Stand, duck and cover in new 'Blackwater' video game

— -- If you own an Xbox 360, you can join one of the most exclusive and feared private military outfits in the world.

Blackwater.

New game Blackwater, out Oct. 25 ($50, for ages 13-up), leverages the name of the shadowy security contractor in the first first-person shooting game designed for Microsoft's Kinect motion-sensing system. Players stand about 10 feet from the TV and raise their arms to target enemies, rather than hitting buttons on a controller, as the Kinect's camera tracks the player's movements.

As part of a team in hostile North African territory, players are charged with rescuing and protecting U.N. officials, among other missions. "They are going to be shooting, moving and communicating through very difficult, unknown, uncertain situations," says Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who is partnering on the game with developer Zombie Studios and publisher 505 Games. "And they are going to be active; they're not going to be sitting down. They will be jumping, lunging, squatting, reloading, throwing, kicking and punching."

The game is one of Prince's first moves to extend the brand. Two years ago, he bowed out of the day-to-day business, which was renamed Xe Services as the company and its training center in North Carolina were sold to USTC Holdings in 2010. Xe's latest contract, worth $17.6 million, comes from the Department of Defense to support counter-narcoterrorism activities in Afghanistan.

Founded in 1997 by Prince, Blackwater earned more than $1 billion in federal contracts for training military and law enforcement personnel and providing security and support in world hotspots. The company itself came under fire when four employees were charged with manslaughter in the death of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. The case was dismissed in 2009, but earlier this year, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel ordered the federal judge to reconsider the case.

Prince, a former Navy SEAL, would not comment on any of the company's past business dealings, but he said he aims to license the Blackwater name for high-end travel equipment and other products. When approached about a game, he says, "I didn't want to do anything traditional where you just had your thumbs getting tired and sore. We wanted to have something to get you immersed into the game. The Kinect platform gave us a real good opportunity to try that."

There's plenty of shooting, but blood doesn't fly as in other shooting games such as Call of Duty, and there's no profanity in the team's banter. "This is not a super-gory game," says Prince, who rarely gives interviews but joined the developers at his Virginia home for a demonstration. "We wanted it that way and wanted to give them a little feel of what it is like to work in a small team and have to navigate through some very difficult, unknown, challenging situations."

"It's really the fantasy of, 'Have you got what it takes to be a Blackwater operative?' I would submit they have arguably some of the toughest jobs on the planet," says Peter Matiss of 505 Games. "We're only able to deliver a slice of what Erik and his teams are able to do."

The physicality makes the game "more interesting and less like a shooting gallery," says Electronic Gaming Monthly writer Matt Cabral, who nonetheless isn't sure Blackwater can win over the Call of Duty multitudes. "It seems like a great addition for the Kinect, but I doubt it'll bring in anyone still on the fence."