The trailer not only diminishes the intent and use of war photography, but further purports it as a tool of propaganda. It all reads as an attempt to paint acts of war with a thick veneer of cool wrapped in the gritty realism that the Call of Duty series has continually strived for. At one point, the trailer lingers on an in-game paratrooper, caught in a tree, at what appears to be the moment before he’s killed or captured, while Potter’s camera continues to click. More than a handful of images flicker by during the trailer: burning buildings, exploding tanks, the photojournalists themselves in bulletproof vests as though they were really there. The video is punctuated with flashing lights to emulate bullet fire as the photojournalists crouch inside a designated area in the center of a sound stage. They’ll photograph digital war zones within the game, trying to impose some semblance of reality on recreated environments. All of this occurs before they are given special handheld cameras that allow them to navigate Vanguard’s levels.

They introduce themselves, with real photographs taken in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan appearing in rapid succession. The video features two war photojournalists, Sebastiano Piccolomini and Alex Potter, who elaborate on their extensive backgrounds and portfolios. Activision promises it will be far more realistic than the last. It is a gamified, interactive version of one of the most costly events in human history, one the series has delved into a dozen times over. This is one of several videos created to emphasize how Call of Duty: Vanguard is aiming for “realism.” Its tagline - “World War II Like Never Seen Before” - appears over a hyper-realistic shot of soldiers running in slow motion over a muddied battlefield. It is a demonstration of how Call of Duty: Vanguard will seek to completely immerse the player in yet another retelling of the events of World War II. The image is a photograph taken through the use of Vanguard’s in-game engine. A still of a soldier, huddled behind barrels with a gun in hand as fire licks away at a building behind him, is centered for emphasis.

“This is real.” A war photojournalist murmurs this affirmation over a melancholy score in the latest promotional video for Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Call of duty realism