“This war was a lie. Years of blood, just to light the fuse of a secret war years in the making”

With the reveal of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War fans are hyped for the release of the game. Before the release though it would be best if we understand what the game is going to be about.

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War continues the line of Black Ops games which started with Call of Duty Black Ops though some would argue (including myself) that it started with Call of Duty World at War since that campaign is canon in the black ops storyline.

The first black ops game follows Alex Mason as he tries to remember what happened to him from his part in the Bay of Pigs in 1961 to Vietnam in 1968 in order to understand the numbers in his head to stop a Soviet attack on the west. It featured returning character Victor Reznov from World at War while also introducing new characters like Frank Woods and Jason Hudson.

The second game continues the story while taking place in two new time periods: the 1980’s and 2025. The game has you play as David Mason in the year 2025 where you aim to eliminate Raul Menedez and his faction “Cordis Die.” Along with playing as David Mason in 2025, you also play as Alex Mason and Frank Woods in flashbacks that take place in the 1980’s.

The third game’s campaign has nothing to do with the other games and the fourth game had no campaign but still featured characters from the last games.

This new game, unlike Call of Duty Modern Warfare, is set to continue the story of Alex Mason, Frank Woods, and Jason Hudson. The story takes place during the Cold War, like in Black Ops 1 and parts of Black Ops 2. The Cold War, for those who don’t know, was a political rivalry between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) which saw both countries expand their sphere of influence into countries around the world while avoiding nuclear annihilation. It started in 1945 after the end of World War 2 and ended on December 25, 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union.

At the time of publishing, 4 trailers have been released. The first being the teaser trailer which has no gameplay but does have a major plot detail. The trailer follows Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB defector who gives a warning to the U.S of how the Soviet Union is trying to subvert them In a process called “Active Measure.” The main thing that should be taken out of this when relating this to the new Call of Duty game is when the trailer states “he [Yuri Bezminov] claims a Soviet spy codename: ‘Perseus’ has infiltrated western intelligence. His goal: subvert the U.S to ensure Soviet dominance in the Arms Race. To this day, the identity and whereabouts of ‘Perseus’ remains unknown.”

A week later the official trailer was dropped starting off in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. For those who don’t know, the Vietnam War was a proxy war between Soviet backed North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of Southern Vietnam (Viet Cong) against American backed South Vietnam. The trailer states it is 1968, then it flashes forward to 1981 in which President at the time Ronald Reagan is giving a speech stating a nuclear conflict would be mankind’s last and promising a more peaceful war. From there, CIA special officer Russel Adler talks about how Soviet agent ‘Perseus’ is in play and how dangerous it could be in shifting the balance of the Cold War to the Soviets favor. That’s when President Reagan assigns you (the player) to hunt down “Perseus.”

From there you see bits of gameplay taking you from East Germany to Vietnam.

On September 9, Call of Duty released the reveal trailer for the multiplayer. There it showed new maps, weapons, operators, ect. Some new maps include Moscow (USSR) a city based map, the North Atlantic a map that takes pace on warships and in the water, Miami (USA) a neon lit city with 80’s beats in the background,Uzbekistan (USSR) a snoey based map, Angola a desert based map that’s good for long and short ranged players, and the Ural Mountains a forest based map.

By the end of the multiplayer trailer there was a teaser for zombies but not that much information is released by the time I’m writing this.

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War will be released on November 13 of this year.