn�"t merely educating, it�"s advocating a peaceful resolution to a now decades-old conflict.