'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' ramps up realism, so it's not just all fun and video games

Can a video game be too real? That’s a concern being raised about "Call of Duty Modern Warfare," the latest salvo in the multibillion-dollar video game series.

The new game, out Friday, has one scene set in a London townhouse known to harbor terrorists where British special operations forces are investigating. Inside, they find several people dressed as civilians. At one point, an unarmed woman disregards the commands of the soldiers and moves. Is she going for a weapon? Should the player shoot?

Another scenario puts the player in the role of a young Middle Eastern girl and her brother, also a child, who must fight off a Russian soldier after he breaks into their modest abode, murders their father and seeks to finish them off, too.

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These scenes in the story mode of the highly anticipated "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" ($59.99-up, for Microsoft Xbox One, Sony PlayStation 4 and Windows PCs, rated Mature for ages 17 and up) were not included for shock value, says Taylor Kurosaki, studio narrative director at Infinity Ward, the Santa Monica-based studio that created the game.

"Just because we cover some heavy subjects, we are not treating them in a flippant way," he said in an interview with USA TODAY. "The game puts you in some tough spots."

That's because "Modern Warfare" – beyond delivering the fun factor of a virtual shooting gallery – is meant to live up to its name in depicting “what the modern battlefield looks like," Kurosaki said.

Concerns over the violence

Some early scenes in the trailers and previewed to video game journalists have raised eyebrows for the brutal violence needed to progress through the story.

Video game news site Polygon, in reporting on the game's trailer last month, declared it "violent, morally conflicted and loud."

Dean Takahashi of tech news site VentureBeat argued that, even though the townhouse incident may reflect modern combat, it "should not be a part of a modern video game, in my opinion, given the thin line between civilians and warriors and given the impression it creates in our world, which is driven by social media sound and video bites. It looks so much like you are killing innocent civilians. And if you make a mistake, you are."

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The Guardian suggested the game treads "a moral minefield." The U.K. newspaper recalls that an earlier game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," released in 2011, had a scene in which a bomb exploded in London – killing a young girl and her parents, all tourists – that led a politician to accuse publisher Activision of "exploiting" for profit the suicide bombings in the city in July 2005.

When the new game hits and "politicians see a scene of civilian-attired people being gunned down in a London house, they’ll be asking a lot of questions," Keith Stuart wrote in The Guardian.

"Call of Duty" has not shied away from courting controversy. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," released in 2009, had a player-controlled character infiltrate a Russian squad, which subsequently massacres civilians in an attack meant to falsely implicate U.S. forces.

That game sold about 4.7 million copies in its first 24 hours – touted at the time by Activision as the largest-ever launch of an entertainment release, whether movie, music or game.

This new "Modern Warfare," which is a reimagining of 2007's "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," has a lot to live up to. "COD 4: Modern Warfare" not only moved the fighting to fictional battlefields from historic ones – earlier games were set in World War II – but also ramped up the sensationalized action rivaling blockbuster movies and kicked off a trilogy of games that remain among the most beloved video game releases of all time.

"MW3" and "MW2" are the No. 4 and No. 6 top-selling video game of all time in the U.S., according to The NPD Group. In all, "Call of Duty" games hold six of the spots on the research firm's all-time sellers list, which is topped by "Grand Theft Auto V," released in 2013. "Call of Duty: Black Ops" and "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" are No. 2 and No. 3.

The new "Modern Warfare" is expected to be the top-selling video game in the U.S. this year, forecasts Mat Piscatella, NPD's executive director for games. That would continue a streak of "Call of Duty" being the top-selling console game franchise each of the last 10 years.

Attention to detail

Improved graphics make the soldiers and settings look true to life. Former Navy SEALs Mitch Hall and Steve Sanders were consultants and acted out some of the scenes in motion capture sessions, so the game's soldiers move naturally and with purpose. Some scenarios were acted out on full-scale sets for added authenticity.

And the settings look more realistic, too, thanks to the use of thousands of real photos of buildings, tanks and objects stitched together in 3-D software in a process called photogrammetry.

In addition to seeking out combat veterans as consultants, Infinity Ward also worked with war correspondent Hollie McKay and young adult fiction author Somaiya Daud, as regional and cultural consultants on the portrayal of freedom fighters and women in the Middle East.

"We are talking about female representation in our the game, so we want to get that right as well," said Kurosaki, who notes that most of the creative team are American males. "If we expect our players to have empathy for a character whose backstory is not like their own, then we have to do our homework."

Players will get to play the role of a woman freedom fighter, Farah Karim, who, in addition to being the young girl pitted against a Russian in that flashback sequence mentioned earlier, becomes the commander of a faction based on the YPG, a Kurdish militia that fought in Syria. (Speaking of being ripped from the headlines, the YPG is the group being pushed from the Syria-Turkey border area after U.S. troops were pulled out of the area two weeks ago.)

"When all is said and done, Farah is going to join the iconic pantheon of Modern Warfare characters," Kurosaki said.

Opting for realism resonates with gamers and should stoke sales, says Michael Pachter, industry analyst for Wedbush Securities. He expects "COD: Modern Warfare" to continue the franchise's streak of $1 billion revenue per game, with sales of 25 million copies or more. Overall, Activision has sold more than 300 million "Call of Duty" games.

“The games that have performed the best are the ones that are closest to real life ... (and are) something you could relate to and the weapons make sense," Pachter said.

Controversy won't likely hurt, either. "Yes, there will be backlash, but it's an M-rated game," he said. "(The game makers) assume that adults can handle that and in war that is real."

But is it appropriate for your kids?

Many parents let their children and teenagers play "Call of Duty" games, despite its rating, which suggests the games are meant for those aged 17 and older.

Parents should take note of this game's emphasis on realism, says Sierra Filucci, who is editorial director at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit advocacy group for kids and families. "Kids under the age of about 14 may be more vulnerable to the realistic violence in M-rated shooter games like 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' than older kids who can think in more abstract and ethical terms," she told USA TODAY via email.

Should parents decide to let their teens play the game, "they should make an effort to play along with their kids, discuss the issues the game brings up in a curious and non-judgmental way, and address any behavioral issues that seem to stem from playing the game," Filucci said.

Wedbush's Pachter compared the game to "American Sniper," an R-rated Oscar-nominated film starring Bradley Cooper as U.S. Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, who at one point had to decide whether to shoot a woman as she approached fellow troops. It turned out she had a grenade. In the movie, Cooper as Kyle first had to shoot the woman's son, who originally had the grenade, too. "I think they are going for that," Pachter said.

Exactly, says Kurosaki of the Activision-owned Infinity Ward studio. The game "makes you think and is an unflinching, uncompromising look at war today and the psychological toll that war takes," just like that film and others such as "The Hurt Locker," and documentaries such as "The White Helmets" and "Restrepo."

The older "Modern Warfare" of a dozen years ago had a bit of a Michael Bay (director on movies from "Armaggedon" to the "Transformers" franchise) feel to it, which worked for that time. Kurosaki sees commonalities in the "Modern Warfare" evolution and the transformation in the Batman franchise from the 1989 film starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson to the current "Joker," starring Joaquin Phoenix.

"If you went into that film thinking you were going to get Jack Nicholson’s take on Joker and Michael Keaton and that cast of characters, you would be mistaken," Kurosaki said. "I kind of wonder if that take on that universe plays today. So this is analogous to that."

When you load into "Modern Warfare," he said, "assume that you are going into a relevant, thoughtful, sophisticated, yet badass story that feels like it has something to say and feels relevant to audiences in 2019."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare': Video game takes realism to next level