Post date: Nov 29, 2013 12:19:3 AM
Cuba's revolutionary war gets the video game treatment with young gamers in Havana recreating the decisive clashes that saw Castro and Guevara topple dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s revolution.
HAVANA, CUBA (EVIMA) - A new video game that immortalises Cuba's revolution and a guerilla revolt led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara has become a hit in Havana's computer game parlours, with the mission of gamers to topple the 1950's dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Titled "Gesta Final", roughly translated to "Final Feat", the game lets you become one of the original 82 rebels who sailed from Mexico to Cuba aboard the Granma to lead a popular rebellion.Divided into five levels named after historic battles, gamers fight their way through lush forests and mangrove swamps to take out Batista's soldiers using vintage rifles in a 3D first-person shooter set up.
"Gesta Final" developer Jorge Luis Rosell told Reuters the game hopes to connect with the country's revolutionary consciousness.
"We want to connect with historical consciousness with something more practical that can be played today. (Video) games play an important role in youth today and now we can take advantage of this so that they can have fun and learn about our history," he said.
Gamers have three profiles to choose from, one wearing a Guevara-style beret, another a soldier wearing a helmet similar to Camilo Cienfuegos and the last profile of a soldier in a olive-coloured hat similar to Castro's.
Game developer Rosell said the ambiguity of the profiles is intentional so gamers can feel a part of the action.
"The characters are rebels, as I tell everyone. It could be Fidel (Castro), it could be Che (Guevara), it could be Camilo (Ciengfuegos), it could be another person whose name is not known. Everyone is represented in these three profiles which one can choose and start to play the game," he said.
The 3D game is a hit with gamers at Cuba's state-run Youth Computing Club with plans for it to be the island's first commercially-produced game to sell on the market.
"I like the meaning this war has. It's very beautiful, it's like a story, almost like what happened here in Cuba," said student, Alejandro Tamayo.
Others say they are learning about Cuba's revolutionary origins from the game.
"It's a very beautiful game and it teaches a lot about about what happened at that time (Cuban revolution). (Reporter: What did you learn?) That Cubans always, how do you say, always had each other's backs," said young gamer, Dario Torres.
The game is not the first time Fidel Castro has been immortalised in a video game. In 2010, "Call of Duty: Black Ops" stirred controversy in Cuba due to its plot to assassinate then President Castro.
"Gesta Final" is also expected to be divisive with the Cuban community in the United States who fled Castro's Communist revolution.