Arts, heritage and media
Somalia in video games: from Delta Force to Medal of Honor
Somalia appears in more than a dozen video games, almost all military shooters set during the 1992–95 UN operations or piracy off the coast. The best known is Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (2003), set in Mogadishu and the Jubba Valley. Others include Army of Two (2008), Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2012), Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (2007) and Beyond: Two Souls (2013).
Why Somalia appears in games
Most games that use Somalia as a setting are military shooters. They draw on two subjects that reached world news: the US and UN operations in Mogadishu in 1992–1995, the subject of the book and film Black Hawk Down, and piracy off the Somali coast. The descriptions below come from each game's Wikipedia article, which summarises the game's own story; the wording of the plots, including terms such as "warlord", is the games' and Wikipedia's, not Calankii's.
The 1990s operations
- Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (NovaLogic, 2003 on Windows, 2004 on Mac, 2005 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox) is set during the Unified Task Force operation of the early 1990s. Its missions take place mainly in the southern Jubba Valley and in Mogadishu (Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, Wikipedia).
- Army of Two (Electronic Arts, 2008) opens in 1993, when two US Army Rangers and a private military contractor are sent to kill a fictional Somali "warlord", Abdullahi Mo'Alim (Army of Two, Wikipedia).
- Joint Task Force (2006), a real-time tactics game for Windows, begins in Somalia, where in the story a fictional armed leader, Akil Farrah, has overthrown the government and declared himself president. Its other scenarios are set in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Colombia and Iraq (Joint Task Force, Wikipedia).
- F-16 Multirole Fighter (NovaLogic, 1998), a flight simulator, includes campaigns in Somalia as well as Serbia, Burma, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (F-16 Multirole Fighter, Wikipedia).
Piracy
- Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow (Bend Studio and Sony, 2007, PlayStation Portable; PlayStation 2 in 2010): the hero flies to the Indian Ocean, where a fictional band of Somali pirates has seized a ship (Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, Wikipedia).
- Medal of Honor: Warfighter (Danger Close and EA, 2012): the campaign follows US special forces through Bosnia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Somalia, including a Marine-led raid on Somali pirates and a hostage rescue (Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Wikipedia).
Other games
- Beyond: Two Souls (Quantic Dream and Sony, 2013): on a mission in Somalia, the main character is sent to kill a man described as a warlord, and learns afterwards that he was the country's president (Beyond: Two Souls, Wikipedia).
- Wikidata also links Somalia to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Nintendo DS, 2007), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), Insurgency (2014), the Project Reality modification for Battlefield 2 (2005), Mega Man X5 (2000) and TFX (1993), through settings, maps or locations (Wikidata, Somalia as narrative location).
Read more
Sources
- Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Army of Two, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Joint Task Force, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- F-16 Multirole Fighter, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Beyond: Two Souls, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Wikidata, Somalia as narrative location · wikidata.org
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Where this matters
- Muqdisho (Mogadishu) and BanaadirMogadishu (Muqdisho) is Somalia's capital and makes up the Banadir region, with about 2.97 million people in 20 districts.
- Bu'aale (Buale) and Middle JubaMiddle Juba is a farming region on the Juba river in the south, with about 447,000 people.
- Kismaayo (Kismayo) and Lower JubaLower Juba is the far southern region on the border with Kenya, with the port city of Kismayo (Kismaayo) as its capital and about 1.2 million people.
Same era
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