The problem is, it’s fun and it’s really well made. What matters is that hard men and women are putting their lives on the line in hidden, deniable ops where the rules are bent – and that can include the odd war crime.

Urzikstan could be Syria, it could be Afghanistan, it could be the Ukraine or Chechnya. The story is a pulpy, mashup of real-world proxy wars and brutal localised conflicts that panders to US sensibilities. A stash of chemical weapons has gone missing and must be located while an extremist Russian military faction is quelled. In 2019’s Modern Warfare, a reimagining of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from 2007, you take control of SAS and CIA operatives as they aid rebel forces in the fictitious country of Urzikstan, which borders Russia and is fighting for its independence. As terrified civilians run past, screaming and wounded, you’re thinking: “Where is the next mission checkpoint?”Ĭall of Duty is perhaps the most divisive mainstream gaming brand of all time a gung-ho, partisan blockbuster combat romp selling us a vision of rough and ready spec-ops superstars travelling the globe with their guns and their competence, helping freedom fighters while killing rogue paramilitary groups, without pausing too long to consider the differences between them.

You’re holding a handgun in London’s Piccadilly Circus as terrorists run wild with assault rifles and flames bloom from a recently ignited suicide vest. I t doesn’t take long for the guilt to set in.

Call of duty modern warfare