Lincoln-Douglas Death DB8 for Sony Playstation 2
Developed by X-History

Historical videogames have not traditionally provided the best bang for your buck, as the subject matter can get pretty dry, and really, how much can you spice up historical events for gamers weaned on Final Fantasy?

X-History is probably the most consistent company when it comes to historical games that escape the typical boredom factor of stuff like Oregon Trail. A few X-H games have actually been pretty damn fun, such as Massacree, which was a chaotic shootfest (or should I say scalp-fest), and Suffragette City, which turned Elizabeth Cady Stanton into a Lara Croft-style ass-kicker.

X-H's latest offering attempts to bring the Lincoln-Douglas debates to Playstation, and for the most part succeeds. Death DB8 operates as a one or two-player game in which you can choose to be Lincoln or Douglas, playing against an opponent or the computer in a political debate to end all political debates. Your character loses "life points" based on the deadly accuracy of your opponent's arguments, which must be typed in at a furious pace on a special telegraph-style console (sold separately) that is meant to update the Pony Express machines of old.

The Sony Telegraffer™ takes some time to get used to, as you have to actually learn shorthand skills and get up to speed on arcane symbols and codes that have been out of common use for at least a hundred years. But once you have it down, it becomes as seamless as a conventional controller, really no more complicated than the IntelliVision® keypad/disc module. I recommend referring to the Abolitionist Cheats list, which comes with the game and is cheekily printed on faux-parchment.

The plot of the game is simple enough: debate with Lincoln or Douglas on a seemingly boundless array of topics: slavery, manifest destiny, democratic freedom, voting rights, the Constitution, statehood and secession, etc. (A few hidden cheats will allow you to debate current issues such as abortion, racial profiling, the rape shield law, and, in one funny sequence, Playstation vs. XBOX!) You score points based on the philosophical and logical soundness of your argument, and you're given three "dodges" per debate that you can use to evade a prickly question or statement – in these cases, Lincoln and Douglas are transported to a space-age fighting ring where they slug it out with a variety of lasers, flaming swords, maces, and lightning beams – no locution needed here, electrocution instead!

Lincoln and Douglas each have strengths and weaknesses: Lincoln is more astute on legal matters and issues of pure human logic, while Douglas is craftier and more capable of setting logical traps. You can enhance your character's attributes during the game based on items that you find while walking through the forest to the next debate, including a Da Vinci notebook, which gives you a greater mastery of art and science; Aaron Burr's gun, which can prove to resolve linguistic debates right away with a single shot; and a golden chalice, which, as far as I can tell, brings you only wealth, which does not factor into the debate but can help you win admirers during rounds where the victor is determined by audience response.

Gameplay can be frustratingly slow, especially when Lincoln and Douglas get into the minutae of Aristotelean thought or military lessons learned from Peloponnesia. Usually, when the game bogs down in one of these areas, I use the "Battle Flute" (which you can add to your parcel with hidden code X-Left-Shift-Arrow Up) to call upon a local Iroquoi tribe to descend upon the debate platform and brutally slay my opponent and the audience. Mostly, though, it remains engaging and challenging, especially given the boastful remarks Lincoln and/or Douglas make to each other after a statement is entered with the Telegraffer™, such as "Feeling small, short dick man?" or "Feeling broodingly melancholic, Beardie Beardington?"

The permutations in the game offer high built-in replay value, although admittedly this will not be for every audience. X-H is trying to expand the Death DB8 experience by offering online play as well as an expandable deck of cards (available at comic shops and Civil War reenactments) that offer additional characters, debating techniques, and weapons. These actually make the game even deeper – almost addictive – except that it's hard to find other people who want to play. Once they do, though, they're hooked!

Despite the flaws, I still have to hand it to X-H for developing a cool game out of pretty uncool source material. Early reports indicate that the next release (Underground Railroad Time Travelers Vs. Ninja Freemasons) will be even better.

Review by Bruno Maglite