It makes me very sad to see what the ‘Call of Duty’ saga has become . From what it was in its beginnings, as a serious alternative to the ‘Medal of Honor’ (everything a reference at the end of the last century), and what came later, with that spectacular bet of the ‘Modern Warfare’, to what is now.
The last highlight was the non-inclusion of campaign mode in ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII’. For my partner Álex it is not a problem; for me it is a very serious mistake. Especially when I look back remembering the moments that ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’ left us , like the airport mission in its sequel.
It is, by far, one of the scenes that have impacted me the most in video games and where I was not able to act as the terrorists I was with asked me to do.
But first of all, let’s remember.
A “little” sacrifice for the greater good
‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ is located, chronologically, five years after the first ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’. His villain is Vladimir Makarov , who had been part of the team of Imran Zakhaev, the bad guy from the first installment.
One of the protagonists of this sequel was the soldier Joseph Allen , who was duly trained in several missions to become part of a series of critical risk special operations, since he would have to infiltrate, a la Jack Bauer, within Makarov’s own terrorist group.
The acid test (pun intended) would come in the fourth mission of the first act , accompanying Makarov’s group to attack the Moscow international airport. Lest the cover be uncovered, a host of civilians would have to be sacrificed in pursuit of a far greater mission, that of saving vastly greater numbers of lives when the time was right.
We had to earn Makarov’s trust in order to destroy his terrorist cell from within. And if he asked us to “not speak Russian” when entering the airport , we would not speak Russian. Just as if he asked us to shoot.
COD informs: all flights have been delayed
I remember perfectly what I felt at that moment. I knew perfectly well that I was facing a video game, but I was not able to kill anyone . I did the paripe shooting in the air or against windows and so on, as long as not to raise suspicions.
Shortly after seeing how Makarov’s team massacred hundreds of civilians, several airport policemen showed up, but I couldn’t shoot them either. I looked for a cover and continued with the deception. We were at the end of 2009 and the levels of realism that were being reached in certain games were brutal , despite the fact that the aspect of this COD is now somewhat out of date.
It was not surprising, seeing how extremely sensitive a certain sector of the public is with video games, that censorship of this scene was requested. This, which could remain a mere anecdote, served as a “training” excuse for the psychopath Anders Behring Breivik, author of the terrible attacks on July 22, 2011 in Norway, which ended up leading to the withdrawal of this game and ‘World of Warcraft ‘(because Breivik used it to escape) from a Norwegian chain of stores. As if video games were to blame for creating monsters.
The climax of Modern Warfare 2’s airport
Tragic event aside that I wish had never occurred, it is time to rebuild from such a serious memory and finish with the mission of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ remembering its final fireworks: the exit outside the airport and subsequent escape.
After massacring hundreds of civilians and security members, reinforcements arrived in the form of the FSB (the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation), putting up much greater resistance to Makarov’s team, both for their shields and firearms of higher caliber, such as smoke grenades that made visibility difficult. There we started using the grenade launcher.
Everything was “fine” until he had to flee in an ambulance. There Anatoli was waiting for us, congratulating us on our work and the “strong message” we had left. However, Makarov surprised us with the following :
“That was not a message …”
And subsequently, he shot us in cold blood , adding:
“This is a message. The American thought he could fool us. When the body is found, all of Russia will demand war.”
All to make believe that the United States was responsible for the terrorist attack.
