Dirty Wars: September 11

Dirty Wars: September 11 is a historical narrative game with a fictional story inspired by real events. Set in Chile during the first years of the civil-military dictatorship established after the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, it follows young couple Maximiliano and Abigail as they join the revolutionary committee COMIREV and take part in the resistance. Across eight levels and missions, you play each mission linearly as Maximiliano or Abigail.

Historical setting

In the early 1970s, during the Cold War, the Nixon administration and the CIA supported a coup against Salvador Allende, whose government had pursued “The Chilean Way to Socialism” by expropriating and nationalizing important North American capitals. On September 11, 1973, Chilean armed forces bombed the La Moneda palace and overthrew Allende. The resulting dictatorship, led by Augusto Pinochet, lasted 17 years and produced thousands of exiles, political prisoners, people who were tortured or detained, and people who disappeared.

The regime’s secret police, DINACH, seeks to eliminate opposition and remnants of the overthrown democratic government. The game presents the resistance from the perspective of its protagonists, drawing on Chilean and Latin American culture, art, music and aesthetics.

Missions and stealth

You complete tasks such as travelling between locations, gathering information, decoding contact points and delivering packages, while passing identity checks. Stealth and graphic-adventure mechanics make information management more important than weapons for survival. The country’s telephone lines are under the dictatorship’s control, so contacting others by phone is impossible.

Identities and information

Maximiliano and Abigail must change or double their identities to avoid detection in dangerous situations. You respond to identity checks and other situations according to the adopted identity and its biography; available dialogue responses vary with the protagonist’s identity.

In conversations with other characters, you gather information while keeping it compartmentalized and maintaining the “Suspicion Index” between each exchange. Some puzzles draw on the historical context of the resistance, including disguising parcels so the secret police will not detect them and using cipher texts to find contact points with other resistance members.

Memory collectibles

Hidden items in the levels are saved in the “Memory” section. They add narrative and historical context, and collecting them is necessary to complete the game 100%.

Presentation

Minimalist interface design and basic actions convey the vulnerability and asymmetry of the setting. Level design, music and historical material contribute to the game’s atmosphere and present the history of Chile and South America.