SPOILER: The Controversial Modern Warfare 2 Level
This post contains spoilers.
When launching the single player campaign for the first time, Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 warns you of a level deemed uncomfortable and controversial, giving you the option to opt out of playing it without any effect on the story or your GamerScore. I’ve not played too many games where I’ve been directly impacted by something harrowing happening in-game, and I certainly wanted to savour the full Modern Warfare experience. Needless to say, I decided to go ahead and play it.
The controversial level is upon you sooner than expected, with the third level (if you have indeed agreed to play it) being the culprit. I have to admit, a sick (or simply curious?) part of me was eager to specifically see what it was Activision were talking about, and when I nonchalantly swaggered out of an elevator with my comrades and proceeded to calmly slaughter every innocent civilian in sight, I knew this was it. Yet I wasn’t shocked.
What did get me, however, was the eerie way in which my men mercilessly meandered through a pile of dead bodies, picking off every scampering civilian in sight. And I was expected to do the same. I came across an injured man slouched against a gory wall, his legs spread out on the floor, drowning in a pool of his own blood, his life slowly slipping away. Should I finish him off? Or should I leave him to suffer simply so I can avoid the bloodstains of yet another innocent civilian on my hands? You see, for those who are reading this and ignorant of spoilers, you are in fact playing an undercover mission where you are required to get close and gain the trust of a nasty Russian; the guy responsible for this massacre. So whilst you are temporarily part of a team of ruthless killers, you are of course the good guy. Yet I lined my crosshair up with his head, both in keeping with my undercover disguise and also wishing to help him out of his misery, and I ended it for him.
Moments later as we waded through yet more lifeless bodies, I peered over the landing to look at the ground floor. I had noticed one of the guys spraying bullets from there only a moment earlier, which, by the looks of things, had taken out most of the civilians. I could see a few on all fours, dragging themselves out of sight, screaming both in pain and out of fear, but there lives were never spared. Everyone in that airport - including security - were dead by the time we had escaped.
Going back to how I felt about this level, surprisingly I wasn’t shocked by it. There are of course people who have been deeply offended about this level, and of course I can understand why that is. But despite the ridiculously gorgeous graphics, I was of course aware throughout the entire duration of ‘No Russian’ that I was simply playing a video game, and that the people I was killing, the person I was playing as etc were all fictional. There were moments, like the ones mentioned above, that made me feel uneasy, but it wasn’t a sensation I hadn’t experienced before with a video game.
What’s your take on it? Have you played it, and how did it make you feel? Or did you choose to skip the controversy altogether?
I don’t have anything derogatory to say about Alan Wake. My advice to you? Spend a night in Bright Falls and soak up the eerie atmosphere. Alan Wake excels at thrilling you psychologically. Which is why it’s called a psychological thriller, I guess…
Phil Barker