I know you may not mean it literally but I have to defend the beginning of Call of Duty, I may be wrong but I doubt the first two games were made by the US. The first two Call of Duty games weren’t perfect but they really impressed me because they let you play as a soldier in the Red Army. I had never seen a game that showed the Soviet perspective first-hand and positively at that. I don’t think the US would fund a game doing that, especially since the later games vilify Russians.
That being said, the US definitely started funding Call of Duty games eventually though!
The early CoD games actually helped inoculate me against the soy brained “the Nazis and soviets are the same” bullshit. Sure, there was some enemy at the gate nonsense. That doesn’t mean a game whose strongest narrative arc is on the eastern front and revolves around the degree of dedication and sacrifice that was found there isn’t neutral at worst. You literally start a mission working in a tank factory and the tutorial is you, the soon to be hero of the Soviet Union and former factory worker, being like “oh shit, Nazis here let’s get in the tank I just finished working on”.
The first game is a bit cringe when it comes to ussr but cod 2 and especially world at war are just incredible. Was there anything particularly problematic about the depiction of the ussr in world at war? I just remember reznov being exceptionally cool and storming Berlin and having much fun doing so. Been a really long time since i played any
They didn’t intend Reznov to appear cool, they wanted the player to think he and most of the red army was too brutal and barbaric against the nazis. The game even chastises the player as “just as bad as the other soviets” and “no hero” if you shoot too many unarmed nazis, molotov the railway station ones, etc. They accidentally made their game cool as fuck by allowing you to btfo the nazis though, kind of in a
They also put him in an actual gulag, and made his fellow Soviets betray him for no reason. They probably realized they accidentally made him too cool, so they made him into “one of the good Russians” in the sequel.
He actually wasn’t the hero he died in prison for believing in the communist ideal too much and overshadowing the Soviet leadership by being a well known war hero. Everything after that was Mason’s delusion.
To us, the Molotov subway scene is a “hell yeah burn alive you nazi fucks” moment. To the average liberaloid it’s “barbaric” to not simply spend a bullet on easing their denazification.
But you get the choice as the player what you do so they can’t even say that. The entire waw campaign for ussr is honestly god tier its the only thing i feel gives even 10% the respect the red army deserves
You just shoot them and reznov is a little disappointed but respects your option. His dialogue beforehand is asking you to choose they wait for a bit on you.
The intended message of the Soviet campaign for world at war was supposed to show the player the brutality of the Soviet army in its vengeful campaign against the Germans. There is a moral mechanic that isn’t present in the American campaign at all where certain decisions affect the ending of the Soviet campaign. Things like executing surrendering Germans is a bad decision and will give you the evil ending for example.
The obvious problem with this is killing Nazis is cool and good so it kinda flys over your head as the player and the message is kinda lost. It also didn’t help that they made Reznov easily one of the most memorable characters in the entire cod franchise.
They tried to make me feel bad but it wasnt working. Reznov is my Lenin
Secure the keys (Obtain the keys from the guard).
Ascend from darkness (Take the elevator to get to the surface).
Rain fire (Use the slingshot to destroy the guard towers).
Unleash the horde (Rally the prisoners with the broadcast system in Vorkuta).
Skewer the winged beast (Shoot down the helicopter).
Wield a fist of iron (Acquire the Death Machine).
Raise Hell (Storm the prison guards).
Freedom (Escape the prison).
It was made by the people who made Medal of Honor: Allied Assault under EA Games. EA rushed the launch of that game and then stopped bothering with it after a month or two of patches (EA didn’t know what they had. There was still a highly active multiplayer community like 10 years after release in spite of it being a glitchy mess)
To my understanding, the devs got more time and freedom with CoD at a different studio, which led to it being a far more polished game and then successful franchise than MoH.
It probably started around the cod 4 timeframe. Every game after modern warfare 1 was very pro America and when the Russians were depicted they were shown as vengeful (understandable from our perspective but you can tell the message was intended to be a negative one) or as villains. Also cod 5 (World at War) specifically was about the Marine raiders, the Special Operations component of the marine corps. They were disbanded after WW2 but were revived around the time of World at Wars release (within a couple years) so it was pretty obviously propaganda to join the marines.
Maybe they shouldn’t make video games about ongoing conflicts? Pretty fucking tasteless.
Also the CIA has been making games for years. See every fucking COD game.
I know you may not mean it literally but I have to defend the beginning of Call of Duty, I may be wrong but I doubt the first two games were made by the US. The first two Call of Duty games weren’t perfect but they really impressed me because they let you play as a soldier in the Red Army. I had never seen a game that showed the Soviet perspective first-hand and positively at that. I don’t think the US would fund a game doing that, especially since the later games vilify Russians.
That being said, the US definitely started funding Call of Duty games eventually though!
The early CoD games actually helped inoculate me against the soy brained “the Nazis and soviets are the same” bullshit. Sure, there was some enemy at the gate nonsense. That doesn’t mean a game whose strongest narrative arc is on the eastern front and revolves around the degree of dedication and sacrifice that was found there isn’t neutral at worst. You literally start a mission working in a tank factory and the tutorial is you, the soon to be hero of the Soviet Union and former factory worker, being like “oh shit, Nazis here let’s get in the tank I just finished working on”.
The first game is a bit cringe when it comes to ussr but cod 2 and especially world at war are just incredible. Was there anything particularly problematic about the depiction of the ussr in world at war? I just remember reznov being exceptionally cool and storming Berlin and having much fun doing so. Been a really long time since i played any
They didn’t intend Reznov to appear cool, they wanted the player to think he and most of the red army was too brutal and barbaric against the nazis. The game even chastises the player as “just as bad as the other soviets” and “no hero” if you shoot too many unarmed nazis, molotov the railway station ones, etc. They accidentally made their game cool as fuck by allowing you to btfo the nazis though, kind of in a
“look at those evil Soviets? Isn’t this bad??”
“no, it fucking rules”
sort of way
But they made Reznov the legit hero in black ops. The coolest character literal lenin makes a revolution by breathing.
Reznov is legit the coolest character ever.
The ending of waw was the most powerful moment I’ve ever seen. Raising the flag on the Reichstag
They also put him in an actual gulag, and made his fellow Soviets betray him for no reason. They probably realized they accidentally made him too cool, so they made him into “one of the good Russians” in the sequel.
He actually wasn’t the hero he died in prison for believing in the communist ideal too much and overshadowing the Soviet leadership by being a well known war hero. Everything after that was Mason’s delusion.
Black ops 1 is a cia psyop i refuse
To us, the Molotov subway scene is a “hell yeah burn alive you nazi fucks” moment. To the average liberaloid it’s “barbaric” to not simply spend a bullet on easing their denazification.
But you get the choice as the player what you do so they can’t even say that. The entire waw campaign for ussr is honestly god tier its the only thing i feel gives even 10% the respect the red army deserves
I didn’t know the option not to existed…
You just shoot them and reznov is a little disappointed but respects your option. His dialogue beforehand is asking you to choose they wait for a bit on you.
…damn it, you sold me; I’m buying a CoD game, but I’m using G2A; I ain’t putting a dime in their pockets.
Now now, let’s be honest: they’d probably prefer if you could arrest them; after all they’re just Nazis, not brown freedom fighters.
After reading recently about the treatment Hess got, yeah….
The intended message of the Soviet campaign for world at war was supposed to show the player the brutality of the Soviet army in its vengeful campaign against the Germans. There is a moral mechanic that isn’t present in the American campaign at all where certain decisions affect the ending of the Soviet campaign. Things like executing surrendering Germans is a bad decision and will give you the evil ending for example.
The obvious problem with this is killing Nazis is cool and good so it kinda flys over your head as the player and the message is kinda lost. It also didn’t help that they made Reznov easily one of the most memorable characters in the entire cod franchise.
They tried to make me feel bad but it wasnt working. Reznov is my Lenin
It was made by the people who made Medal of Honor: Allied Assault under EA Games. EA rushed the launch of that game and then stopped bothering with it after a month or two of patches (EA didn’t know what they had. There was still a highly active multiplayer community like 10 years after release in spite of it being a glitchy mess)
To my understanding, the devs got more time and freedom with CoD at a different studio, which led to it being a far more polished game and then successful franchise than MoH.
It probably started around the cod 4 timeframe. Every game after modern warfare 1 was very pro America and when the Russians were depicted they were shown as vengeful (understandable from our perspective but you can tell the message was intended to be a negative one) or as villains. Also cod 5 (World at War) specifically was about the Marine raiders, the Special Operations component of the marine corps. They were disbanded after WW2 but were revived around the time of World at Wars release (within a couple years) so it was pretty obviously propaganda to join the marines.