Controversial Call of Duty concept copies Battlefield Hardline

Call of Duty players have come up with a controversial police-themed concept that takes a leaf out of Battlefield Hardline's book, but not everyone is convinced.

19th Jul 2024 15:44

Images via Activision | DICE

Putting the police in video games has always been a sticky situation, but in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the Black Lives Matter movement, it's likely to be under additional scrutiny. We imagine Rockstar Games is going to overhaul police in GTA 6, while we've seen the divisive bodycam game Unrecord grab headlines for all the wrong reasons.

When it comes to the biggest shooter in the world, Call of Duty still rules the roost. We've long since moved on from the trenches of World War II, heading to tech-advanced futures, the Cold War, and (soon) the Gulf War, but it's always been a military-based series. 

Call of Duty players show off cop-based concept

With Call of Duty largely giving us army grunts instead of cops, the idea of a cop-based CoD is one that's been floated before. Over on Reddit, someone suggested Call of Duty: Police Warfare. More than just hating the name, others aren't convinced that CoD needs to go down this route.

The OP says they feel burnt out from the constant war scenarios, so they'd like to see Activision try something different. They came up with a scenario where the FBI or LAPD work to hunt down the new head of the Las Almas trafficking circle. 

Tying things to the recent return of Valeria in MW3 and Warzone S5, they suggested it could all be tried to Makarov. Saying we should take a step back from all these massive wars, the idea would definitely take the CoDverse in a different direction and could set up its own spin-off branch like Black Ops.

Others were less convinced, and with some problematic feelings toward the police in 2024, was this ever going to be a good idea? One critic said, "They could make a game about hunting down white supremacist groups who are working with Las Almas, but I'm pretty sure Activision/Microsoft wouldn't greenlight a cop game about shooting other cops."

Someone else said, "Ah yes because in a politically tense climate the next thing we need is a Team Deathmatch of Cops vs Gangbangers lmao," and a third concluded, "Yeah that wouldn't f**king fly today." Some think it could work if executed properly, but that's the main problem in today's churn and burn CoDverse. 

It's not that this hasn't been done before, with DICE famously giving us the cop-centric Battlefield Hardline in 2015. There were also Police Quest games and Ready or Not, which served as a spiritual successor in 2021. While some of you might be ready for Cops of Duty, we wouldn't count on it. 

About The Author

Tom Chapman

Tom is Trending News Editor at GGRecon, with an NCTJ qualification in Broadcast Journalism and over seven years of experience writing about film, gaming, and television. With bylines at IGN, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, and more, Tom’s love of horror means he's well-versed in all things Resident Evil, with aspirations to be the next Chris Redfield.

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