The story takes place in the year of 2011 when a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an ultranationalist movement ignites a civil war in Russia.

2024's Call of Duty game will reportedly be the next game in the Black Ops series, and will once again be set against historical real-world events. This time, the series appears primed to visit more recent history with the Gulf War of the early 1990s, as was previously rumored.