The opening scene of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is one of the best I’ve ever seen in a Call of Duty game.

You can see it here in the video, starting with raw South Korean conscripts and their American and South Korean veterans walking through Seoul, the nation’s capital. I’ve finished the campaign and I have to say it’s one of the best in many years. For Activision, now part of the Xbox gaming empire, that could mean billions more in sales this year.

It’s a tight story. The recruits buy their snacks in a modern convenience store and haze their American counterpart, who is embedded in their unit, telling him that “hwe,” a not-so-great Korean dish, is really so good it’s like “Korean sushi.” They pay of it with a phone and walk past the sights of nightlife with the outdoor hot pot cafes and cute plush doll shops.

Then a sound reverberates, the lights of the city go out, and all is quiet and scary. The sky turns orange with an explosion in the distance, and then the explosions hit their street and knock them to the ground. It’s terrifying chaos. You black out. When you awake, you see one of your squad’s own lies dead in the rubble and the American soldier is desperately trying to revive him. They take his tags and leave his body behind. The North Koreans are finally attacking in a full-scale conventional war after decades of truce.

The recruits get their baptism of fire and the fear shows in their F-bombs.

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