The ambiguity of war takes center stage in Infinity Ward's 2019 shooter, and Narrative Director Taylor Kurosaki sheds new light.
One of my standout E3 demos this year was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a “reimagining” of the seminal 2007 shooter classic, also developed by Infinity Ward.
Studio Narrative Director Taylor Kurosaki introduced a new sequence set early in the game. The mission: intercept a group suspected of participating in a devastating terrorist attack in London.
Afterwards, I got a chance to speak with Taylor. “From day one, we knew the kind of game we wanted to make, the kind of story we wanted to tell. We looked at the words Modern Warfare. What does that mean today? What would that look like?”
The sequence I saw was a nailbiter, a slow, stealthy infiltration set a multi-story townhouse in northern London. Equipped with night vision goggles, the squad crept through the cramped stairwells, quietly ambushing the occupants while they ate and talked. Then, all hell broke loose.
“The demo you saw today doesn’t delve deeply into the characters,” Kurosaki said. “The main character wants to make a difference. He wants to do more, and feels like he can’t. As soon as he says those words, Captain Price says, ‘you’re with me.'”
“If you [want to take the gloves off, and be effective],” Kurosaki continued, “…be careful what you wish for.”
If Infinity Ward is aiming to create a grounded narrative that captures the ambiguity of war, they’re on the right path. The demo was by turns suspenseful and exhilarating. Kurosaki explained that Infinity Ward doesn’t plan to pull any punches.
“It should make you think. This is a very sensitive subject. This is not a pro-war game… It’s a critique. And it exposes how deadly serious this stuff is. We’re not beholden to anybody, and nothing is off limits. We critique the superpowers, we critique how they fight in these regions of conflict.”
Kurosaki explained that the inspiration for this reimagined Modern Warfare came from meticulous research with a host of consultants, from veterans of the SAS, CIA, and Navy Seals. “We do our research because we want to get this right,” Kurosaki said. “We realize how important it is to treat this subject with reverence and respect.”
“Some of our consultants say, ‘we had imperfect intel. We were fighting in an area that was blurry, that wasn’t black or white. And yet we are expected to be perfect. That is the burden that we carry. And we know we have to be perfect.'”
“It’s not lip service,” Kurosaki continued. “It’s straight from the horse’s mouth.”
“But it’s not relentless, either. There are moments of levity and camaraderie… It has heart, it has characters that you care about, and root for. It puts you into the shoes of these fighters.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare comes to PS4 on October 25.
But they are pulling punches. The article at Charlie Intel said they REMOVED not only lines of dialogue from a stealth mission that implied capturing civilians, but they even CUT a mission that they deemed as “too dark.”
“Activision PR told Kotaku at their behind closed door sessions that Infinity Ward is removing that line from the game, and that specific line was reportedly meant to be foreshadowing a scene that was coming up later in the campaign, but that scene has also been removed from the game.”
So great. Just another Call of Duty that’s going to play it safe. PASS. This blog is just another advertisement for this game. Smh.
Obviously we have to wait and see what happens, but I do believe that Kurosaki came out on twitter and said that those reports were false and that nothing was being taken out even the line about how the enemy colonel “likes ’em young.”
I hope they deliver this time around for the benefit off all military FPS fans such as myself. COD was something special, just like Battlefield is presently; the more enjoyable and quality military shooters are developed, the better for everyone.
This better be the better cod in pvp department, meaning as no spawn killing, every cod had issues with that
Lol amen to that brother.
I have not been into a COD game since Ghosts. If MP has the same advanced mechanics and heroine style build as BO4 than this game is not on my radar for a purchase. Everyone that asked for what BO4 is in a COD game has it now,so please get the MP back to the way it use to be in the next installment. Just do it from the ground up and not with the same assets over and over again. The same formulas of MW2,MW3 and Ghosts are great.If IW can take what was best out of those games and put them in this new game it will bring people back. I miss the support streak system from MW3 & Ghosts. I loved the freedom of choosing perks from a pool of choices in Ghosts. I miss the clan wars from MW3. I miss not having invisible walls in bushes and having special hidden action climb spots for hiding in MW2,it actually helped the camping issue a bit by giving people places to camp rather than having to worry about them camping random corners. I enjoyed not having zombies and having MP survival or co-op from MW2 & MW3. I honestly would love a much larger library of maps,say at least double what we usually get at the start plus the DLC packs. More variety of map sizes would be amazing like the usual 3 lane maps that they seem to shove down our throats,the huge maps like in Ghosts that give lots of room for snipers and hunts for campers,CQC style maps like from MW2 & MW3 and perhaps update all of the old ones with some vertical depth that does not require advanced mechanics. Again,those that wanted different from the COD series got their BR mode and advanced mechanics with a set class system…give us back the foundation of what made COD what it use to be…boots to ground,kill streaks galore,beloved weapons of the the previous games and maybe if anything is to be different than add more customization to weapons and characters.
Graphics look so much better.