Modern Warfare 3’s grisly successor to ‘No Russian’ detailed in ESRB rating

Modern Warfare 2 2009 made global headlines for its brutal No Russian mission, in which you go undercover with a terrorist organization, attacking civilians in an airport. Modern Warfare 3 will take inspiration from the infamous No Russian level, and the game’s official ESRB rating reveals the grisly details.

Although Modern Warfare 2019 kicked off a brand-new timeline, Modern Warfare 3 will be heavily inspired by the classic trilogy, even bringing back main antagonist Makarov. While being a brand-new story, it will include throwbacks to the classic trilogy with the mission shown off at Gamescom being almost identical to MW2 2009’s ‘The Gulag.’

Anyone who finished Modern Warfare 2022’s story will know it ends with a throwback to the No Russian level with a terrorist constructing a 3D-printed pistol on a crowded flight. The sequel puts you in the shoes of these terrorists, and Modern Warfare 3’s official ESRB rating details what the No Russian successor will entail.

As you’d expect, Modern Warfare 3 has been rated M for Mature (17+) by the ESRB for its blood and gore, violence, language, and drug use. The rating summary provides more description, detailing some of the campaign’s darker moments.

Although it details the usual violence found in Call of Duty games, it describes how “a handful of sequences depict more intense acts of violence.” These include:

• 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

With Makarov committing terror attacks around the globe, including Verdansk Stadium, it appears Modern Warfare 3 players are in for some dark and disturbing moments.

Modern Warfare 2019 was designed to be “provocative” but its sequel shied away from that, with the devs wanting Task Force 141 to be more heroic. With Modern Warfare 3, it seems Infinity Ward are wrapping up the trilogy by including some of CoD’s darkest moments.

For more on Modern Warfare 3, you can check out everything we know about its Zombies mode.