Call of Duty has dipped in and out of its modern-era warzone campaigns for almost 20 years now since the release of the original Modern Warfare in 2007. Among those games are frequent storylines where fighting takes place inside the US, including in the White House itself in Modern Warfare 2’s Whiskey Hotel mission.last night, which takes that concept of a war-torn America to the big screen.
Garland’s Civil War is fascinating because unlike those games, and to a larger extent, most war-based media, there is effectively no explanation of why any of this is happening. The film baffled some ahead of release by presenting an alliance between Texas and California against the remaining United States, as what could those two states have in common? But that’s not the point. There’s no exploration of this at all, minus a xenophobic soldier killing those he doesn’t deem “American” enough .
It's a stellar film, but one that’s so brutal and intense I don’t know if I can recommend it to some. Gamers may be familiar with stories like these at baseline from modern day shooters, but I guarantee they have not seen or played anything like that hits as hard as Civil War.