The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has rated Sledgehammer Games’ upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ahead of its November 10, 2023 release. In the contents of the ESRB rating summary, the board may have revealed new freight delivery, No Russian-style mission.
2009’s Modern Warfare 2 featured one of the most controversial mainstream video game missions, where players opened fire on civilians in a terrorist attack. Though 2011’s Modern Warfare 3 had its own take on the shocking sequence, the mission didn’t receive quite as much attention. Since then, Call of Duty hasn’t done much similar. However, as reported by Eurogamer, the ESRB may have just revealed that Sledgehammer Games has a similar mission planned for Modern Warfare 3.
Is Modern Warfare 3 (2023) revisiting the 2009 No Russian mission?
As for the specifics, here’s part of the ESRB’s summary on the No Russian-style mission:
“A handful of sequences depict more intense acts of violence: terrorists taking over an airplane; terrorists (dressed as police officers and paramedics) shooting/killing fleeing civilians inside a stadium concourse; airline passengers getting shot on a plane; prisoners shot inside a cell.”
The new Modern Warfare trilogy has, granted, been fairly gruesome and violent in its own right. 2019’s title, for example, featured a waterboarding scene among various other disturbing sequences. Last year’s sequel felt a tad tamer in comparison, but it seems Modern Warfare 3 may revisit some of the series’ most shocking scenes.
Curiously, the ESRB notes marijuana use as well. The agency mentions a “move in which marijuana smoke from a bong can be forced into an opponent’s face”. There’s also the usual language, blood, and zombie dismemberment, but none of this is out of the ordinary.
