Memorable Mechanics: CoD 4’s Death From Above

Memorable Mechanics is a bi-weekly column highlighting memorable gameplay mechanics and level design of both past and present video games. This week I take a look back at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfares distinctly unique, and eerie level; Death From Above. Enjoy.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a drastic shift from the franchise’s World War II roots to 21st-century warfare. With the new time period came more than just modern weapons, as the modern day setting brought with it real-world politics that are the centerpiece of the campaign. So it is fitting that what I consider to be the most memorable level of the game not only embraces this new conflict time period but is also a modern look at the morality of war. While the campaign is primarily played from the boots of various soldiers caught in the conflict, one level, in particular, stood out to me, one in which the player would leave those boots and take to the skies to combat their enemies.

From the outset, Death From Above captivates the player with its unique and unprecedented look. On rails, vehicles sections were nothing new for Call of Duty, but it was Death From Above’s distinctly different design and presentation that initially caught me off guard. The player’s role is that of gunner of an AC-130 gunship that’s providing covering fire for a team of SAS operatives on the ground. During the course of the level, the allies on the ground are periodically pursued by hostile forces attempting to impede them from reaching their extraction point.

The player is following the events on the ground from the perspective of The AC-130’s weapons targeting system, a computer screen with crosshairs and navigation schematics. Despite the look of the level, it plays very similarly to past vehicle segments. Fragging your allies will result in mission failed and will limit damage to specific buildings. Standard fare, that is until the player gets their first kill.

Death From Above is made memorable by its visual and audio design rather than its gameplay. The player is in constant communication with not only their forces on the ground but also their co-pilots. While squad banter isn’t a new concept for an FPS, the tone and specifically the effect of the co-pilots is jarring. Occasionally, after the player gets a kill, a co-pilot will applaud, offering praise for taking out groups of enemies. When I used the 105mm explosive cannon to take out a large group of enemies in a field, a co-pilot jubilantly remarked, “I see lots of little pieces down there.” Moments later I machine-gunned down a few remaining stragglers to which a co-pilot exuberantly shouts, “This is going to be one helluva highlight reel!”

These moments didn’t initially strike me as memorable. After all, this is just another war game, right? Yet it was during the next mission that I began to realize just how much of a stark contrast there was between Death From Above and every other level of the game. With Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward was attempting to tell a very grounded and timely military drama that shied away from the overtly macho nature of past military shooters. And yet, it’s the level where the player is thousands of feet above the violence unfolding on screen that I am the most affected.

It’s the calm, nonchalant tone and demeanor with which the co-pilots discuss the passing of a life and the inherent desensitization of killing that comes with technological advances in warfare. While plenty of horrors unfold during the infantry levels of Modern Warfare, such as civilians executed in the streets via firing squad, these are horrific events unfolding in front of the player. Events that trigger an immediate gut reaction, often due to their lack of subtlety. They aren’t nuanced by any means, and that’s fine, there is a time and a place for these type of mnemonic storytelling devices, and ultimately they are the ones a majority of people will remember when the credits roll.

The game never explicitly engages in conversation regarding the moral gray area of the desensitization of death that comes from killing targets thousands of miles away from those “pulling the trigger.” It doesn’t seem so much a missed opportunity as it does a subtle beginning of the larger conversation that military shooters still attempt to delve into.

I replayed Death From Above several times during the course of writing this, and each time I picked up another bit of co-pilot dialogue that I had previously missed. Even hearing lines I was expecting still make me uneasy and that’s okay. As someone who has played countless military shooters over the years, I have indeed become desensitized to a majority of their content. I think nothing of mowing down waves of Nazis or those a game deems to be terrorists. It’s just business as usual. It’s rare that a military shooter will not only accurately, but also smartly present the player with the moral ambiguity of war, and yet, Infinity Ward subtly introduces this, while not allowing it to overshadow the rest of the experience. Another testament to what I still consider to be a monumental military shooter.