US Navy Game Sets Sail

"America's Navy" announced

Taking their cues from the America's Army first-person shooter, a free to download game which the US Army has been using as a recruiting tool for several years now, the Navy looks set to get in on the act stateside. Navy Training Exercise: Strike and Retrieve is a brand new PC game, which can be downloaded from the official US Navy site and played for free. The self-confessed aim of the new title is to interest youngsters in joining the force, though the use of interactive software has been called cynical and divisive by some critics.

The Navy Recruiting Command hopes the title will "help build interest and awareness of Navy high-tech jobs," and the title is designed to give you a taster of life on the high-seas, as you race to the scene of a crashed plane to retrieve secret documents, battling underwater terrain and sea life in a race to the plane with enemy craft. "While Navy Recruiting continues to reach out to this audience via more conventional recruiting methods, gaming and interactive electronic media have increasingly become an aspect of this audience's daily lives," said Capt. David Faasse. "Accordingly, the Navy is working to reach them via these new avenues."

The Captain added that the Navy is considering "Plans for future missions and versions that will grow with technology, the Internet and player demands," and it certainly sounds like America's Army has some competition brewing in the area of interactive recruitment. More soon.

By Luke Guttridge