Spotlight : Call Of Duty : Stalingrad

No, no, not a game called Call of Duty : Stalingrad, though I would most definitely be interested in having a crack at that. No, this is about a particular sequence in the original Call of Duty game, released all the way back in 2006.

This is one of those video game levels that I’ve committed to memory. If I were to install the game and play it now, I know, I just know, that I would know exactly where to go, when, even without the handy compass. It’s the sort of level that gets into your head, just for the way it’s so vastly different to all of the other levels. Throughout the game’s campaigns prior to this point, you’re given the right equipment and even a degree of stealth to start proceedings, and then all of a sudden you’re thrust into this active warzone with nought but a few bullets for a rifle you won’t get until the next level, no matter how hard you try to be one of the ‘lucky’ solders that gets given a rifle before, or after, you.

I know I’ve already used a picture from on the boat, but the guy on the right has already seen some shit.

Now, for me, that contrast of military campaigns, going from the overprepared, well supplied USA and British campaigns with the mass of trained soldiers and supportive leadership, to suddenly being underprepared, underequipped and shot on sight if you don’t do as you’re ordered was a drastic one. I was 12 when the game came out, and I assure you, when we learned about WW2 in primary school, they didn’t sign us up for the brutality of it. This was, to me at the time, the equivalent of the beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan, all in the low res quality that we used to think was the best it would ever be.

Sgt. Borodin here preparing to shoot a man in the head, by making quips about your own. What a man.

And here’s the thing. It’s not a very long level. In fact, you spend as much time in the boat at the start getting shot at by Stukas as you do distracting machine gun positions for Sgt Sniper up there – provided you don’t spend too long trying to get a gun, of course – adding a sense of complete helplessness to the entire situation. You can do nothing but cower in the boat, nothing but run for safety behind rubble, a victim to the machinations of men that will never truly see the consequences of their decision to send you here. This level, in all its poor-visual-quality-by-modern-standards greatness, is an eye opening experience that captures the mind of the individual that dares to face it. It’s brutal, horrifying, and in a disturbing way, it’s the most beautiful of them all because of it.

-TG