1. Futuristic setting
It's Call of Duty in the future. Treyarch consulted with futurist Peter W. Singer and retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North to set up the future history conflict and the advancements in technology that we can expect to see in 2025, with dramatic advances in robotics and drones. Rare earth materials are the new oil, and the plot of the game uses rare earth in its fiction.
It's not science fiction—it's science fact with a lot of geopolitical research put into it.