Advanced Warfare casts the player as Pvt. Mitchell—a young Marine who joined up with his best friend Will. The defense of South Korea is the pair’s first combat mission. Mitchell loses his left arm. Will loses his life.

At the funeral for his fallen friend, Will’s father approaches Mitchell. It’s Kevin Spacey, playing billionaire Jonathan Irons, head of military company ATLAS. He offers Mitchell a second chance to fight … and a fancy prosthetic arm.

So begins the player’s service to the man who will become the story’s villain. That’s not a spoiler. It’s clear early on that Spacey’s character is an evil megalomaniac.

“ATLAS has the single largest military in the world, but we answer to no country,” Irons says. “Unlike the government, we don’t make a secret of our capability. We don’t sell policy, we sell power. We are a super-power for hire.”

The early Call of Duty games were set during World War II. Call of Duty 2’s rendering of the Battle of Stalingrad is particularly affecting.

But somewhere along the way, Call of Duty lost its way. The last half dozen or so titles have been blatant power fantasies. Blatant American power fantasies. Flags ripple in the air while bombs explode before American heroes save the day.

‘Advanced Warfare’ is different. It’s subversive—a game about corruption, the limits of power and the ultimate powerlessness of the player.

Only the first chunk of the game seems like the same old Call of Duty power fantasy.

Things change when Mitchell and his ATLAS buddies are unable to stop a Luddite terrorist organization from triggering a nuclear meltdown in Seattle. The screen fades, the next level loads and four years have passed.

ATLAS soldiers—of who the player is one—all wear black and red uniforms. The mercenaries have herded countless citizens into prison camps, the kind conspiracy theorists often accuse FEMA of establishing.

An ATLAS representative entreats citizens to sign up for work detail and “get chipped.”

Is the player still the good guy at this point? No. A point driven home when the game reveals that Irons’ knew about the terrorists’ nuclear plot and waited to deploy his mercenaries just long enough so that the terrorists would succeed.

In the wake of the disaster, he sold America and the world on the need for a large, stateless military. It’s just another step to a one-world government Irons think will solve all the planet’s problems. A government he will control.