Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set during the Cold War in the early 1980s. The story follows Green Beret turned CIA SAD/SOG operative Russell Adler and his mission to stop a USSR extremist group in 1981. The story is inspired by actual events and the campaign features locations such as East Berlin, Vietnam, Turkey, and the Soviet KGB headquarters.[4] Adler is supported by Call of Duty: Black Ops characters Mason, Woods and Hudson. With new characters being Adler's MACV-SOG friend Sims, Mossad fixer Lazar, and MI6 officer Park. Players assume a custom character for the campaign, codenamed “Bell”, with the ability to choose their intelligence agency, skin tone, nationality, and gender; as well as different personality traits that provide in-game perks.[5] The campaign will have multiple endings, dependent on player choice throughout the campaign.[6]

Multiplayer features new and returning game modes, as well as maps that accommodate both the traditional 6v6 format, as well as larger 12v12 combat. The game also introduced a new game mode named "Fireteam", which can support up to 40 players.[7] The Create-a-Class system from Modern Warfare returns, with two major differences: field upgrades are implemented as part of class loadouts, and each class has a wildcard choice out of four possible ones: Gunfighter (allows up to 8 primary weapon attachments), Perk Greed (allows 2 perks from each perk type for a total of 6 usable perks), Danger Close (double grenade equipment), or Lawbreaker (allows mixing and matching any weapon/perk type in any slot).[3] Like Modern Warfare, Cold War also support cross-platform play and cross-platform progression.[3] Following an update, the progression system for multiplayer is integrated with Call of Duty: Warzone, allowing for a unified level system across Cold War, Warzone and Modern Warfare. In addition, Operator characters and weapons from Cold War are also added to Warzone to be used alongside Modern Warfare Operators and weapons, though the multiplayer modes remain separated and do not share Operators and weapons.[8]

Black Ops Cold War Zombies features a new storyline titled "Dark Aether" which expands on the original Aether story, concluded in Black Ops 4, while also tying to the main narrative of the campaign. Instead of playing as predefined characters, players can take on the role of Operator characters from Multiplayer, as part of a CIA response team codenamed "Requiem". Progression and loadouts from Multiplayer are shared with Zombies, as players are able to use any weapon to start a Zombies match, alongside Gunsmith, scorestreaks and field upgrades, in addition to returning mechanics such as wallbuys, the Mystery Box, Pack-a-Punch and past Fan Favorite Perks. For the first time in Zombies, players can opt to "exfil" the map, which will put them in a difficult wave with increased enemy spawn that they must survive before they can escape. Collectible intels are also scattered around the playable maps, allowing players to keep track of and unfold the main story as they progress.[9] A new game mode, Zombies Onslaught, is introduced exclusively to PlayStation players until November 1, 2021. In this mode, which are played within Multiplayer maps, up to 2 players defend areas grounded off by the Dark Aether orb, which must be powered by zombie kills. Sufficient kills will move the orb to new positions, forcing the players to move or die outside of the orb's protection zone. A new map for the game mode, "Firebase Z" is scheduled to release February 4th, 2021.[10]

In January 1981, CIA SAD/SOG operatives Russell Adler, Alex Mason, and Frank Woods are sent to target Qasim Javadi and Arash Kadivar for their roles in the Iran hostage crisis. With intelligence gained from interrogating Qasim, the team tracks Arash to Turkey. Arash boasts that Perseus was the one responsible for organizing the hostage crisis before being executed. US President Ronald Reagan authorizes a black operation team to neutralize Perseus after being briefed of his threat by Jason Hudson and Adler.

Adler’s team consists of CIA operative Lawrence Sims, American born Mossad operative Eleazar "Lazar" Azoulay, and MI6 intelligence officer Helen Park; with Mason and Woods providing tactical support. The final member of the team is an agent known only by the codename “Bell", who served with Adler and Sims in MACV-SOG during Vietnam.

The team starts by asking Bell to remember Operation Fracture Jaw in 1968, where Adler believes he, Bell, and Sims first encountered Perseus. Afterwards, the team proceeds to East Berlin to apprehend/kill Anton Volkov, a Russian Mafia boss with ties to Perseus.

Following an infiltration into a secret Spetsnaz training facility by Bell and Woods, the team discovers that Perseus had infiltrated Operation Greenlight, a top secret American program that secretly planted neutron bombs in every major European city to deny their use to the Soviets in the event of an invasion. Mason and Woods are deployed to Mount Yamantau in the Ural Mountains, where they infiltrate Nikita Dragovich's destroyed base in hopes of retrieving his list of sleeper agents.[lower-alpha 2] However, the team finds out that Perseus has wiped the data from the Yamantau base's mainframe, leaving their only option to infiltrate KGB Headquarters to retrieve the list. Enlisting the help of one of their KGB double agent allies, Dimitri Belikov, they manage to get Adler and Bell inside the Lubyanka Building, while crossing paths with Lev Kravchenko and Imran Zakhaev.[lower-alpha 3] The team learns that an Operation Greenlight scientist is one of the sleeper agents and has fled to Cuba. Hoping to catch Perseus there, the team launches a raid. They learn that Perseus has managed to steal the detonation codes for every Operation Greenlight bomb, meaning he can devastate Europe and lay the blame on the United States. The team comes under heavy fire and Lazar and Park are injured in the process, leaving Bell only enough time to save one of them (canonically, Park is the surviving agent).

After being rescued, Adler continues pressing Bell by provoking their memories of Vietnam once more. At this point, Bell's true identity is revealed as an agent of Perseus, having been shot by Arash in Turkey out of jealousy. Bell was found by Adler and was brainwashed by him using Project MKUltra into believing they were his comrade. With Bell's memory returned, Adler interrogates them on the location of Perseus' headquarters. Bell can then either choose to remain loyal to Perseus and lie to Adler, or choose to betray Perseus and reveal his location.

In the non-canonical endings where Bell chooses to stay loyal to Perseus, they lie by telling Adler to head to Duga, where the team will be too far away to stop Perseus from activating the nukes. If Bell has established contact with the Soviet Army beforehand, they will trick the team into a trap and kill them with the help of Perseus and the Soviet Army before they activate the nukes. If Bell refuses to kill the team, Bell is executed by Adler but the nukes will still go off. Europe is devastated by the explosions and public opinion of the United States plummets. The CIA is forced to erase the existence of Adler and his team in an effort to cover up the United States' involvement in Operation Greenlight. Perseus boasts that his agents in Europe will take advantage of the chaos to infiltrate every European government and turn them towards the Soviet Union, while his agents in the United States will continue to undermine the country.

In the canonical ending where Bell decides to betray Perseus and help the CIA, they along with the team assault Perseus' headquarters in Solovetsky and destroy the transmitters needed to send the detonation signal. With the failure of Operation Greenlight, Perseus goes into hiding, though Adler swears to continue pursuing him and dismantle his spy network. Later, Adler takes Bell out for a private conversation and thanks Bell for helping them, assuring them that their choice to turn against Perseus was of their own free will and that they are a hero. Adler then admits that Bell must be eliminated as a loose end and both draw their guns, with the scene fading to black as gunshots are heard.

On November 9, 1983 a Perseus cell infiltrates the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and successfully hijacks a nuclear ICBM during military exercise Able Archer 83. This causes operators from NATO and Warsaw Pact countries to engage in combat through various global black operations.

On January 20, 1984 a Perseus cell, led by Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin, raids a CIA safe house in West Berlin in order to gain intel on Adler. Stitch, who was in charge of Nova-6 production on Rebirth Island, vowed vengeance on Adler, who captured and tortured him during the CIA’s assault on the island in 1968. Stitch leaves behind a message to taunt Adler that leads him to a mall in New Jersey. At the mall, Adler’s team runs into an ambush by Stitch, who has also set up a cache of Nova-6. The team attempts to escape the ambush, but Adler is ultimately captured and taken away by Stitch and his men.

Following the events of "Tag der Toten", the sacrifice of the two groups Primis and Ultimis have resulted at the end of the Aether multiverse, while a new singular world is created in its place. However, elements from the Dark Aether dimension begin to leak into the new world.

In 1983, CIA Officer Grigori Weaver is contacted by Samantha Maxis, a German ex-BND operative who provides him with secret KGB intelligence. Weaver learns from Maxis that during World War II, the Nazis attempted an experiment in a secret bunker in Morasko, Poland where they managed to reanimate dead soldiers into zombies. However, the experiment was soon shut down, only to be recently uncovered by Omega Group, a Russian research team working in favor of the Soviet Union. Weaver assembles a response team, codenamed Requiem, comprising of primarily operatives from NATO countries, to investigate the threat.

On November 13, 1983, a Requiem strike team is sent to the bunker in Morasko, dubbed Projekt Endstation, where they discover a rift that acts as a gateway to the Dark Aether dimension, responsible for other dimensional breaches happening across the world. Upon further investigation, the strike team eventually encounters Orlov, a former Omega Group member who was killed and reanimated. After partially curing his condition, Orlov agrees to help the team close the dimensional rift. Orlov successfully manages to seal the rift, destroying Endstation and sacrificing himself in the process, while allowing the Requiem strike team to escape.

Following the destruction of Endstation, Maxis investigates further into Omega Group's activities, and travels to Omega Outpost 25, located in A Sầu Valley, Vietnam, but is captured by Omega forces, forcing Weaver to send a strike team to the outpost to save her. On June 15, 1984, the team arrives at Outpost 25, and makes contact with Captain Sergei Ravenov, Maxis's mole within Omega. Ravenov guides the Requiem strike team through the undead-infested facility, while also dealing with Doctor William Peck, an American scientist who defected to Omega. After helping Peck stabilize a Dark Aether anomaly, they manage to free Maxis from the dimension but then come face-to-face with a gigantic creature dubbed "Orda". The strike team manages to destroy the creature and exfiltrate with Ravenov's help, who elects to stay and remain undercover while Omega makes their next move in the Ural Mountains. Following Requiem's success, Omega sends Colonel Kravchenko to Outpost 25 to confront Peck about his failure.

CBR.com reported that the teaser trailer had been banned in China due to a one-second depiction of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.[30][31] An edited teaser was released worldwide instead.[32][33] PC Gamer's Andy Chalk wrote: "There's also no mistaking the irony of active censorship in a promo trailer for a game whose tagline is, literally, "Know your history"."[34]

An editorial by Ian Walker in Kotaku accused Call of Duty of legitimating the views of Bezmenov when it included footage of his interview with Griffin in its August trailer.[25] Among the complaints he had was that Bezmenov's views acted as a magnet for far-right conspiracy theories and personalities, that Activision presented Bezmenov's interview without the proper context and that Bezmenov himself held views that Walker argued were on the far right.[25]

All downloadable content (DLC) for the game, both for multiplayer and Zombies, will be completely free. As with Modern Warfare, the game features post-launch monetization via the battle pass system and cosmetic bundles available via the in-game store.[35][36]

The PlayStation 4 version sold 84,475 physical copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the bestselling retail game of the week in the country. The PlayStation 5 version was the ninteenth bestselling retail game in Japan throughout the same week, with 6,045 copies being sold.[50]