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[KingBroly]

I remember something happening around the time this came out...at an airport or something. I forget what, exactly, but that's what really made this controversial.

 

[Albino_Yeti]

Well, yeah. You don't play CoD for the story, you play it for the HOOAH AMERICA FUCK YEAH GUNS AND LOUD NOISES WORLD POLICE RAMIREZ SAVE THE FUCKING WORLD AND BRING DEMOCRACY TO EVERYONE MOTHERFUCKER

While I'm not saying CODs campaigns aren't like this, don't you play as the British SAS too?

 

[Blackage]

During the mission I would shoot above the heads of civilians and police didn't matter in the end.

I liked MW2's story in the end. Military conspiracy to force a war on both sides.

Also the levels where you're in Washington DC and the skyline is fucking red and burning and a huge battlefield is an amazing sight to behold and my favotire part of the game.

 

[-shadow-]

Thought it was a terrible level and a easy way to create buzz through the controversy of it. I remember it was quite the controversy also and there was some serious discussion happening rather games should be allowed to go this far. Honestly I think that looking back at it now with the recent terrorist attacks in England, France, Belgium and more I doubt this would be allowed these days.

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

I remember something happening around the time this came out...at an airport or something. I forget what, exactly, but that's what really made this controversial.

It was a bombing at a Russian airport.

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

It was embarrassingly edgy and inappropriate for being in the same game where you recreate the Alcatraz scene from The Rock.

 

[DrkSage]

I was a 14 when I played that mission, and I didn't mind. It's a game. You can also play the entire mission without having to kill a single non armed innocent bystander

 

[Angelus Errare]

The entire story was absurd, little made sense.

Wha? It made perfect sense. The story was like a trash YA novel at best, how could you not understand it?

 

[CryptiK]

I felt it didn't make any sense and was used for shock value.

It set up the entire game, what the fuck you on about.

 

[HeeHo]

Had to find out what game he was talking about through other posts. I WAS thinking Call of Duty but I have only played CoD4.

The .gif makes it seem pretty graphic but I suppose you don't have to shoot them. I think it's pretty shocking though if you actually had to.

 

[MCN]

While I'm not saying CODs campaigns aren't like this, don't you play as the British SAS too?

Those bits are more like TALLY HO SUPPORT OUR BOYS BRING BACK THE EMPIRE VOTE BREXIT FOREIGNERS ARE UNTRUSTWORTHY RULE BRITANNIA

 

[InsaneTiger]

I understood the controversy then and would imagine it being way more controversial now. But as a game it was purely to shock and poorly thought out. I felt the moment in Spec Ops where you use that chemical on the civilians was more impactful than No Russian.

 

[John Kowalski]

MW3 they tried to do something similar. They have a kid getting blown up.

That's nowhere near the level of the airport scene...

My feelings were that they totally did not know how to make the game about the evils of war and just decided to have some very upfront, obviously evil scene where the player participates. Original MW was much, much better at this with the AC130 level and the nuclear bomb.

 

[FeArTriX]

Edit: wrong thread

 

[KillLaCam]

That was a pretty cool mission to me. Gameplay wise it was boring but the premise was cool.

is the Metro games are any good?

I'm trying to get into the series since I liked what I saw at E3

They're amazing. Super immersion.
Buy the Metro Redux collection. The 1st game gets brought up to the graphical fidelity of the 2nd one.

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

I was a 14 when I played that mission, and I didn't mind. It's a game.

"It's a game, it's not supposed to be political" applies to random open world carnage in GTA. No Russian is very specifically designed to stir controversy and be political.

 

[Albino_Yeti]

Those bits are more like TALLY HO SUPPORT OUR BOYS BRING BACK THE EMPIRE VOTE BREXIT FOREIGNERS ARE UNTRUSTWORTHY RULE BRITANNIA

Lol fair enough.

Long live Cpt. Price and his glorious mustache though.

 

[giggaman]

It would be "controversial" if the shooters were ISIS or Islamic militants. Going for the "Russia is the badguy" thing was the noncontroversial way to depict this kind of terror attack.

Of course no publisher has the balls to depict Islamic terrorism so we get these weird Soviet Union plots.

 

[Fata1moose]

Wha? It made perfect sense. The story was like a trash YA novel at best, how could you not understand it?

It made little sense within the confines of the universe, I'm not saying it was hard to follow.

Well, yeah. You don't play CoD for the story, you play it for the HOOAH AMERICA FUCK YEAH GUNS AND LOUD NOISES WORLD POLICE RAMIREZ SAVE THE FUCKING WORLD AND BRING DEMOCRACY TO EVERYONE MOTHERFUCKER

True, at the time I felt MW2 dialed it up too much though, MW1 was a little more grounded. I didn't even bother with MW3 after the cluster fuck the second game was (for both campaign and multiplayer).

 

[Basketball]

Just putting this out there, but I think it is pretty obvious that this was a false flag operation perpetrated by the liberal games industry in order to demonize the noble Russian people.

Wake up.

get woke

 

[The Hermit]

To people who always comment on this mission saying "it was dumb to have a secret agent kill all those people"...

...

The game doesn't make you shoot anyone except the police near the end. You don't even have to shoot them either. The Developers stated that even though the instructions were just to follow Makarov's lead, most people shot the crowd anyway. Player choice led to that, not the game's instruction.

This game and spec ops made me rethink shooting/military games.

 

[cHaOs667]

You ONLY kill innocents on that level. Well I guess you don't have to? Says a lot about me I guess.

Just in the beginning of the level - at the end you will fight police and counter terrorism forces.

 

[PillarEN]

killed the lot - because it's a game.

Same. it's the same curiosity like killing Sims by removing the pool ladder and such. Or going on a rampage in GTA.

 

[Applebite]

Just putting this out there, but I think it is pretty obvious that this was a false flag operation perpetrated by the liberal games industry in order to demonize the noble Russian people.

Wake up.

It's funny you say this, because I would bet that at the time nobody would say that, but were it released today, you could find people saying just that.

 

[Htown]

ah okay so you are posing as a Russian terrorist and you have to decide whether to keep up the disguise?

there's no choice involved

you can shoot people or not and it makes no difference

if you try to shoot the terrorists, you get a mission failure

no matter what happens, the character you play dies at the end of the mission anyway

it's just there for shock value and nothing else

it's actually so irrelevant the developers give you a choice to skip the mission and it doesn't affect anything

 

[Rabid Dwarf 76]

You ONLY kill innocents on that level. Well I guess you don't have to? Says a lot about me I guess.

I think that was the point they were trying to make.

 

[Sinfamy]

I mean I guess, didn't see it that much different then murdering hundreds of civilians in a GTA game.
I thought that controversy was more for grabbing attention and boosting sales, especially when its completely optional.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

It would be "controversial" if the shooters were ISIS or Islamic militants. Going for the "Russia is the badguy" thing was the noncontroversial way to depict this kind of terror attack.

Of course no publisher has the balls to depict Islamic terrorism so we get these weird Soviet Union plots.

Not sure what you mean. Tons of military shooters a decade ago were about fighting terrorists and generic Islamic enemies.

Back in 2009, fighting Russia was considered a fresh take for shooters.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Man, they tried soooo hard to one-up themselves in MW3.
Kinda pathetic, really.

 

[Dantis]

I didn't realise you could fire the gun to kill anyone until you get to the part with the SWAT guys.
Didn't occur to me once to try and shoot the civilians or normal guards.

 

[-tetsuo-]

How did it not make sense to people? It was clearly defined why it was done in the game. "I don't like it" does not mean it didn't make sense.

 

[DrkSage]

"It's a game, it's not supposed to be political" applies to random open world carnage in GTA. No Russian is very specifically designed to stir controversy and be political.

Still, you think the majority of Call of Duty demographic which are teens were going to understand or else, care? Of course not, they just saw it as a mission in the game

 

[RumbleHumble]

Shit like no-russian is what made Spec Ops stand out actually effective execution of the toll of war

 

[KainXVIII]

In Russia this mission was censored (just cut out), kinda bummer

Spoiler

but i still found the way to play it

 

[Rest]

I've never even heard of this game.

Edit: It's a level, not even a game. No wonder I haven't heard of it.

 

[Whales]

How did it not make sense to people? It was clearly defined why it was done in the game. "I don't like it" does not mean it didn't make sense.

This

It made perfect sense with the story of the game..

Also im indifferent to it tbh, but I can see why people would find it distasteful

 

[Northeastmonk]

You could skip it altogether. I don't see why it "can't" be there. It caused

Spoiler

Germany to invade US soil

I hate saying this, but this isnt your dad's military fiction story. It's edgy and caused a huge conflict. You had the option to skip it.

Remember when it came out and the media was all over playing as a Terrorist?

To me, IW pushed buttons and they were intentional and for the right reasons. I like how we can have authentic realizations about tragedies in video games. If I'm wrong then I don't want to be right.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

 

[BGBW]

 

[HeatBoost]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a big deal because no one in the American media cares if an American kills a bunch of foreigners in a video game, civilian or otherwise

Meanwhile, at the time, people made a big stink about being able to play as a terrorist in what amounts to a game of digital paintball

I will say this though, as kinda eye-rolly as the Call of Duty stories get, they're generally decent as far as nationalist warmonger fiction goes compared to a lot of the shit you see out there. cough

 

[Garjon]

What especially made no sense was how Makarov, one of the guys you did the mission with, was the head of the super powerful terrorist organisation you were trying to stop. Why would you NOT just kill him there and then? Why the fuck would you allow a major terrorist attack to happen like that? What exactly do you stand to gain from remaining in cover?

 

[giggaman]

Not sure what you mean. Tons of military shooters a decade ago were about fighting terrorists and generic Islamic enemies.

Back in 2009, fighting Russia was considered a fresh take for shooters.

I'm not sure about that -- the villains in the original Modern Warfare were Russian ultranationalists (using some Arab dictator as a puppet briefly). But even if you're right, the point is that Russians are still a 'safe' choice, because Russians have never perpetrated any kind of terror attack on the US. Developers like IW wanted to avoid the controversy of picking a far more realistic scenario -- Islamists gunning down people at an airport.

Also, people talking about how Spec Ops made them 'rethink' shooters like MW come across pretty silly. You should not need a (bad) game functioning as meta-commentary to tell you that videogames exploit some of our darker impulses.

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

Still, you think the majority of Call of Duty demographic which are teens were going to understand or else, care? Of course not, they just saw it as a mission in the game

I don't think I argued that they did care? I'm saying the "it's just a game" isn't much of an argument that holds water to dismiss any controversy surrounding it.. It's not the same as Mortal Kombat or GTA.

I always view that mission and the exploding van mission in MW3 to be a display of Infinity Ward's hubris of their billion dollar franchise. Like "yeah we're a michael bay patriotic wankfest, but we make you think too man. We're not afraid to push the envelope! Would you shoot those people in the airport? Moral Dilemma! Dead French family!"

 

[a Master Ninja]

It was bullshit that you couldn't betray the group you were with. You die at the end of the level no matter what. There was no reason not to let the player try to stop the massacre and kill Makarov, even if you would fail and be killed.

 

[Livingskeletons]

Classic

 

[Patrick S.]

In the German version that was the only way to beat this level. As soon you shot a civilian you had to restart the level (or skip it).

I have the UK version, and it used to be that Steam wouldn't let you install it if it detected you had a German IP, so you had to use a proxy to install it, and then to run it. And I have the UK version of Wolfenstein - The New Order, too, which used to be like this as well, but now it installs and runs without a proxy.

 

[chrominance]

MW3 they tried to do something similar. They have a kid getting blown up.

As controversial as No Russian was, I think there was at least some hint of a connection to the story because of how your status as an American agent turns the massacre into an international incident and the catalyst for Makarov's war. The kid getting blown up in MW3 is purely "we need something awful to happen so the player KNOWS the bad guys are bad guys." It somehow manages to be way more crass and exploitative than No Russian.

 

[Elitist1945]

Also, people talking about how Spec Ops made them 'rethink' shooters like MW come across pretty silly. You should not need a (bad) game functioning as meta-commentary to tell you that videogames exploit some of our darker impulses.

Are you saying MW2 is a bad game or Spec Ops is a bad game lol.

 

[Big_Al]

I will say one thing, with the Modern Warfare trilogy and scenes like 'No Russian' they did a good job in making me dislike Makarov to such an extent that finally taking him out whilst playing as Captain Price on the last level of Modern Warfare 3 was pretty damn satisfying. Silly action nonsense but I enjoyed it a good deal I must admit.

 

[xDUMPWEEDx]

What especially made no sense was how Makarov, one of the guys you did the mission with, was the head of the super powerful terrorist organisation you were trying to stop. Why would you NOT just kill him there and then? Why the fuck would you allow a major terrorist attack to happen like that? What exactly do you stand to gain from remaining in cover?

It was bullshit that you couldn't betray the group you were with. You die at the end of the level no matter what. There was no reason not to let the player try to stop the massacre and kill Makarov, even if you would fail and be killed.

This is exactly what I was thinking at the time. I understand not wanting to blow your cover, but when it gets to the point where you and a group of people are going to mass murder civs with machine guns, you have to blow your cover at that point and take them down.