Reception and Controversy
Left Behind: Eternal Forces currently has an average critic rating of 45% at Game Rankings based on 19 reviews and 38 out of 100 at Metacritic based on 20 reviews indicated as "generally negative".
Though some reviewers praised the game for originality, many panned it claiming it had a ridiculous plot, mediocre gameplay, poor graphics and sound, and technical problems with the user interface, pathfinding, and A.I. In addition, many reviews criticized the game for allegedly promoting sexism, bigotry, and religious warfare, and the option to play on the side of the Antichrist in a Christian video game.
Reviewers of the game made note that several unit classes were restricted exclusively to male units and some claimed that it included racial stereotypes of Arabs and black people. Gamespot described this as part of a "1950s-style attitude" towards gender in the game, while PC Gamer described it as "the very definition of bigotry, or more specifically: misogyny."
Some reviews were more positive. IGN, Ars Technica and GameSpy disagreed that the game promoted "convert or kill"-style violence. While Wired criticized the game's exclusionary religious theme, it reviewed its gameplay more positively, saying "the great surprise of Left Behind: Eternal Forces is that it actually kind of rocks. It's a classic real-time strategy game".
Inspired Media Entertainment addressed many of the game's technical issues in subsequent patches. Upon release, version 1.03 also added 2 more classes for 7 additional female units. GameShark reviewed an updated version of the game and gave it a C+.
Read more about this topic: Left Behind: Eternal Forces
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