'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II' continues the franchise's long history of courting controversy

The Call of Duty game franchise is no stranger to controversy. In fact, controversy is as normal as the gunfights in the series. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is the latest installment in the series to take real-world geopolitical events and use them to manufacture controversy. Whether it's the player unemotionally gunning down civilians in an airport or the re-framing of an American war crime as Russian, the series has a long history of shocking moments. Modern Warfare II is no different.

Without getting too detailed, the plot of Modern Warfare 2 is a globe-trotting adventure from Mexico to Amsterdam to Chicago that involves chasing terrorists and uncovering a secret plot by a rogue American general and his private military faction.

But instead of the plot, the internet is abuzz over the game's interpretation of recent geopolitics, and many have called out the series for its not-so-subtle — and perhaps superficial — use of real-world headlines for campaign content. And it all harkens back to an interview with gameplay director Jacob Minkoff, around the release of the first in this Modern Warfare series in 2019, in which Minkoff said "I don't think it's a political game."

Is any of this political? Does Call of Duty even believe in anything?

The new Call of Duty starts with an assassination similar to that of Qassem Soleimani

In the opening seconds of the campaign, the player is tasked with visually confirming that Iranian Quds Force General "Ghorbrani" is in attendance for a Russian paramilitary arms deal. The player then takes control of a drone-guided missile that is used to destroy everyone in the vicinity. Just from the name and white beard alone, Twitter was quick to point out the disturbing similarity of the mission to the Trump-authorized assassination of Iranian Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

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If you haven't played the game, it may seem like Modern Warfare II would then engage in some introspection about the ethics of the American military playing judge, jury, and executioner in foreign countries. "There's no time for that," the game seemed to say as we were immediately pushed onto the next mission.

The missile strike is the catalyst of the game's plot, which sees the leadership void left by "Ghorbrani's" assassination filled by Major Hassan, the game's main antagonist, who teams with a Mexican cartel to smuggle ballistic missiles into the United States. It's not the first time that Call of Duty has used fictional stand-ins for real-life figures. 2008's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's Khaled Al-Asad was a not-so-subtle 1:1 of Saddam Hussein, but unlike the real like man, his in-game doppelganger actually had nuclear weapons (also another point of introspection that doesn't linger long).

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Hold right-click to de-escalate civilians

The second major controversy to come from Modern Warfare II happens literally minutes after the assassination of the totally-not-Soleimani Iranian general. In the mission "Borderline," antagonist Major Hassan is being smuggled into the States by the Mexican Cartel with the player assuming the role of Mexican Special Forces rapidly on his trail. The player quite literally jumps over the U.S-Mexico border wall in pursuit of Hassan (illegally, I might add, as the game's CIA Station Operator states).

The problem arises when the player has to sneak through a trailer park and "de-escalate" the civilians whose homes you break into. You do this by pointing a gun at them. Somehow, this actually works, encouraging the civilians to turn around and head in the other direction.

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Near the end of the mission, a cop in a cowboy hat profiles the Mexican Special Forces and says "it’s hard to tell you boys apart from the cartel." Are these sequences of events saying maybe something about disproportionate police violence or racial prejudice? Hmmm, maybe, but before I could put on my critical thinking cap and ponder, the cartel blew up the cops, and the gameplay resumed as normal.

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It's just a game, why does it matter?

As Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz pointed out, politics is a major source of stress for young people. Regardless of where any given gamer falls on the political spectrum, border security and the killing of a military leader of a country with which the U.S. is not at war are heady, multifaceted topics. While the events in these missions might just be edgy window-dressing for a military shooter, the pattern of driving headlines to market these games is clear. And since you're reading this it obviously worked.