So I have been replaying an old old computer game from my childhood called Captain Bible and the Dome of Darkness. (Whats funny is that you usually only subtitle your title if you are planning on sequels....no such luck, Captain Bible.)
First of all, yes. It is a Chrisitan game. This to many gamers is an instant failing on the games part, but really, it dosnt have any bearing on the game itself. It is exactly what it is...I find it rather funny that people get so up in arms. "How DARE those Christians make a CHRISTIAN game!"....I wouldnt be offended at the existance of a Muslim video game. In any case, it is a limited market, but it does have its market, and for what it is, its pretty good as a game.
It was released in 1994, so think really old pixel graphics style adventure. The story is as follows:
Story
And yadda yadda. (Aww, look, the "save" button is a floppy disk. How quaint.)Basically, a vaugely futuristic city has been covered by a Dome of Darkness and its people imprissoned by demonic robots called Cybers. It is Captain Bible's job to free the prisoners and destroy the Tower of Deception which is creating the Dome.
From here, the gameplay revolves around finding Bible verses and using them to counteract "Cyber Lies". A Cyber you confront will say something like, for example, "God could never love you.", which you would reply with the correct Bible verse from your database. Every level you have to collect the Bible verses, and if you dont have the right one you have to go find it. After that, theres a short battle, and then you continue onwards. Instead of a Boss Battle each level has a Victem, that is a person decieved by some or other Cyber Lie that you have to save. Yes, thats a bit offensive to non christians, but Ill get into that later.
Verses
So of course the main part of gameplay is in Bible verses and memorization. In fact I am sure that most of the verses that have stuck in my mind over the years I have remembered from this game. Playing through it I realised just how influential this game was in my early faith. Its actually quite foundational, in that it does not just throw verses at you, but teaches you what they mean and allows you to use them in a practical manor. In fact a quick run through this game will pretty much teach you all the basics of what Christians belive and why.
And on the subject of teaching, this game never felt like an educational game when I was a kid. I was a terrible student in school, and as such my parents bought me all kinds of educational computer games to try to make learning fun. I cant remember exactly how many math related computer games we had in my house. But as anyone who played games as a kid knows, you always can tell when a game is trying to teach you something. They feel different then a game that is just for the fun of it. This one never actually felt like it was an educational game though. I remember sinking hours into it and not realising that I was learning in the process. It is a rare educational game that can do that.
Battles
The battles are pretty easy. With a few exceptions, most enemies will go down with a single hit, so dont worry about ever dying. Oh you have a health bar (its not health in this, its Faith, and you heal your Faith by praying in Prayer Chapples) but it almost never goes down low enough to matter much. Once you find the verse for the Sword of the Spirit your attacks are unstopable and once you find the verse for the Shield of Faith getting hit barely does anything.
Of course, I played the game on Normal mode, so Difficult might be a bit more challenging.
In every battle, you have three possible actions: Retreat, Attack, or Defend. Complicated battle stratgies, these are not. Your enemies have a certain position they move into when they become vulnerable to attack, you basic winning stratagie is to Defend untill you get the chance to Attack. So the game dosnt win any prizes for its battle sequences, but that isnt really the focus of the game anyways, and when I was a kid, it was exciting enough.
Graphics
The graphics, for a pixel game of the 1990s are actually really nicely rendered. In fact Iv seen much worse pixel art in the pixel art community passed off as great masterpieces. And I have got to admit, I grew up on pixel games. Theres just something about the way they look that is really nice to me. I still perfer pixel graphics over 3D graphics, and since I usually only play handheld games with sprites anyways, thats okay. So I love the graphics of Captain Bible. They arent bad graphics, not for its time and not when compaired to other pixel games. In the end though if you hate pixel rendering youll think the graphics are laughable, but all things considered, its quite good.
(And when compaired to another 1990s game I used to play as a kid, Cosmo, these graphics are superb)
Victems
I think the only really controversial or potentially offensive aspect of the game is the fact that the "Boss Battles" are literally conversations with people who have been Decieved by the Cybers into lifestyles and philosophies that are counter to Christian teaching, in an effort to convert them. Each "Victem" is following some way of life, and using Bible verses, you convince them that they are in error. The 6, in no particular order because with the exception of the first level, you can do them in any order you like,
Other Religion and/or Cult
Fear
Love of Money
Legality
Crystals and New Age
Drug Addict
Now lets be real here. Throwing Bible verses at someone who already does not belive in the Bible, isnt going to convince anyone to convert. That is just silly to think. So if the purpose of these sequences isnt really to learn how to convert people, because honestly, it dosnt work like this, what is it for?
What it DOES do, is teach you what a Christian belives and why. The player themselves are the ones who are looking through these verses. When the man whos strictly into rules rules rules tells you that we are responsible for saving ourselves and working off our own debt, the player has to find the verse that explains why we belive that that is not so. I see these sequences as for a Christians benifit, not for a non Chrisitians benifit.
And actually, it is sort of brilliant if you consider that these are 6 very widespread ways of thinking that as a child can now be exposed to and think about, and by taught not just that they are counter to what we belive, but also the very important why. That way when a kid does encount someone who is obsessed with Money and worldy riches, they dont get caught like a deer in the headlights going "uuuuhhh....yeah, well I never thought of that before..." instead this game equips them to know about the existance of these ways of thinking and why we dont belive they are correct.
Now, I know that many non christians will still find that offensive...how dare these christians actually teach their children that the Bible is right..... whatever. I think that it is every parents right to raise their child as they see fit, and if you are going to raise your kid teaching them the Bible, I say its a positive thing to actually, you know, teach it to them. Dont just say "Hey, dont do drugs JUST BECAUSE", instead it is much more benificall to say "Drugs are bad and here are the reasons why we think so".
All in all, playing this game now, Im struck by how incredibly foundational this game is. It actually deals with a whole lot of hard and deeper issues and deals with them in a way that is engaging and thought provoking.
And for a kid, gameplay is pretty fun too. Not particularily challenging as a game for an adult, but thinking through the verses it presents can be a good excersise at any age.
Its pretty darn old, though. I found a copy for download online, but it is not compatible with any current OS. In order to play it I had to also download a DOS simulator. But, it was definitly worth it :D
