Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is finally here and, as expected, it’s already showing signs of being a massive financial hit. It’s also reviewing pretty well, too, probably the best a COD title has in a good while. But not everyone is happy with the title, as some Russian nationals have taken to the old review-bomb strategy for a key point of the game’s plot.
As you can see via MetaCritic, the user score has been bombed to hell and back. The big issue? Well, it’s not just the portrayal of Russians as villains per say (though that surely doesn’t help), but more how the game presents a piece of actual history and how the Russians were involved.
Without getting into spoilers, the game’s campaign paints the Tariq Almawt’ bombings (known as the Highway of Death) as being executed by the Russians. Without getting too deep into the geopolitical weeds, this isn’t accurate. The bombing took place during the Gulf War of the 1990s and Russia was not involved in the war in any direct capacity.
Earlier it was reported that the game would not be sold on the Russian PlayStation Store, and it’s possible this could have something to do with it. Modern Warfare tries to a paint a slightly more ‘gritty’ story here and perhaps using a real world conflict, one that was heavily controversial even at the time, to demonize your Russian enemies might have been a bit too much for some. It’s one of those fine lines when it comes to dealing with real life atrocities in fiction.
