Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Faces Massive Review Bombs Over Portrayal of Russia

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dropped to some extremely low review scores on Metacritic following a wave of negative reviews that focused on the game’s portrayal of Russia and its forces. Some of these negative reviews cited mechanics in the game they didn’t like, but the vast majority of them slammed Activision and Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare by saying it was “propaganda” favoring America while also being “Russophobic.” The highest Metacritic score following these negative reviews puts the game at just a 3.2.

Take a look at Metacritic’s pages for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions and you’ll find that the story is the same regardless of the platform. The game is sitting at a User Score of 3.2, 3.1, and 2.5, respectively, with the number of negative reviews far higher on each platform. The PlayStation 4 version, for example, has 2,727 negative reviews compared to the 1,182 positive takes on the game.

One user praised the gameplay, graphics, and sounds in the game but still gave it a zero based on the “political propaganda.”

“Regarding the plot. There is no ‘gray morality.’ Only political propaganda,” the user said. “I really looked forward to the game and was very disappointed in it. It’s painful for me, as a veteran of the war in Syria, to watch the Russian soldiers put up as Nazis and maniac psychopaths.”

Most of the negative reviews came in on October 26th while many of them came out on October 27th. Reviews cited one particular level in the campaign called “Highway of Death” as a point of concern. A tweet from a Twitter user and streamer by the name of TheChowderhead has made the rounds on social media to shed light on why people have a problem with that level and how it appears to rewrite history to make Russia the antagonists.

Prior to Modern Warfare’s release, it was said that the game wouldn’t be released in Russia’s PlayStation Store. Previews from before showed that Russian forces would be one of players’ main opponents in the campaign, though it was unclear how far that would go without having played through the story.