Van Hemlock

This post contains spoilers. The spoilers probably contain spoilers to the next spoiler in fact so nobody should read this post, especially if you haven’t completed Modern Warfare 2’s campaign. If you have then you can safely read this.

Still reading? OK. MW2 takes about 6 hours to complete the story. That’s not relevant except for the fact that I’ve completed the story now so go play it and come back tomorrow if you’re still reading and haven’t completed it. Back? Good, you can read this now.

Soooooo. THAT level. I love the idea for it, that’s a difficult situation that I’m sure is faced by real deep cover operatives that will usually be resolved by just never letting it get that far and up until the end of the game it’s never clear why it does. I’m not sure I believe the twist that justifies why it was allowed to happen as it seems a bit too much Die Hard 2 to me. Still, that sets up the sequel really nicely and gives the chance to totally reboot the series into a Bond style franchise. Or at least split off and do one.

The problem I have with THAT level is that not the fact that you can kill the civilians. You don’t need to and can just walk through that part. I also like the fact that it’s pushing the boundaries and trying to be unsettling. I think it’s trying too hard and being over the top just to be as extreme as they can think of, but that’s the nature of pushing boundaries. The problem I have are the police, and it turns out I have this problem in loads of games but there have been two AAA titles in the last month or so that do this and it’s really annoying me. Hired security forces are fair game and their lives are worthless.

In Modern Warfare you get past slaughtering/watching people slaughter civilians and then encounter (funnily enough) the police. Who are not glad to see you.  And have guns. And lots of bullets. It is pretty much impossible to get past that bit without killing poor innocent police men as you will get killed unless you fight back. It’s not their fault that they’re trying to kill you, from their point of view they’re the heroes that you are in the rest of the game. And you kill them.

Uncharted 2 is the same. Massive red flag “I don’t want to kill innocents” speech from Nathan Drake before you raid the museum and then you spend the level knocking out guards (you can’t do that in real life without hurting people, sometimes seriously!) and then there are a few occasions that you have zero reluctance to perform acts that will most likely kill people. The first is when you get to a point with tranquiliser guns and you and your partner shoot two people who then fall ten feet. Probably fatally as it’s a hard floor and you don’t call an ambulance. Instead you just move on to go look for your treasure so you can get rich. The other occasion is when you’re being taught that you can take down people by pulling them over a ledge, much like as in Batman. Another poor innocent guard gets dropped down a 100foot cliff into the crashing swell bellow. Excuse me, not going to guarantee he survives that. I didn’t look, but apparently you see the guy swim off but that’s not the point, Drake doesn’t know that he’ll make that fall or be able to escape whatever nasty rip tide is down there, or that he’ll not get smashed against the rocks. It coloured my opinion of the character, he’s just a ruthless bastard who only really cares about money. He pretends to be nice, but it’s just an act.

There’s something about paid guards that makes their lives worthless to game designers. They’re just doing their jobs, and quite often believe that they’re the good guys. Because they can fight back though their virtual lives are forfeit and their virtual children need a new father. Yes, I am thinking of the scene from Austin Powers now where Rob Lowe is at the bachelor party for the guard who just got killed.

Can’t anybody think of the virtual children, because without a strong father figure they’ll just grow up to be the evil villains of tomorrow’s games.