raView: Modern Warfare 2 “No Russian” thoughts
Yeah, yeah. I’m a little late on the Modern Warfare 2 wagon. Sue me.
Just an FYI, this won’t be very long, nor will it be a review, since I’ve only played the campaign at a friend’s place, but there’s a particular thing I’d like to talk about.
I must say though, the single-player is awesome. Excellent story-telling, more weapons, and a few nice surprises/twists I wasn’t expecting. There’s also been a lot of controversy surrounding the game, in regards to the PC and Xbox 360 community for missing features (dedicated servers, party chat, mods, etc), but also in a stage called “No Russian”, where you play as a member part of a terrorist group that opens fire on civilians in a Russian airport. A lot of people have said it’s been inappropriate, and Russia went so far as to ban the game (but Activision claims that it was never banned), although the copy now sold in Russia no longer features that airport level.
Oh yeah, and spoilers on the airport level obviously.
Now I can understand how it might be a little insensitive to depict an airport massacre level, but this is story-telling folks. Plenty of films and games are great at telling war stories, some good endings and some bad endings. That’s how it all works out. So as someone who silently wade through corpses at the airport, I never fired one bullet but rather watched everything unfold. A game good at story telling immerses you into everything, and I found myself being amazed at many scenes in the level, because some of these civilians and how they react (if you look around) really make you wonder about the horrors that occur when these events happen. A particular scene I found memorable was in a shop of some sort, with one man slumped upright in an aisle while the other tried to comfort him and get him aid, only to be shot as he ran away. These are powerful moments, and I appreciate Infinity Ward for putting them in such a level.
raView: Infinity Ward did an excellent job telling a story during that level, and the fact you’re not required to participate in the shooting (or even play the level) means that they realize how close to home it may hit people, and they respect that, so hopefully people will respect IW and their game.
Give me a comment below and let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: The preceding written opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of Gamefire.
For any letters of pro-Jack Thompson stances, please send them to vxu@gamefire.com
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