History YMMV / ModernWarfare

* FeanchiseOriginalSin: One of the primary criticism is about Russia being portrayed as an antagonistic imperialists committing war crimes against civilians, which first started with ''2'' where they launched an invasion at the US in response for a massacre that had occured at the Zakhaev International Airport. From here on players would spend most of the time killing Russian soldiers who are launching brutal attacks on American and (later) European cities. The difference however is that those games were explicitly set in an AlternateHistory wherein Russia suffered a second civil war which resulted in an extreme ultranationalist movement taking over the country, and their war with the U.S. in ''Modern Warfare 2'' was [[spoiler: purposefully set up by ''an American military general'' in collaboration with the ultranationalists as part of a jingoistic power fantasy]]. This latter point was somewhat trivialized when ''Modern Warfare 3'' showed Russia commencing a full-scale invasion of Europe (during which countless civilian casualties are amassed even further), but this was ameliorated by the overarching plot which saw players fighting both ''as'' and ''alongside'' various Russians who remained loyal to their former-federation; with the shared goal of defeating the ultranationalists and restoring peace to the continent (indeed, the war only ends when [[spoiler: a coalition of American, British and loyalist forces manage to rescue the Russian president from his captors so that he can order the military to stand down]]). By contrast, 2019's reboot shows no signs of infighting amongst the Russian soldiers and has a more down-to-Earth setting which is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical not-as-far removed from contemporary political events]] when compared to here. Thus, their unflattering portrayal for the reboot game comes off as a scathingly [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black-and-white]] condemnation of the country over its actions in Chechnya and Syria, and its blaming Russia for ''real-life war crimes'' committed by American forces in the Middle East doesn't feel like alternate history so much as it does historical revisionism. As a result, many wound up deriding this game as Russophobic propaganda in contrast to the more empathetic depiction of the Russian people and soldiers whose home country has been inducted by radical warlords.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Though it can be hard to spot between the exciting gameplay and over-reliance on RuleOfCool, the series has an [[WarIsHell anti-war theme]]. More specifically: the games are a harsh condemnation of jingoistic foreign policy, and none of them are subtle in their imagery. They practically rub players' nose in it with things like "No Russian" and "Davis Family Vacation". Even the AC-130 level is making a point about how dehumanizing swatting people like flies from a gunship is. [[note]]Sister-series, ''Black Ops'' is, if anything, even more blatant.[[/note]] There's a reason they included all those quotes.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: As noted under MisaimedFandom below, the series is a brutal {{deconstruction}} of militaristic foreign policy, with WarIsHell being a major theme which permeates throughout the campaigns--When you're downed, the screen shows a quote from various historical figures lamenting the costs of violence on humanity. However, the weight of these quotes seems lost amidst the exciting gameplay--no one can deny that it's pretty fun to be a OneManArmy caught in the middle of WorldWarIII. Not helping matters is the fact that the multiplayer and spec ops modes (which became ''massively'' more popular as the series went on) are comprised almost exclusively of run-and-gun action--lacking any of the campaigns' anti-war commentary.

* MisaimedFandom: The series is often described by a substantial number of fans and detractors alike as being a [[WarIsGlorious mindless celebration of warfare]] wherein AmericaSavesTheDay from evil Russians and Arabs. (So infamous did this reputation become in fact that it led to many potshots at it from other [[DeconstructionGame deconstruction games]] and commentators in the industry; see ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''.) However, ''Modern Warfare'' is itself a deconstruction of exactly that type of mindset: for starters, the series mainly revolves around ''British'' S.A.S. operatives--assisted by many local and even Russian forces, no less--fighting extremist cohorts in the hopes of toppling the war machine, whilst America serves mainly to ''deter'' the Ultranationalists rather than ''defeat'' them. Furthermore, the trilogy is a ''scathing'' condemnation of warlike foreign policy wherein both American and Russian exceptionalism are portrayed as [[EvilIsPetty evil and petty]], and though the Ultranationalist-led Russia ''is'' portrayed as being more in the wrong than the West, the overarching conflict is still not as black-and-white as many make it out to be--the main villain in the second game is [[spoiler: an American general who wants to drum up a war filled with patriots]]. Also, in ''Modern Warfare 1'' and ''2'', America ''doesn't'' save the day and its actions end in failure (be it a [[spoiler: nuclear blast which wipes out 30,000 marines]], or a [[spoiler: botched CIA mission which resulted in Russian civilians dead and an American soldier's finger on the trigger]]). And though ''Modern Warfare 3'' did end up taking on a more standard AmericaSavesTheDay plot, it arguably leans further into the WarIsHell angle than any game in trilogy (as the story ends with [[spoiler: the U.S., NATO, and Russia in disarray, countless civilian lives lost, nearly very player character or fellow soldier dead, and moderates on both sides calling a truce when the costs outweigh the goals]]). To be fair however, this commentary [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing kind of got lost amidst all the bombastic action sequences]] and multiplayer, and subsequent ''Call of Duty'' titles near-dropped the angle entirely, so it's not ''entirely'' unfounded--just misguided.

** [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Depending on how you feel about Russia]], the series' premise of an "[[CommieNazis Ultranationalist]]" movement taking over the nation and declaring war on NATO hits much harder in light of rising political tensions between Russia and the West as of the late 2010s--with the former gradually shifting closer toward authoritarian governance while also seeing NATO as a threat to its national and cultural sovereignty. The [[spoiler: invasion of Europe]] in ''[=MW3=]'' is particularly unsettling given [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine in 2022]]. Further, the Ultranationalists' goal of restoring the country to its Soviet-era glory sounds strikingly evocative of similar sentiments expressed by Russian President UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin. (Many critics have made comparisons between the Ultranationalists and the ideology that is currently active in Russia known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bolshevism National Bolshevism]], and many commentators have noted that
Putin's views are similar to theirs despite his apparent efforts to distance himself from them.) Even the series' antagonist, Vladimir Makarov, almost looks like Putin albeit with a different hairstyle.

** [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Depending on how you feel about Russia]], the series' premise of an "[[CommieNazis Ultranationalist]]" movement taking over the nation and declaring war on NATO hits much harder in light of rising political tensions between Russia and the West as of the late 2010s--with the former gradually shifting closer toward authoritarian governance while also seeing NATO as a threat to its national and cultural sovereignty. The [[spoiler: invasion of Europe]] in ''[=MW3=]'' is particularly unsettling given [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine in 2022]]. Additionally, the Ultranationalists' goal of restoring the country to its Soviet-era glory sounds strikingly evocative of similar sentiments expressed by Russian President UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin. (Many critics have made comparisons between the Ultranationalists and the ideology that is currently active in Russia known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bolshevism National Bolshevism]], and many commentators have noted that

** Depending on how you feel about Russia, the Ultranationalists' goal of restoring the country to its Soviet era glory sounds strikingly similar to that of Russian President UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin. Even Vladimir Makarov vaguely looks like Putin with a different hairstyle. Even harsher after Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

** Lag compensation in ''Modern Warfare 3''. Although, with time, Infinity Ward managed to remedy it somewhat by gradually patching the way it works to better recreate the feel of ''Call of Duty 4'' and ''Modern Warfare 2''. They sort of succeeded, but by then it was too little, too late, and everyone had already moved on.
** The spawns in ''Modern Warfare 3'' are absolutely atrocious. A good example is if you kill someone, they can spawn right behind you, this is called revenge spawning.

* TakeThatAudience: To the MoralGuardians and people of that ilk, the alternative ending of 3's "Mind The Gap" can be seen as this. There was a lot of controversy aimed at the franchise after 2's "No Russian", and MTG likewise had an option to skip offensive content. However, unlike No Russian, this did have an effect on the story. [[spoiler: If the skip is chosen, "Davis Family Vacation" does not take place, and the otherwise empty van the SAS stops blows up, killing all but Wallcroft and maybe Burns (you). So in saving a family of 3, including a cute little girl, you just killed around 10 SAS soldiers instead. [[SarcasmMode Well done...]]]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: Though it can be hard to spot between the exciting gameplay and over-reliance on RuleOfCool, the series has an [[WarIsHell anti-war theme]]. More specifically: the games are a harsh condemnation of jingoistic foreign policy, and none of them are subtle in their imagery. They practically rub players' nose in it with things like "No Russian" and "Davis Family Vacation". Even the famous AC-130 level is making a point about how dehumanizing swatting people like flies from a gunship is. [[note]]Sister-series, ''Black Ops'' is, if anything, even more blatant.[[/note]] There's a reason they included all those quotes.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Though it can be hard to spot between the exciting gameplay and over-reliance on RuleOfCool, the series has an [[WarIsHell anti-war theme]]. More specifically: the games are a harsh condemnation of jingoistic foreign policy, and none of them are subtle in their imagery. There's a reason they included all those quotes.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing:
** As noted under MisaimedFandom below, the series is a brutal {{deconstruction}} of militaristic foreign policy, with WarIsHell being a major theme which permeates throughout the campaigns--When you're downed, the screen shows a quote from various historical figures lamenting the costs of violence on humanity. However, the weight of these quotes seems lost amidst the exciting gameplay--no one can deny that it's pretty fun to be a OneManArmy caught in the middle of WorldWarIII. Not helping matters is the fact that the multiplayer and spec ops modes (which became ''massively'' more popular as the series went on) are comprised almost exclusively of run-and-gun action--lacking any of the campaigns' anti-war commentary.
*** The commentary becomes far more noticeable when playing the campaigns on higher difficulty settings (e.g., Hardened), as the increased threat-of-death forces players to be more mindful of their surroundings and consequently amplifies the whole WarIsHell theme.
** They also rub players' nose in it with things like "No Russian" and "Davis Family Vacation". Even the famous AC-130 level is making a point about how dehumanizing swatting people like flies from a gunship is. Sister series ''Black Ops'' is, if anything, even more blatant.

* GoddamnedBats:
** Chemical troops in ''Modern Warfare 3's'' Survival. They're no tougher than regular soldiers and poorly armed, but their gas clouds slow you down, and they plant gas claymores that will hit you and slow you at the ''worst'' possible moments.
** Claymore specialists. Like chemical troopers, they're not well-armed or armored, but they leave surprises lying around the map that you will likely not notice when running from Juggernauts and bomb-dogs. They're not powerful enough to kill you outright unless you're already wounded, but setting off one while getting shot at is a death sentence, and their mere presence on the map will leave you ''very'' paranoid.

** In the first [=TF141=] mission, you can get [=MacTavish=] to push you off a cliff. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2bWMvaqxfU He loves hearing you scream.]]

** One of the first missions in [=MW3=] is "Black Tuesday", where you have a shootout inside the [[BlandNameProduct "Manhattan Stock Exchange" (MSE)]]. One wonders if the mission would have been named "Occupy Wall Street" had development started a little bit later.

* SubbingVersusDubbing: [[http://kotaku.com/5415904/gamers-not-happy-with-japanese-modern-warfare-2 Japanese players saw themselves in the debate]] over ''Modern Warfare 2''.

* UncannyValley: Averted chillingly. In one sequence, the player rappels down right above a guard, and is prompted to silently knife him in the chest. Your character reaches around to cover his mouth, which ''lets you watch his eyes in utter shock as he bleeds out.''

* FranchiseOriginalSin:
** Everything that was a common complaint about the second and third games -- unbalanced multiplayer, a large focus on setpieces over gameplay, a short campaign -- were all present in [=CoD4=], but were new, exciting and original [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny at the time]] due to never having been done before.
** Even the famous PlayerPunch in the original game turned into this. While [[spoiler: a level in the original ending with the death of a player character was praised as a powerful and emotional scene that showed the insignificance of individual soldiers]], the later games were criticized for trying to include their own shock moments and attempted to one up the scene from the original game. The result is the scenes lost their impact because they were only done for shock value, and when their repeated inclusion made them predictable, taking away from the shock.
* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** In the sixth mission of [=MW3=]'s single player campaign "Back On The Grid". [[spoiler:Price tells Soap to "try not to die this time", guess what winds up happening to Soap later on.]]
** The US forces who [[spoiler:fail to]] capture Al-Asad in the first game? Seal Team Six, now better known by many as the guys who took out Osama Bin Laden.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Though it can be hard to spot between the exciting gameplay and over-reliance on RuleOfCool, the series has an [[WarIsHell anti-war theme]]. More specifically: the games are a harsh condemnation of jingoistic foreign policy, and none of them are subtle in their imagery. There's a reason the devs included all those quotes.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Though it's hard to spot between the overusing of RuleOfCool in ''[=MW2=]'', the series has an [[WarIsHell anti-war theme]], and the first game is not at all subtle in its imagery. There's a reason they included all those quotes.

* MisaimedFandom: The series is often described by a substantial number of fans and detractors alike as being a [[WarIsGlorious mindless celebration of warfare]] wherein AmericaSavesTheDay from evil Russians and Arabs. (So infamous did this reputation become in fact that it led to many potshots at it from other [[DeconstructionGame deconstruction games]] and commentators in the industry; see ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''.) However, ''Modern Warfare'' is itself a deconstruction of exactly that type of mindset: for starters, the series mainly revolves around ''British'' S.A.S. operatives--assisted by many local and even Russian forces, no less--fighting extremist cohorts in the hopes of toppling the war machine, whilst America serves mainly to ''deter'' the Ultranationalists rather than ''defeat'' them. Furthermore, the trilogy is a ''scathing'' condemnation of warlike foreign policy wherein both American and Russian exceptionalism are portrayed as [[EvilIsPetty evil and petty]], and though the Ultranationalist-led Russia ''is'' portrayed as being more in the wrong than the West, the overarching conflict is nowhere near as black-and-white as many fans and detractors make it out to be--the main villain in the second game is [[spoiler: an American general who wants to drum up a war filled with patriots]]. Also, in ''Modern Warfare 1'' and ''2'', America ''doesn't'' save the day and its actions end in failure (be it a [[spoiler: nuclear blast which wipes out 30,000 marines]] or a [[spoiler: botched CIA mission which resulted in Russian civilians dead and an American soldier's finger on the trigger]]), and though ''Modern Warfare 3'' did end up taking on a more standard AmericaSavesTheDay plot, it arguably leans further into the whole WarIsHell angle than any other game in trilogy (as the trilogy ends with [[spoiler: The U.S., NATO, and Russia in disarray, countless civilian lives lost, and nearly very player character or fellow soldier dead]]). To be fair however, this commentary [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing kind of got lost amidst the bombastic action sequences]] and multiplayer, and subsequent ''Call of Duty'' titles near-dropped the angle entirely, so it's not ''entirely'' unfounded--just misguided.

** Whenever you're downed in the single-player campaign, the game tosses up a quote from a historical figure lamenting the cost and violence of warfare on humanity. However, no one can deny it's pretty fun to be a OneManArmy caught in the middle of WorldWarIII so the weight of their quotes seems lost.

* MisaimedFandom: The series is often described by a substantial number of fans and detractors alike as being a [[WarIsGlorious mindless celebration of warfare]] wherein AmericaSavesTheDay from evil Russians and Arabs. (So infamous did this reputation become in fact that it led to many potshots at it from other {{DeconstructionGame}}s and commentators in the industry; see ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''.) However, ''Modern Warfare'' is itself a deconstruction of exactly that type of mindset: for starters, the series mainly revolves around ''British'' S.A.S. operatives--assisted by many local and even Russian forces, no less--fighting extremist cohorts in the hopes of toppling the war machine, whilst America serves mainly to ''deter'' the Ultranationalists rather than ''defeat'' them. Furthermore, the trilogy is a ''scathing'' condemnation of warlike foreign policy wherein both American and Russian exceptionalism are portrayed as [[EvilIsPetty evil and petty]], and though the Ultranationalist-led Russia ''is'' portrayed as being more in the wrong than the West, the overarching conflict is nowhere near as BlackAndWhite as many fans and detractors make it out to be--the main villain in the second game is [[spoiler: an American general who wants to drum up a war filled with patriots]]. Also, in ''Modern Warfare 1'' and ''2'', America ''doesn't'' save the day and its actions end in failure (be it a [[spoiler: nuclear blast which wipes out 30,000 marines]] or a [[spoiler: botched CIA mission which resulted in Russian civilians dead and an American soldier's finger on the trigger]]), and though ''Modern Warfare 3'' did end up taking on a more standard AmericaSavesTheDay plot, it arguably leans further into the whole WarIsHell angle than any other game in trilogy (as the trilogy ends with [[spoiler: The U.S., NATO, and Russia in disarray, countless civilian lives lost, and nearly very player character or fellow soldier dead]]). To be fair however, this commentary [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing kind of got lost amidst the bombastic action sequences]] and multiplayer, and subsequent ''Call of Duty'' titles near-dropped the angle entirely, so it's not ''entirely'' unfounded--just misguided.

* MisaimedFandom: The series is often described by a substantial number of fans and detractors alike as being a [[WarIsGlorious mindless celebration of warfare]] wherein AmericaSavesTheDay from evil Russians and Arabs. (So infamous did this reputation become in fact that it led to many potshots at it from other {{DeconstructionGame}}s and commentators in the industry; see ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''.) However, ''Modern Warfare'' is itself a deconstruction of exactly that type of mindset: for starters, the series mainly revolves around ''British'' S.A.S. operatives--assisted by many local and even Russian forces, no less--fighting extremist cohorts in the hopes of toppling the war machine, whilst America serves mainly to ''deter'' the Ultranationalists rather than ''defeat'' them. Furthermore, the trilogy is a ''scathing'' condemnation of warlike foreign policy wherein both American and Russian exceptionalism are portrayed as [[EvilIsPetty evil and petty]], and though the Ultranationalist-led Russia ''is'' portrayed as being more in the wrong than the West, the overarching conflict is nowhere near as BlackAndWhite as many fans and detractors make it out to be--the main villain in the second game is [[spoiler: an American general who wants to drum up a war filled with patriots]]. Also, in ''Modern Warfare 1'' and ''2'', America ''doesn't'' save the day and its actions end in failure (be it a [[spoiler: nuclear blast which wipes out 30,000 marines]] or a [[spoiler: botched CIA mission which resulted in Russian civilians dead and an American soldier's finger on the trigger), and though Modern Warfare 3 ''did'' end up taking on a more standard AmericaSavesTheDay plot, it arguably leans further into the whole WarIsHell angle than any other game in trilogy (as the trilogy ends with [[spoiler: The U.S., NATO, and Russia in disarray, countless civilian lives lost, and nearly very player character or fellow soldier dead]]). To be fair however, this commentary [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing kind of got lost amidst the bombastic action sequences]] and multiplayer, and subsequent ''Call of Duty'' titles near-dropped the angle entirely, so it's not ''entirely'' unfounded--just misguided.

* MisaimedFandom: The series is often described by a substantial number of fans and detractors alike as being a [[WarIsGlorious mindless celebration of warfare]] wherein AmericaSavesTheDay from evil Russians and Arabs. (So infamous did this reputation become in fact that it led to many potshots at it from other {{DeconstructionGame}}s and commentators in the industry; see ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''. However, ''Modern Warfare'' is itself a deconstruction of exactly that type of mindset--the trilogy is a ''scathing'' condemnation of warlike foreign policy wherein both American and Russian exceptionalism are vilified, and though the Ultranationalist-led Russia ''is'' portrayed as being more in the wrong than the West, the overarching conflict is nowhere near as BlackAndWhite as many fans and detractors make it out to be--the main villain in the second game is [[spoiler: an American general who wants to drum up a war filled with patriots]]. And though Modern Warfare 3 ''did'' wind up taking on a more standard AmericaSavesTheDay tone than ''1'' and ''2'', it arguably leans the most into the whole WarIsHell of the trilogy. To be fair however, this commentary [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing kind of got lost amidst the bombastic action sequences]] and multiplayer modes, and subsequent ''Call of Duty'' titles near-dropped the angle entirely, so it's not ''entirely'' unfounded--just misguided.

* MisaimedFandom: The series is often described by both fans and detractors alike as being nationalistic jingoistic AmericaSavesTheDay WarIsGlorious in terms of its tone (leading to many potshots at it from commentators and others in the industry; see ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''). The trilogy is actually very ''anti''-nationalistic in terms of tones, with the overall theme of the series being "WarIsHell, and extremism, on either side, is damaging". Not to mention that the main villain in the second game is [[spoiler: an American general who wants to drum up a war filled with patriots]]. To be fair, this kind of got lost in all the shooting and the music and the multiplayer, and later games near-dropped the angle entirely, so it's not ''entirely'' unfounded, just misguided.

*** [[spoiler:Team Metal's death, especially with Price screaming for the pilot to wait for them, and then trying to raise Sandman on the radio]]. The scene is doubly sad if you've watched ''WebVideo/FindMakarov: Operation Kingfish'', as the situation in-game is an exact reversal of the one present at the end of that video: [[spoiler: Price left behind, Sandman screaming for the pilot to wait for him]].
*** The intro for "Dust To Dust"--[[spoiler: "This is for Soap."]].

*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyuILHDD-pY The ending credits theme]]. It really sounds like a farewell to [[spoiler: Vasquez, Jackson, Griggs, Gaz, Ghost, Roach, Soap, Kamarov, Yuri, Sandman, Grinch, Truck, and all the brave soldiers who fought annd died throughout the entire ''Modern Warfare'' trilogy.]]

*** As you make your way through Paris in "Bag and Drag", you can see dead bodies everywhere, likely victims of the [[spoiler:gas attack]]. You start in an apartment, where you can see an entire family--a couple and their daughter)--dead.

*** [[spoiler:Kamarov and Soap's deaths]]. The latter is particularly heartbreaking because the normally stoic [[spoiler: Captain Price ''completely loses his shit'' when he watches him die.]]

** [[spoiler: [[GeneralRipper General Shepherd]] from the second game is no slouch im this department either, with his [[HeroKiller betrayal and subsequent burning of Roach and Ghost]] firmly solidifying him as a bastard in every player's eyes. He also puts up one ''hell'' of a fight in the end, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking nearly taking out Soap and Price all by himself while injured]].]]

* TearJerker:

** ''Modern Warfare 2'': [[spoiler: Roach's and Ghost's deaths and the Washington D.C. levels]].
** ''Modern Warfare 3'': [[spoiler:Kamarov and Soap's deaths, the intro to "Dust To Dust" ("For Soap.")]].
*** [[spoiler:Soap's death]] is particularly heartbreaking because the normally stoic [[spoiler: Captain Price ''completely loses his shit'' when he watches him die.]]
*** [[spoiler:The Russian security agent gets shot by Makarov just when he thinks he's safe. "Objective Failed." scrolls across the screen]]
** "Objective: [[spoiler: Stop the massacre]]." And you know that you're ''trying'', dammit, but you ''can't'', despite your best efforts.
** [[spoiler: The fall of the Eiffel Tower.]]
** [[spoiler:Team Metal's death, especially with Price screaming for the pilot to wait for them, and then trying to raise Sandman on the radio. Then, Yuri's death.]]
*** [[spoiler: Team Metal's death is doubly so if you've watched ''WebVideo/FindMakarov: Operation Kingfish'', as the situation in-game is an exact reversal of the one present at the end of that video: Price left behind, Sandman screaming for the pilot to wait for him.]]
*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyuILHDD-pY The ending credits theme]] of ''Modern Warfare 3''. It sounds like a farewell to [[spoiler: Soap, Yuri, Sandman, Truck, Grinch, Roach, Ghost, and all the protagonists who have died throughout the entire ''Modern Warfare'' trilogy.]]
** As you make your way through Paris in "Bag and Drag" you can see dead bodies everywhere, presumably victims of the [[spoiler:gas attack]]. You start in apartment, where you can see a dead man, dead woman, and another woman (presumably their daughter). An entire family.

* LoveToHate: Vladimir Makarov, OverarchingVillain of the entire ''Modern Warfare'' triolgy, is arguably the most popular villain in the entire Call of Duty franchise even to this day, and for very good reason. He's [[TheSociopath vicious]], [[TheChessmaster intelligent]], and [[HateSink utterly detestable]], [[spoiler: making his gruesome death at the hands of Captain Price all the more satisfying.]]

** Shepherd's speech at the beginning of ''Modern Warfare 2'' about the Afghan soldiers trained by US forces takes a harsher meaning in the wake of 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

** Depending on how you feel about Russia, the Ultranationalists' goal of restoring the country to its Soviet era glory sounds strikingly similar to that of Russian President UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin. Even Vladimir Makarov vaguely looks like Putin with a different hairstyle.

* EvilIsSexy: There's a disturbing amount of people who think Makarov is "sexy." Unlike the other villains in the Modern Warfare trilogy (most of whom are EvilOldFolks), Makarov is fairly young-looking, well-groomed, and [[SharpDressedMan well-dressed]].

* EvilIsSexy: There's a disturbing amount of people who think Makarov is "sexy."

* MagnificentBastard: [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking John Price]] was a sniper of the SAS who nearly killed Imran Zakhaev. Becoming an SAS Captain, Price leads many missions while showing utter ruthlessness to his enemies, in one case by [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] Khaled Al-Asad about his benefactor before [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness killing him]]. Price goes on to lead a joint-operation with the US marines to stop Zakhaev from launching nuclear missiles before helping [[PlayerCharacter John "Soap" MacTavish]] kill him. Price later joins Task Force 141, leading a mission to gain intel about the Russian Terrorist [[OverarchingVillain Vladmir Makarov]], sacrificing himself to Makarov's forces so that their mission would be successful. Reuniting with his team three years later Price helps in the hunt for Makarov where he launches a nuclear missile at the US's east coast which causes an unfathomable amount of destruction and innocent casualties, but allows the US Army to drive the invading Russian forces out of Washington DC. When Shepherd betrays Task Force 141, Price makes a deal with Makarov for Shepherd's location, killing Shepherd there. Resuming his hunt for Makarov, Price's [[TheDeterminator determination]] to bringing him to justice increases when he kills Soap, helping US Delta Force rescue of the Russian Presiden's daughter from Makarov's imprisonment, thwarting Makarov's plans before killing him.