Call of Duty: Modern Warfare may be enjoying solid critical reviews for its revamped gameplay and mature storytelling, but it appears the game’s narrative isn’t particularly flattering to the country of Russia. Though an antagonist portrayal of Russia isn’t itself controversial for a piece of fiction, fans have noticed a certain scene from the game that may have strayed too far from fairly representing the region–or the United States itself.

The scenario in question is a section of the game dubbed “Highway of Death,” which recalls armed Russian forces carrying out a devastating attack on retreating soldiers. Outrage arrives from the mission’s similarities with a real-world location from the Gulf War, Highway 80, an area in Kuwait that saw a controversial attack carried out by the US in 1991 and resulted in deaths of over 350 surrendered Iraqi soldiers. Modern Warfare players are taking issue as it essentially re-attributes this infamous historical event to Russia for seemingly little reason apart from further establishing them as the ‘bad guys.’

So, uh, it turns out that the new Modern Warfare game just sorta lies about a US war crime and makes it a Russian one because it needs the US forces to be seen as the good guys.

So that’s… I don’t really have words for how to feel right now. Disgusted, probably. pic.twitter.com/8wGRIuYkKk

— Chowderhead (@TheChowderhead) October 27, 2019

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a game that hasn’t seemed concerned with portraying the morally-gray and horrific aspects of war, with scenes of child soldiers and torture being confirmed weeks ahead of release. It definitely makes this seeming rewriting of history questionable, even if the game does take place in an entirely fictional region called Urzikstan. Coincidentally, the discovery of this alteration comes after PS4 copies of the game were pulled from sale in Russia, though it’s currently unconfirmed if the game’s story content carried substantial weight behind that decision.

This story choice is certainly being addressed over on Metacritic, where the user score for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is currently catching the full fury of players. The game’s public reviews have been hit with waves upon waves of review bombs, tanking the average score across all platforms, and leaving various comments regarding the game’s portrayal of Russia. As it stands, PC is currently the lowest score at 2.4 (out of a possible 10), while console versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are both a bit higher at 3.0.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

What do you think? Are you irked by Modern Warfare’s portrayal of Russia? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more headlines recently featured on DFTG, check out these next few news stories:

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