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.”

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