Controversial New Steam Game Jumps to Top of Best-Selling Charts

A controversial game was released last week on Steam, via Steam Early Access, and it's currently the second best-selling game on the Valve platform, behind only breakout hit BattleBit Remastered. And according to Steam users, the new Steam game is pretty good, or at least that's what its "Very Positive" Steam User Reviews suggest. At the moment of writing this, 83 percent of 2,915 user reviews recommend adding the PC game to your Steam library. 

The mystery game in question is first-person tactical shooter Six Days in Fallujah from developer Highwire Games and publisher Victura. If the name sounds familiar, it's because it's been quite controversial. The controversy dates back all the way to 2009 when Konami was aiming to release the game in 2010. However, the game stirred up so much controversy Konami cancelled the project. In 2021, it was announced the game was being revived by the aforementioned parties and then on June 22 it was brought to Steam Early Access. 

As for why the game is controversial, it's complicated, but the distilled version of the controversy is that it is based on the Second Battle of Fallujah that took place in 2004 during the Iraq War. The battle has an infamous reputation as arguably the heaviest and most brutal urban combat combat the U.S. military has been involved since since  he Battle of Huế City in Vietnam in 1968. It was also the bloodiest battle of the entire war for American troops. In the past, groups such as the Stop the War Coalition have gone after the game, calling it "sick," while there's been general protest for the game to be cancelled and/or denied a license to sell on the major platforms. 

"Six Days in Fallujah is a highly realistic first-person tactical shooter developed with help from more than 100 Marines and Soldiers who served in the Second Battle of Fallujah," reads an official blurb about the game on Steam. "Based on true stories from one of the world's toughest modern battles, Six Days drops you and your team into real-world scenarios that require real-life tactics to overcome. Just like real combat, it is difficult to survive on your own in Six Days. Otherwise, it would not be realistic. Play with friends or matchmake to find teammates."

"One of the most intense tactical shooters I've played," reads the highest-rated user review for the game on Steam. "Phenomenal audio design, decent enemy AI, and a really cool map procedural generation engine push this game past its peers. It may be content sparse, but what is here is some of the best in its class, and if you can run the same missions on another tactical shooter over and over again, you can probably enjoy yourself doing the same thing here. If you're not 100% sold on the genre, hold off for more content or a price drop, but if you are, you'll get 40 dollars out of it easily."

As noted in the review, to get your hands early on the game you will need to fork over $39.99. Right now, there's no word of a full release and there's no word of when the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X versions are scheduled to debut.  As for Steam Deck, the Steam listing for the game makes no mention of the handheld machine. In other words, it does not appear the game supports the Steam Deck.