FAQ

No. The game's creators have consistently made it very clear that the game is not about killing non-Christians.

From the game manual:

"YOUR GOAL: Save as many people from the clutches of the antichrist as possible. Your purpose is absolutely NOT to wipe out enemy forces! Remember, those are PEOPLE he has deceived and can be recruited."

Additionally, here is what the game manual states about the soldier characters:

"Soldiers have made themselves available to defend your forces from bodily harm and death."

"They are performing their roles as physical defenders, but their #1 goal is still to save as many people from the antichrist as possible."

"With each life he ends, his Spirit level will immediately drop substantially."

"Killing a neutral should be avoided at all costs - and the spiritual penalty for doing so is especially harsh."

"Your duty and moral obligation is to use soldiers as little as humanly possible."

"In extremely rare situations, you might find your Soldiers in a life & death situation..."

"Your soldiers... will not fight aggressively without your express orders."

"Your soldiers - even in aggressive mode - will still ignore noncombatants."

Neutral reviewers have bolstered this fact:

IGN: "To keep the balance of power in your favor, you'll have to find non-violent ways to avoid getting killed. Your units will definitely fight back in a life or death situation but, for the most part, you want to either avoid your enemies or have a ready plan to convert to your side using musicians and disciples. This gets much harder as the game progresses."

ArsTechnica.com: "Many groups have made inaccurate statements about this game that need to be corrected. For one thing, it is not particularly violent. While there are violent aspects of the game, the game makes it clear that shooting is the last resort. Second, it is not hateful to other religions. It does have an agenda, and I think you need to know that going in, but there's no bashing of other faiths. the game is fun, it'll keep parents happy with its light levels of violence, and it'll be sold at video game stores, religious book stores, and everywhere else people spend money on God. This game will certainly get the message out."

GameSpy: "The other "controversial" aspect of the game is its explicit connection to evangelical Christian philosophy. Here too, the hysteria is seriously overblown. Within the game itself, the amount of proselytizing is kept to a minimum. Units bow their heads to pray in order to replenish their "spirit" resource and giving a unit orders may elicit a response like "For the Lord!" or "In His name!" Prayer scrolls with Biblical verses are also available as power-ups that can call down angels for bonuses, but anyone looking for explicit "Kill the unbelievers!"-style content to justify their fear of the game won't find it here. The biggest "message" portion of the game is actually the "Learn more" screens that become available after each mission. These display interesting text passages about the history of Christianity and CliffsNotes versions of aspects of evangelical theology while playing cuts from top-selling Christian musical acts (with a convenient "buy the album" link to the Internet)."

Even the Anti-Defamation League - no friend to evangelical Christianity - had this to say about the issue: "Conversion to Christianity in the game is not depicted as forcible in nature, and violence is not rewarded in the game."