‘Heroes of 71: Retaliation’ stars female protagonist alongside Shamsu Bahini

After the huge success of its first version, video game ‘Heroes of 71’ is coming up with its second version, featuring a female protagonist on a bigger landscape.

The Android game will hit the Google Play Store for download at 12:01am on Saturday, the first moment of Independence Day.
 
The first version featured the freedom fighters’ armed resistance to the Pakistani army. The new one will add retaliatory moves, giving the game its name ‘Heroes of 71: Retaliation’.
 
Portbliss, run by young Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, developed the game with support from the Bangladesh Computer Council and government’s ICT Division.
 
Abid Jahangir Rajin, one of the five programmers, told bdnews24 that the second game takes off from the story of the first one.
 
“Guerrilla force ‘Shamsu Bahini’ occupies a Pakistani camp at Shanir Char and builds up resistance to the enemies. Though they win the battle, their co-fighter Sajal dies as a martyr. The Shamsu Bahini vows revenge.”
 
The story of the second game begins from this point, he said.
 
“On learning that some women have been abducted and kept confined in a nearby Pak army camp, the freedom fighters start for the camp. Their challenge is to rescue the female captives without any casualty.”
 

During the attack on the camp, gamers will meet Anila, caught by the Pakistani army while trying to form a women’s guerrilla group.
 
The Level-2 of the second episode begins with Anila. The mission in this is to blow up a bridge used by the Pakistani army to transport supplies, says Rajin.
 
But the Pakistanis sense their presence. The freedom fighters have to win battles against the occupation army and their local collaborators. The mission is complete once they blow up the bridge.
 
About the new features of the game, Rajin said, “The game characters will be able to change position and move forward while fighting. A new level has been added as well.”
 

On Dec 16 last year, the first episode of the game ‘Heroes of 71’ was released with stories, characters, missions and sites picked from the Liberation War.

Till Mar 23, the game was downloaded more than 385,000 times, played for 5 million sessions and got an average user rating of 4.7.

“Our main objective is to make the new generation more curious about our Liberation War and our local culture through the game,” Masha Mustaqim, head of game of Portbliss and coordinator of the ‘Heroes of 71’ project, told bdnews.24.com.