When Infinity Ward revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare last month, it pitched it as the grittiest, most realistic, and darkest entry in the series to date. According to one YouTuber who was shown the game early, it "makes 'No Russian' look like a Pixar film." So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that the game is making playtesters cry. Seriously. According to studio art director Joel Enslie and campaign gameplay director Jacob Minkoff, multiple playtesters have cried playing the game.

"The tone and mood of the game’s narrative is much more grown-up, much more mature, so you want to render that in an environment that feels appropriate," said Emslie. "Naturally, we went for the most realistic visuals we could put together."

"Call of Duty has taken the bombastic set pieces as far as they can go: you can’t just keep turning the dial past eleven. At some point, if you’re going to have the emotional impact on people that you had back in 2007 then you need to bring things back down, make it more intimate, more mature, more gritty, and cinematic," added Minkoff. "This is the trajectory of – I think – a lot of good franchises. This is actually the second time I’ve been at a studio where everything had just been going more and more crazy with each new game, so we’ve done that, let’s just make everything grounded and real, like each thing really matters."

When asked how Infinity Ward will ensure that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will handle its raw, more visceral moments without being insensitive, Minkoff further added that lots of research and outside opinions from experts and more have all been complied and take into consideration. That, and there will be context to everything players do.

"There’s a huge amount of context built around these events. We’ve worked with people from all around the world, consultants from different cultures and nations to ensure that we are accurately and respectfully representing these types of events. We’ve got two Middle Eastern consultants on staff who we run all of our scripts through, all of our Arabic, and we’ve got dialogue coaches on set when we do motion capture."

Minkoff continued:

"We’re not arrogant enough to think that we’re going to understand all of the nuances of how these types of events and subjects could affect people all around the world. We’re not shying away from provocative subject matter, we’re not pulling our punches, but we’re making sure that we engage as many people as possible to make sure we do things right."

Of course, the more punches Infinity Ward throws with this year's Call of Duty, the more careful it has to be. The studio isn't shying away from the realities of war though, it's made that much clear. The question is: will it be thoughtful in its portrayal? Because if it's not, it's going to be open to a wave of criticism.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and is scheduled to release on October 25.



Posted: Jun 07, 2019 8:55 am
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/06/05/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-playtesters-cry/