''Pakistan Army Retribution'' is a Pakistani

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video game based upon the

2014 Peshawar school massacre On 16 December 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, compri ...

. Developed as part of a peaceful campaign, it was designed as showing schoolchildren that "the best weapons are the pen and the book". After a negative review by English-language newspaper ''

DAWN Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

'', the developer intentionally removed the game from the

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Gameplay

''Pakistan Army Retribution'' is a

. It is during the

, which events the game depicts. After the game begins by playing the Pakistan national anthem, the player must defeat Taliban terrorists across nine levels. On-screen controls allow the player to move around, as well as shoot enemies. A radar shows where enemies are.

Development and release

''Pakistan Army Retribution'' is based upon the events of the

, the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan. Marking the one-year anniversary of the events, it was developed as part of the Peaceful Pakistan campaign, promoting peace and tolerance in Pakistan. Being one of "dozens of videos, jingles and social media items", ''Pakistan Army Retribution'' was commissioned by the Pakistan Army and the Punjab Information Technology Board and developed by an independent studio for Android.

Reception and subsequent pull from Google Play

In its review, Munir Rahool of ''DAWN'' was critical of the graphics and controls of the game. The subject matter especially was thought of as to be "poor taste". "Any recreation of the carnage that day seems insensitive" and questioned if the game was made to honour Pakistan Army soldiers. After the review, people on

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also outed their criticism on the subject of the game. After the criticism on social media, Umar Saif, chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, voluntarily pulled the game from the

. Saif said that "In hindsight it was not a good thing to do" and that the developer responsible misunderstood the intention of the peace campaign. He said the game "opened issue surrounding radicalization" and spoke off security issues. He thanked people for pointing out the mistake.

References

{{reflist 2015 video games Android (operating system) games Android (operating system)-only games Single-player video games Obscenity controversies in video games Censored video games Video games developed in Pakistan 2014 Peshawar school massacre