14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games confirms that the new first-person shooter won't have in its story particularly shocking moments, like the infamous "No Russian" level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is this year's installment in the long-running first-person shooter series published by Activision. This time around, the game arrives from developer Sledgehammer Games, which previously worked alongside series founder Infinity Ward on Modern Warfare 3.
The studio has already made it clear that Advanced Warfare takes place in its own little universe filled with sci-fi gadgets and a whole different story that focuses more on private military corporations than large global conflicts.
Story won't have sequences just for shock value
Now, Sledgehammer talks a bit about the story and how it doesn't want to deliver a shock moment just to mess with the heads of the players. As such, fans shouldn't expect to see a moment similar to the infamous "No Russian" level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
"I would describe it that 'No Russian' was done by a team before us, at a time before us. It's not what we aspire to. But as fans of emotional, impactful moments, like the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones - those are great story moments. So, great story moments for the sake of character development and great story, not for the sake of controversy and gratuitous violence," Sledgehammer's Michael Condrey tells TotalXbox.
Condrey adds that, while the "No Russian" level, in which players infiltrate a terrorist group and massacre civilians in an airport, wasn't a display of gratuitous violence, he doesn't want to go in that direction.
"There are times when you see, and I'm not saying No Russian was one of those times, but certainly in film, there are times when you see that people do craft a moment just for the sake of shock value, and that's not what you're trying to do in any way," he explains.
Sledgehammer worked hard on Advanced Warfare's story
The studio's co-founder, Glen Schofield, also chimes in, saying that it's hard to deliver something that's controversial to players, as people can be quite surprising in terms of their taste. As such, the studio just focused on polishing the story and on delivering a fun experience.
"I never know what's controversial to some people, but we didn't go in there and think 'let's do this because it will really [mess] with people's minds' - again, we built a story, and we spent as much time on that story as possible," he adds.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare debuts on November 4 worldwide for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.