Uwe Boll dipping into game development

Uwe Boll, who has had an, ah, "interesting" track record in bringing videogame franchises to the silver screen, is now dipping a toe into game development.

According to areport on GameDaily.biz, the director is financing development of a first-person shooter based on his Vietnam War movie Tunnel Rats.

Development of the game will actually be handled by German studio Replay Studios, and is planned to release on PC and Xbox 360 alongside the film next year.

"The game mainly takes the setting, atmosphere and philosophy of the movie, and tells the parallel story of different characters in a similar situation," Marc Moehring, MD and co-founder of Replay Studios has explained.

"Like the film, it is very dark, violent and dirty, and depicts war as the madness that it is. In the end, it's all about survival in a situation where everything you know and believe in goes to hell, and a fight for an impersonal goal becomes a very personal experience, one that changes you forever - if it doesn't kill you."

The game features ten levels and 12-plus weapons, and while there's jungle-based action much of the gameplay unsurprisingly revolves around stalking through tunnels and sneaking up on Vietcong holed up in bunker complexes.

We also get the impression it won't be pulling punches on the violence side, GameDaily.biz explaining, for example, that players will be able to slice the ears off enemies and keep them as trophies and clear out underground areas with a flamethrower.

As events play out, the lead character, a young G.I. who escapes from a prisoner of war camp, will slowly be driven insane by the horrors of war.

July 26, 2007