Indie Video Game Revisits 9-11
Blood of Bin Laden
by Ricardo Dominguez

(This review is excerpted from a posting by Ricardo Dominguez to the Thingist mail list. The Blood of Bin Laden website was offline as of this publication - P.L.)

As the two-year anniversary of 9-11 arrived, evidence that Osama Bin Laden was still alive and plotting further attacks continued to surface. Even despite the ousting of the Taliban from Afghanistan, the al-Qaeda leader continues to evade coalition forces time and time again. As the saying goes, if you want something done right you've gotta do it yourself... and now you can.

Blood of Bin Laden, a video game available for free over the internet (http://www.bloodofbinladen.com), is more than just a means of harmlessly exercising America's post 9-11 bloodlust; it's a detailed recreation of Operation Enduring Freedom. From rescuing American missionary Heather Mercer to storming the caves of Tora Bora, the player wages all out war against al- Qaeda and the Taliban regime it empowers. In the wake of 9-11, the independent video game design community has emerged with innumerable offerings ranging from interactive picture galleries that challenge users to pick Osama out of a crowded photo (a la "Where's Waldo?") to more sophisticated Flash games in which players can torture a cartoon rendering of the terrorist kingpin.

However, Blood of Bin Laden gets a bit more specific than anything seen before. Based on actual events, the game's story first takes the player on a covert mission to disarm terrorist arsenals of chemical and biological weapons at Darunta, a terror training camp located on the outskirts of Kandahar. Though the operation is primarily in response to the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen, while completing his objectives, the player uncovers an even more dastardly plot... one in which airliners are hijacked and used as missiles against U.S. landmarks and government facilities. On September 11, 2001, the plot is realized and results in the deaths of over 3,000 American civilians.

The player is soon after promoted and quickly sent into action. Leading a platoon of leathernecks, the player must take the Afghan capital city of Kabul and in doing so, rescue imprisoned American missionary Heather Mercer. Though the battle for Kabul is won, the war on terror has just begun. In Blood of Bin Laden's final level, the player must fight his way across the snowy mountains of eastern Afghanistan and through the dark tunnels of Tora Bora where he will find Bin Laden's underground bunker and, god willing, eliminate the terrorist leader once and for all.

Designed by J. Kristopher Huddy, Blood of Bin Laden is a three-level, first-person shooter now available for free download at bloodofbinladen. com. Huddy first made headlines in such publications as Entertainment Weekly, Details Magazine and Wired News when he released Los Disneys, http://www.losdisneys.com, a game that takes place in the near future and pits players against the tyranny of The Disney Corporation as it launches a secret war in the name of global conquest and world domination.

Though currently Blood of Bin Laden is available exclusively for the Macintosh platform, the web site includes several features PC users can enjoy, such as a large screenshot gallery, a behind the scenes tour and a web directory of other, more PC-friendly "links to terror."