The Left Behind novels are a series of Christian science fiction books about the coming end-times, when all the saved Christians are whisked away to heaven, leaving the sinners to battle it out on Earth (Charlie Stross and I wrote a short novel in two parts called “Rapture of the Nerds” that’s a piss-take on this, where all the geeks have ascended to the Singularity hive-mind, leaving Luddites and fundamentalists stuck on Earth). Now there’s an upcoming Left Behind video-game:
Scheduled for release between Christmas 2005 and Easter 2006, Left Behind: Eternal Forces will put players in command of the apocalyptic battles raging in the streets of New York City between the angelic Tribulation Forces and the demonic Global Community Peacekeepers during the End of Days. Gamers will participate in events from the Left Behind book series in single player mode and battle to capture territory from other players in the multi-player online game mode.
The Left Behind game series will allow play in the same End of Days fictional world as the bestselling Left Behind(R) novels, which use the prophecies of the Book of Revelation as a framework. The first title, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is set in the future when the faithful have been gathered up and ascended to Heaven during the Rapture. In the chaos that follows, the Antichrist has taken the reigns of power at the United Nations and is gathering the countries of the world under his banner. But a small resistance, the Tribulation Forces, have formed to oppose Satan’s legions.
(Thanks, Zahn!)