FIRST PERSON SHOOTER GAME SCRIPT

I recently started watching CBS’s Seal Team and happened to have just finished replaying the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game and it left me wondering what Seal Team would be like as a first-person shooting game. So, after a rabbit warren of research, this is my take on a game inspired by the show’s premise of following an elite unit of Navy SEALs executing dangerous high-stakes missions.

I chose to do the intro scene where the player is first introduced to their character Buck, a Green Team Seal member who is training to become one of the Tier One Operators. For this scene, I wanted to give the player the opportunity to get to know the character while also having the chance to get used to the game’s controls. The intro scene introduces the main playable character as well as the characters that the player will spend the most time with. The intro scene serves not only as an introduction to the game’s mechanics but also the personalities of the characters.

DEVGRU Gold Squadron

Game Overview

First person shooter game. Join the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as the newest member of Charlie Team, a sub-unit of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group. Join Barnes, Shoe, Buck, and the rest of Charlie Team as they undertake dangerous missions and fight to restore order around the world.

Characters

Alex “Buck” Buckley

Age: 25
Rank: Special Warfare Operator First Class
Former Seal Team 3 member, with whom he served 2 deployments in Afghanistan. Currently part of Green Team, the Seal Training Team and hoping to become a permanent member of Charlie team.
Fluent in multiple languages, including Mandarin, Russian and Arabic and speaks others on a conversational level making him a desirable asset for the existing Seal Teams.
While part of Charlie Team he is known as Charlie 6 or C6.

James Cooper

Age: 45
Rank: Master Chief Special Warfare Operator.
Green Team Training Instructor.
Former Charlie Team leader but having aged out of active service has stepped down to help train the next generation of Tier One operators. He occasionally still goes on active missions but only when the teams are down a member and need the additional support.

Connor Barnes

Age: 38
Rank: Master Chief Special Warfare Operator
Charlie Team Leader goes by Charlie 1 or C1.
Barnes is highly respected by his fellow officers, particularly in Charlie Team, due to his loyalty, quick thinking, and abilities in the field through many of the other teams find his methods somewhat unorthodox. Barnes is extremely head-strong and stands up for what he believes in.

Klaus “Shoe” Davis

Age: 34
Rank: Chief Warrant Officer
Charlie Team’s second in command and goes by Charlie 2 or C2.
Nicknamed “Shoe”, short for Gumshoe as he was initially going to be drafted into Black Squadron, the advanced surveillance and sniper unit of DEVGRU; but Barnes wanted him for his team due to his expert sniper abilities.

CUT SCENE AND GAMEPLAY

Close Quarters Battle Training Facilities, Intro Scene

Intro Scene Overview

DEVGRU’s Green Team are doing a training exercise as part of Close Quarters Battle, CQB, Training. The player will play as Alex “Buck” Buckley, a former Seal Team 3 member. The training mission is to infiltrate an apartment, locate the hostage, and safely extract them taking out any hostiles they come up against. The mission takes place under the watchful eyes of the DEVGRU instructors, including Master Chief Special Warfare Operator James Cooper who watches everything play out from a catwalk-like structure that hangs above the CQB training facility. During the mission, the player will be able to decide how Buck reacts to a grenade being thrown into the room which will impact how the mission ends. After the mission, and the player’s choices, have played out; Buck is approached by James Cooper and two Seals from Charlie Team who Buck is to being assigned to for a one-off mission.

Game Play Summary

GREEN TEAM, along with BUCK – who is controlled by the PLAYER, are being briefed by their GREEN TEAM Instructor JAMES COOPER. Their next training exercise will be part of their CQB training. The PLAYER will have to work with the rest of GREEN TEAM to clear an apartment and locate a hostage. If the PLAYER fails to properly clear a room and it “killed” then the training mission will be halted, and the PLAYER will have to restart from the beginning. Once the PLAYER has made it to the room holding the hostage it will transition into a cinematic where the player and GREEN TEAM free the hostage and go to leave. As they do a grenade will then be thrown into the room and the PLAYER will have the option to choose how to react to the threat. They can either choose to have BUCK jump onto the grenade to save the rest of the GREEN TEAM or to get low to avoid the grenade blast. Depending on the PLAYER’S choice will affect how the mission ends and whether the instructor berates the PLAYER for acting like a self-sacrificing hero or praises the PLAYER for a well-executed mission. Both choices will result in the PLAYER being told to meet the COOPER outside. The PLAYER will then be free to explore the area or head straight out of the flat to meet with COOPER. Once the PLAYER goes and joins COOPER it will trigger another cinematic where they are invited to join CHARLIE TEAM for a one-off mission.

SCRIPT

Second Act Cinematic

For this second scene I chose to do a scene from partway through the game’s narrative after the player has to make a difficult choice. I wanted to have a scene where the characters have an emotional moment; as it’s the emotional moments that help the player to become invested in the character and their narrative. I also felt it was particularly important to show military men showing emotion as they are often stereotyped as overly aggressive, violent, and hyper-masculine, with out feeling or care. I considered writing the aftermaths of Buck coming to terms with losing a team member but decided instead to go with Buck having to make a difficult choice that leaves him conflicted.

I thought it was valuable to include a scene where the player’s character is struggling to deal with the choices they are having to make as these types of games often include hyper-violent scenes that the characters don’t seem to struggle with. I wanted to tell a real story and not the traditional film or game narratives where there is a clear good and bad side. In real life the soldiers sent on these missions do have to make moral grey, imperfect choices, and struggle with these decisions. I think for military-style games in particular it is important to remember that the soldiers the player is controlling are not just mindless killing machines but imperfect men struggling to do the seemingly impossible tasks asked of them in this day and age.

CINEMATIC

The Cost of War, Second Story Arc. Somewhere in Afghanistan

Previous Gameplay Overview

In the previous scene Delta Team had become separated during the siege of a city leaving Buck alone with Master Chief Barnes and the Afghan National Army. They had been tasked to get to a Girls School which they had intel on as harbouring members of the terrorist cell they have been tracking and using the children as hostages. Though Buck and Barnes successfully saved the girls they were unable to take any of the terrorist cell alive. When rescuing the schoolgirls, the player comes up against a member of the terrorist cell wearing a Suicide Vest, who is threatening to detonate the vest and kill all of them unless they lay down their weapons. The player, as Buck, must then make the decision whether to shoot the hostile; the conflict in making the decision is created due to the fact the hostile being a female barely older than the girls she is threatening to kill. The player can either choose to take the shot or they hesitate to shoot Buck will try to reason with her to let the girls go. If the player waits too long to reason with the hostile, Barnes will catch up to Buck and take the shot himself. Buck and Barnes managed to contact the rest of Charlie Team who managed to find a safe place to hold up until it’s time for the extraction. The Afghan National Army provide Buck and Barnes with a safe house located near the extraction point for them to wait in until then.

Cinematic Summary

The cinematic starts with Buck and Barnes hold up in a safe house a short trek from the extraction point where they have agreed to meet up with the rest of Charlie Team. They are waiting for the extraction team and end up having a conversation while they wait. The choice the player makes decides what the dialogue is in this cut scene. Depending on whether the player takes the shot will decide whether Buck is troubled at having to shoot a young woman or whether he is second-guessing himself for not taking the shot. Barnes tells him that he made the right call if he took the shot or that it’s ok that he didn’t if the player hesitates for too long. He offers Buck the choice to walk away or continue on with the mission; with Buck confirming he still wants to be part of the mission and the team. The cinematic will end with Buck and Barnes leaving the safe house to meet up with the rest of Charlie Team at the extraction point.

SCRIPT