Ever since leaving behind the “good war” of WWII, the CoD series has loved its moral ambiguity. No Russian yeah, but the very first mission of MWI was this tutorial stage where you’re incentivized to keep running through this plywood mockup killing pop-up Bad Guy With A Gun targets until you’re doing it perfectly on autopilot. And then, those muscle-memories fresh, you’re dumped on the mocked-up freighter and use them on innocent sailors, men in their bunks, and stumbling drunks.

I mean I guess more than anything the ideology of the modern CoD games is that all heroes are someone else’s villain, and so to really Be A Hero you need not just boldness and unparalleled skill but, like with undercover narratives, you have to Know Which Side You’re On, and fully commit to it even in the knowledge that it’s a fundamentally arbitrary distinction and…

Wait, yeah, I guess that is really fascist. It’s also more honest as a power fantasy than games that make of you an unstoppable battalion- if not division-level killing machine and then narratively present you as the underdog protector. Usually of humanity, from ugly alien invasion waves, or zombies. Or Nazis, who we use in the same capacity (see the “Nazi zombie” endless horde modes that come right along with the CoD single player stories). I mean jesus, what must you look like from their side?

I mean I guess that is blops2 right there - Menendez might be a fully justified freedom fighter, but What Must He Look Like From Our Side?