Sunday, January 9, 2011

No Russians, or no terrorists?

(NOTE: WHILE I REALIZE IT'S A YEAR AND 2 MONTHS OLD AND I AM LIKELY THE LAST PERSON ON EARTH TO BEAT THE SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN, THIS CONTAINS *HEAVY* SPOILERS FOR CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2.)

After a (probably ill-advised) day of marathon FPS gaming, I beat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Having just beaten Modern Warfare earlier in the day, I expected a continuation of the storyline with Capt. Price and Soap MacTavish, and even more nukes, gunships, grenade launchers and the like.

And that's what I got. I also got an upfront warning about a mission that 'may disturb' players, which would be skippable without any penalty or loss at a chance of points or trophies. I inquired about this on my public Twitter - after having made over a billion dollars, many a person had played MW2 after all. Just like reactions around the general Internet, @ replies were mixed. Very mixed, ranging from 'it didn't bother me' to 'it unsettled me.' Morbidly curious, and because it's a video game, I went through with 'No Russian.'

Somehow, because I didn't bother paying attention to the CoD series until a couple months ago, I missed this entire controversy in gaming news. (Yet I knew that Infinity Ward got forcibly shut down by Activision - go figure.) Maybe it's because I don't really play horror games or Grand Theft Auto-types, it was one of few things in some 20 years of video games that made my stomach queasy. And yet at the same time I expected worse. Sure, I participated in shooting innocents (you're not forced to, your objective is to merely follow Makarov) at the airport - I was an American pretending to be a Russian terrorist, after all.

The civilian part was mercifully short, but it feels stretched out as your character is forced to a deliberate slow walk to make sure you, Makarov and the rest of his entourage make sure you get every last innocent soul. Even screenshots can tell you why this mission got the reaction it did around the world which is already sensitive to terrorism. I can't blame them for taking out the entire mission in the Russian version. One Russian commenter on an article about the mission said she cried after watching the scene. (But as far as Square Enix translating 'No Russian' into 'Kill them, they're Russian' over in Japan? Ouch. No wonder they released two versions of Black Ops there... I'm just saying.)

So, did it serve to show you a terrible reality of war? Yes. Did it further the story or was it just shock value? Well, it *could* have given you more motivation to find and shoot Makarov's guts out, but you never actually do that, and that motivation is lost on people who skipped the mission. To me, it's just a video game in the end, and No Russian is not a scene you're particularly supposed to enjoy, rather you're supposed to see firsthand how ruthless guys like him really are. While yes, Makarov is fictional, people like Hitler were not.

What you ARE forced to watch though, are Roach (your other character) and Ghost being sold out, shot and burned alive by Shepherd, minutes ago an American ally. With that motivation factor, Price and Soap hunt down Shepherd... with the help of Makarov's intel, of all things.

Which is all fine and dandy but WHEN THE FUCK DO WE KILL MAKAROV? Whoops, MW2 just ended after you (as Soap) knifed Shepherd.

Do we get to kill him in Modern Warfare 3, then? Oops, Infinity Ward is gone. Fuck you, Activision.