Global Conflicts: Palestine is part of a growing number of “reality games”; games specifically designed to present real-life (or at least realistic) situations in a medium which some claim isn’t ideally suited to factual events.

As you might have inferred from the name, Global Conflicts: Palestine focuses on the conflict between Israel’s IDF (Israel Defence) Force and Palestinian freedom fighters/terrorists (depending on who you talk to in-game). Players take on the role of a freelance journalist new to the region who must prepare articles by interviewing locals and specialists with applicable qualifications. Armed with nothing heavier than a pen and a notepad, players must investigate points of conflict and talk to people on the receiving end of violence.

Anything mentioned by any character can be taken down in a notebook as a quote for whatever article you’re writing. Writing the articles themselves is essentially a minigame; each page is divided into sections, each section fits one quote. This mechanic forces you to be economical with your quotes and to arrange the story for maximum news value. Other additions to articles (headlines and photos) are arbitrary and best decided on depending on which in-game publication you’re working for.

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Characters throughout the game can be swayed into liking or disliking the protagonist depending not only on how they’re treated during interviews, but whether you appear to be aligned with or against their cause in articles. If you choose to press characters with awkward questions continuously they’ll become wary of you; awkward topics may often be broached during the course of a more natural conversation anyway. Maintaining the trust of individuals on both sides of the conflict is key to building up newsworthy articles.