War.
War never changes.
The year is 1992. Wolfenstein 3D hits store shelves. While technically the third entry in the Wolfenstein series, the first two entries are but whispers on the gentle brush of gaming history. Fresh on the market with weapons to wield, floors to descend, and Nazis to kill, Wolfenstein changed video games. Though not the first of its kind, it's the game that we tend to associate with the rise of the first person shooter and its much younger descendant: the modern military shooter.
The year is 1998. Saving Private Ryan, the historical World War 2 drama directed by Steven Spielberg, hits theaters. While most popular war movies at the time tended to lionize the soldiers involved with impossible feats of endurance, glistening abs, and hulking monsters swinging heavy machine guns around with naught but the strength of their biceps. The film is lauded for its authenticity, especially after decades of American cynicism surrounding the country's participation in the Vietnam War. It's from the success of this movie that the Medal of Honor video game franchise was born, hoping to carry the earnestness of the film into video game form. Although dated by modern standards, the game was universally acclaimed at the time.
The year is 2013. Call of Duty: Ghosts releases. The game opens with the prototypical grandfather of a war long past telling his sons an Americanized version of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which a handful of super awesome white soldiers are eventually cut down by an onslaught of muddy brown people. The game then transitions to a battle aboard a US military death laser satellite hovering over the continental United States. This death laser is seized by The Terrorists, which we are assured is worse than the United States controlling it.
The year is 2022. All Quiet on the Western Front releases on Netflix. Though the third adaptation of the 1920 novel, it is (at least in the eyes of this humble lizard) the best. While Saving Private Ryan endeavors to who the brutality of war through a historically authentic lens, All Quiet on the Western Front aims to show the brutality of it and the demoralizing and dehumanizing effect it had on the main characters as they're led to their ends against the French army during the first World War. It is quiet, loud, heartwarming, and heart wrenching. It is the horror of war in cinematic form.
The year is 2011. Mountain Dew releases their double XP tie in promotion with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
The question I ask at the end of this diatribe is this: what changes along the way to push the tone of military shooters into the realm of unreality? It's strange to look at from the outside, since the grandfather of the series Medal of Honor started with such earnest goals in mind. In but 15 or so years we went from a somber war shooter inspired by Steven Spielberg to tie-ins with Mountain Dew. Where did video games disconnect along the way?
Is the more irreverent depictions of war as seen in most military shooters... good?
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