i guess its not immersing because its expected from the gta, the player has no connection between whoever he's killing, in his/our minds, we're just shooting some dumb AI, doesnt mean much to the average person...

we can all connect with terrorism, airports, most of us already have that fear within us, so this is why this scene feels the way it does, its not necessarily more brutal than other games.. as damocles said:

"Its quite true, one of the few gamescenes, where crime is
not displayed in the funny/entertainment way"

call of duty was always trying to immerse players in REAL WAR, i think they may have hired a few writers now though, call of duty was never meant to be an arcade shooter but that was all it was in the past, even cod4s campaign wasnt very immersive, you didnt care that much, maybe because they keep switching between the characters before players can make an emotional connection to them..

kill an NPC [noone cares]
kill and NPC the player connects with [thats immersion]