In a first person game the gun can be seen as a safety blanket. Nothing makes you feel more secure than when a game puts a huge piece of hot metal in your hands and expects you to shoot with it. Taking away that protection can have a very powerful effect -especially in games where you would otherwise think it’s the norm. Inspired, I decided to go back and look at another great moment where weapons – or rather the lack of them – make a game something memorable.
All the way back in 2003, a developer called Infinity Ward was stealing Medal of Honour’s WW2 thunder with a little game called Call of Duty. As a first person shooter, set in one of the bloodiest wars of all time you of course, expect to be playing with a lot of guns. And indeed, for the majority of the game you are introducing many members of the Axis superpowers with the business end of a gun. Jumping between the boots of a US and British soldier, you’re kicking arse and doing your bit for the great war effort. You’ve blasted through loads of enemies, spent countless rounds of ammunition, and it’s almost becoming a shooting gallery. Then, about 2 thirds of the way through the game decides to take you out of your comfort zone in a fantastic sequence:
Playing as a Russian soldier, you’re sitting nervously in a boat, on your way to the beaches of Stalingrad. Your commanding officer gives a speech to your fellow soldiers – most of whom look absolutely terrified as to what is to happen once they get there. You notice you’re not holding a weapon, but assume this is the usual exposition before your gun pops up when you’re ready. Another explosion causes one soldier to flee and panic, causing him to be shot by his own -and your – superiors; it’s made extremely clear that retreat is not going to be an option. As you reach the shore amongst more mortars and experiencing many examples of CoD’s famous shell-shock moments, you finally see a couple of soldiers handing out guns to soldiers in line. Of course, you join them, and start making your way towards the weapon.
Once you get there you’re suddenly pushed along. Wait? Where’s my weapon? Oh not to worry, the next guy will help you out. By handing you ammo. For the gun the guy behind you just received. With no way back without getting shot, you make a horrible realisation: There is no spoon Gun.
What follows is a desperate and terrifying scrabble across a beach being peppered with mounted gun fire, mortars and even aeroplanes bombarding you with machine gun fire as you try and push forward with your comrades. Scrambling between debris in a desperate attempt to follow the norm of waiting for someone else to die so you can steal their gun proves fruitless and the level becomes an exemplary display of how vulnerable a game can make it’s lead character and the most eye-opening sequence in any war game then or since. From burnt out cars to rocky outcrops you scramble to anything that could conceivably be used as cover – even the corpses of your fellow soldiers who were but minutes ago standing next to you in a similar, terrified state. Finally reaching a helpful face is a blessed relief, and you’re almost fine agreeing to become the bait while he helps you across to a more substantial amount of safety – you’re especially grateful when he takes out an officer threatening to shoot you for doing the sensible thing. Yet you still don’t get any sort of weapon until another rather brutal sequence in which the remaining soldiers partake in a suicidal charge for their country.
The whole thing is certainly an eye opening sequence – you actually realise that not only were the Russians brutally ill-equipped for this war, but the footsoldiers themselves didn’t have a say in the matter. They had to make the best of it and survive in extremely harsh circumstances. Infinity Ward really managed to both sweep the carpet from under your feet and at the same time teach some harrowing lessons about this war you were fighting. To think this sort of thing actually happened in real life is even more shocking. The feeling of vulnerability mixed with the realization that even those supposedly on your side aren’t going to give you a break is captured perfectly and it’s why this level remains one of the best unarmed moments in gaming both then and ever since. It couldn’t even be beaten by one of it’s distant successors (albeit developed by a different team entirely) five years later in World at War which tried something similar, but did not make you feel anywhere near as vulnerable.
If you have a copy of the game I implore you at least get to this level to realise why Call of Duty wasn’t just another WW2 shooter. However, if you’re too lazy/cheap to so do – luckily for you someone’s uploaded it to YouTube.
Yep! What’s great about this is that Enemy at the Gates, a film Jude Law fails to ruin even slightly, has an identical scene, but it’s just an “oh dear, what a scrape he’s got himself into” moment. You know it’s a film, and he’s the main character, and therefore isn’t going to get nobbled minutes into the opening surge, so it doesn’t work. If you know your history, it’s even less effective.
In CoD, you can obviously die. That bullet-zipping-past noise haunts my dreams. The wet, fleshy noises of impact and the knowledge that one good shot can kill you is very thrilling. This could only work in a game. Films are pretty good at showing us what people are doing. Games are really good at showing you what it’s like to be those people.
I remember that beach landing sequence vividly in my head and was saying, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck as I was really afraid of dying in a video game.