Call of Duty: Modern Warfare made its debut last week and was met with a warm welcome from players — at first. The newest entry in the popular first-person shooter series
quickly became the highest rated instalment since 2011. However,
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has now become the subject of quite a bit of backlash for its portrayal of Russia as well as rewriting of a real-life war crime.
Over on
Metacritic, the game was bombarded with hundreds of negative reviews which all seemed to denounce the way that Russians are portrayed throughout the campaign mode. Currently, the PlayStation 4 version of
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has 1,182 positive reviews but 2,727 negative ones.
“Regarding the plot. There is no ‘gray morality.’ Only political propaganda. I really looked forward to the game and was very disappointed in it. It’s painful for me, as a veteran of the war in Syria, to watch the Russian soldiers put up as Nazis and maniac psychopaths," one user review stated.
The majority of the negative reviews arrived on October 26th and label the latest
Call of Duty instalment as propaganda in favour of America and
"Russophobic." It's clear now why
PlayStation Russia weren't comfortable with making the game digitally available in the country.
One particularly interesting aspect of the game that is cited in a couple of the reviews is a campaign level named
"Highway of Death." Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been accused of attempting to rewrite history, as is explained below by a Twitter user by the name of
TheChowderhead.
On October 25th, when the world is threatened, you’ll have to get your hands dirty so the world stays clean. In a desperate mission, Captain Price and the SAS will partner alongside the CIA and the Urzikstani Liberation Force to retrieve stolen chemical weapons. The heart-racing fight will take you from London to the Middle East and other global locations, as this joint task force battles to stop full-scale global war. Lines will be drawn, your resolve will be tested, and the world will look to you to do what needs to be done.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is now available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.