Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
UP AND DOWN SHOOTER REBOOT GETS ITS PRICE (MOSTLY) RIGHT DAVE MEIKLEHAM
PUBLISHER ACTIVISION / DEVELOPER INFINITY WARD / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £49.99/$59.99
where Russians mow down dozens of
Londoners, it gets squeamish about
place names. The Rebel leader Farah,
for example, is from the fictional
nation of ‘Urzikstan’... definitely not
the very real Uzbekistan, no sir.
This is a videogame where you can
witness children writhing around in
agony following a chemical attack,
then use those same tools of terror to
flatten the opposition in multiplayer.
When it comes to military shooters,
there’s often a tonal divide between
campaign and online matches, but
Modern Warfare’s whiplash ethical
contradictions are something else.
Terrified commuters are gunned
down as armed extremists scuttle
around Piccadilly. Women and children
are frequent casualties. There’s
an extended scene that, despite
featuring the most memorable sniping
setpiece since Call Of Duty 4’s ‘All
Ghillied Up’, seems to distastefully
reframe the events of the Gulf War’s
‘Highway Of Death’. There’s even a bit
where you play as a child who’s forced
to stab a man during a brutal homeDear god, the goats.
The goats have
ruined us. Infinity
Ward’s rebooted
shooter can be
deeply unpleasant
during its six-to-eight-hour
campaign. Yet despite featuring terror
attacks and a scene where you can
accidentally shoot a baby, it’s a brief
moment of hircine slaughter we find
most upsetting in this year’s COD.
Goat Simulator, this isn’t.
The poor beasts in question pop
up in a mission that involves a nerve
gas attack; helplessly gasping for air
in the aftermath as their eyes bulge in
despair. It’s perhaps the most chilling
act of virtual violence we’ve seen
since Spec Ops: The Line’s harrowing
‘white phosphorus’ scene. Call Of Duty
isn’t pulling its punches this year.
London’s falling
Modern Warfare wants to have its
cake, eat it and airstrike the remains.
Tonally, it’s all over the shop. Though
it has no problem depicting scenes
invasion. We’re a long way from the
space silliness of Infinite Warfare and
Intergalactic Jon Snow.
Modern Warfare clearly wants to be
treated as a serious narrative. Trouble
is, though it serves up alarming
images, it’s hard to shake the sense
its most upsetting scenes are there
purely for cheap shock value. Sure,
there’s nothing as repellent as Modern
Warfare 2’s ‘No Russian’ massacre, but
that’s the lowest of bars to vault over
when it comes to good taste.
It’s not always tactful, and there
are certainly lengthy discussions to
be had about the merits of its more
controversial scenes, but Modern
Warfare’s campaign is often still
enjoyable. Take the raid on a rickety
house in Camden. It’s one of the most
chilling levels in the series’ history.
Playing an SAS chum of a reimagined
Captain Price, you clear rooms of
terrorists who do their best to hit you
during hide-and-seek shootouts.
Wearing night vision goggles for most
of this five-minute mission, the taut,
claustrophobic slaughter recalls Zeroshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
A globe-spanning,
extra upsetting
episode of
Bodyguard.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
A bleaker, brutal take
on the 2007 original,
with equally good
‘taches.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Folk who obsess over
their K/D... and have a
strong stomach.068 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE