Grand Theft Auto 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops differs from most previous installments, which would involve a usual three-country campaign while Black Ops features two playable countries (Russia and the USA), but only has an American campaign. Gamers play from the perspective of Captain Alex Mason of the MACV-SOG, Jason Hudson of the CIA, and Russian-born soldier Viktor Reznov of the Red Army. The game also introduced several new features such as dive-to-prone and the available use of a flashlight on certain weapons.

Plot

Much of the Call of Duty: Black Ops campaign is told through the eyes of SOG and CIA operative Alex Mason, primarily through flashbacks. Mason is asked questions by an unknown interrogator about a numbers broadcast which is being used to contact Soviet sleeper cells in the United States. These questions set the stage for the campaign missions.

The first mission is a flashback to Mason's participation in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a doomed effort to assassinate Fidel Castro. At the end of this mission, Mason is captured by Castro's soldiers and given to Nikita Dragovich as a 'gift.' He is held captive at the Vorkuta Gulag, a Russian labor camp, for two years.

After further interrogation, Mason recounts how, during his imprisonment at Vorkuta, he befriended Viktor Reznov, a former Red Army soldier and a returning character from Call of Duty: World at War. Reznov assists Mason in sparking a prisoner uprising at Vorkuta, which facilitates Mason's escape from the prison.

One month after his escape, Mason is escorted to the Pentagon with his handler, Jason Hudson, where he receives authorization from President John F. Kennedy to assassinate Dragovich. He is then dispatched withFrank Woods and Joseph Bowman to Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR to sabotage the Soviet space program. The team saves a captured operative and destroy the Soyuz 2 as it is launched. Dragovich, who is present at the launch, escapes alive, forcing Mason to spend the next five years searching for him.

By 1968, the SOG, including Mason, is deployed in Vietnam to investigate the Soviet presence. After Mason helps defend the military camp at Khe Sanh, he is deployed to Huế during the Tet Offensive to recover a dossier with information on Dragovich from an unnamed defector. The team recovers the dossier, and Mason discovers that Reznov is the defector.

After Mason escapes Huế City, the campaign shifts to a mission in Kowloon, Hong Kong, where Hudson is sent to find and interrogate Dr. Clarke, a scientist working under Dragovich. The mission goes awry, and Clarke is killed while Hudson seeks to escape Dragovich's men.

Then, after further interrogation, Mason reveals the story, as told to him by Reznov, of the history behind Dragovich, his associate, Lev Kravchenko, and German ally, Dr. Friedrich Steiner. These events take place shortly after World War II, and are told through the eyes of Viktor Reznov. They detail Dragovich's discovery of the German chemical weapon, Nova 6, and illustrate his ruthlessness as he murders his own soldiers to witness the effects of the weapon, including Reznov's close friend, Dimitri Petrenko. This mission ends with Reznov asking Mason to promise him that Petrenko's death will be avenged, and Dragovich, along with his allies, Kravchenko and Steiner, will be killed.

The interrogation moves back to 1968, and Mason describes how he and the rest of his squad from the SOG fight their way through Viet Cong-controlled territory in an ultimately futile attempt to chase an elusive Kravchenko, and are later sent to locate and investigate a downed Soviet plane containing Nova 6. During this investigation, Mason, Woods, and Bowman are captured by the Viet Cong.

Again, the perspective switches to Agent Hudson, who is sent on a mission to infiltrate a Soviet base in the Ural Mountains, a suspected development center of Nova 6. The control room the facility is rigged with explosives in a trap set by Dragovich, but Hudson's team is contacted remotely by Dr. Steiner, who gives his location and promises, in exchange for safety from Dragovich's systematic elimination of "loose ends," information on cracking the numbers broadcast.

After this mission is completed, Mason describes to his interrogator how Bowman was killed while imprisoned, and how he and Woods escape from their Viet Cong captors. Mason fights across a vast swath of Vietnamese land in a stolen Mi-24 Hind to reach Kravchenko's base. At this base, Mason again meets Reznov, who leads him through the base towards Kravchenko. When Mason reaches Kravchenko, Kravchenko commits suicide with his bandolier of grenades, seemingly killing Woods in the process. Mason and Reznov then recover documents that lead them to Rebirth Island.

Mason's story converges with Hudson's at Rebirth Island, as both fight their way through a Soviet Nova 6 research and production facility to reach Dr. Steiner. Hudson engages in an all-out assault on the facility with light armor and a squad of CIA operatives, while Mason sneaks into the facility with Reznov. Mason reaches Steiner only shortly before Hudson, and watches as Reznov murders Steiner.

However, when the same story is retold through Hudson's eyes, it is revealed that it was, in fact, Mason alone who shot Steiner, while exclaiming that he was Reznov and would have revenge. The flashbacks end and the interrogation continues. Hudson reveals himself to be the interrogator and confronts Mason face-to-face in a desperate bid to break him free of his brainwashing. In this mission, it is revealed that, while at Vorkuta, Mason was subjected to severe mental reconditioning in order to turn him into a sleeper cell who would perform Soviet missions in America. However, Reznov 'hijacked' this conditioning and used it to instill in Mason an absolute devotion to complete Reznov's vow for revenge. Reznov was actually killed in the escape from Vorkuta, and, therefore, all subsequent appearances of his character are merely a part of Mason's imagination, brought on by the intense nature of the brainwashing Mason experienced.

As the reprogramming of Mason's brain is finally broken, Mason recalls the origin of the numbers broadcast, a ship off the shore of Cuba called the Rusalka. In a CIA raid on the ship and the underwater broadcast station over which it is anchored, Mason kills Dragovich and sinks the broadcast station, ending the threat that the sleeper agents presented to the United States.

North America & The Caribbean

• Havana, Cuba
• The Pentagon, Washington D.C.
• Gulf of Mexico
• Beale AFB, California

Southeast and East Asia

• Khe Sanh, South Vietnam
• Hue City, South Vietnam
• Kowloon, Hong Kong
• DMZ, Vietnam
• Viet Cong base somewhere in Laos

Soviet Union

• Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh SSR
• Mount Yamantau, Ural Mountains
• Vorkuta, Russian SFSR
• Crashed German ship, Artic Circle

Other

• Low Earth orbit

Factions

Playable

• Studies and Observation Group/CIA
• Red Army (Project Nova only)
• Operation 40 (Operation 40 and Executive Order only)

Friendly

• 1st Cavalry Division
• USMC
• United States Navy
• Soviet Armed Forces (Project Nova only)

Enemy

• North Vietnamese Army
• Viet Cong
• Spetsnaz
• Tropas
• Nazi Troopers (Project Nova only)
• Soviet Armed Forces (Project Nova only)
• British Commandos (Project Nova only)
• Zombies (Zombies mode only)

Characters

CIA and SOG

• Frank Woods - Member of the Studies and Observations Group.
• Alex Mason - Playable character and a member of Studies and Observation Group and CIA.
• Joseph Bowman - Member of Studies and Observation Group.
• Jason Hudson - Playable character and a CIA operator; formerly Mason's handler.
• Grigori Weaver - Russian CIA agent.

Communist Forces

• Lev Kravchenko - One of the antagonists in the game.
• Nikita Dragovich - The main antagonist of the game.
• Dr. Friedrich Steiner - A former Nazi scientist working for the Soviets, one of the antagonists.
• Dr. Daniel Clarke - A British scientist who formulated codename "Nova 6", often considered an anti-hero.

Other

• John F. Kennedy - U.S. President. Playable in "Five".
• Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense for the Kennedy administration. Playable in "Five".
• Viktor Reznov - Returning from Call of Duty: World at War, a friend of Mason's who helps him escape fromVorkuta. Playable in Project Nova.
• Dimitri Petrenko - A Protagonist returning from Call of Duty: World at War, this time as a NPC, is Viktor Reznov's closest friend.

Missions

Call of Duty: Black Ops contains fifteen single player levels.

1. "Operation 40" - Escape police forces and assassinate Fidel Castro.
2. "Vorkuta" - Participate in the Vorkuta prison break.
3. "U.S.D.D." - Tour the Pentagon and meet John F. Kennedy.
4. "Executive Order" - Rescue Weaver and stop the launch of the Soyuz 2.
5. "S.O.G." - Defend the Khe Sanh military camp.
6. "The Defector" - Extract the Russian defector.
7. "Numbers" - Escape Dragovich's men with Dr. Clarke.
8. "Project Nova" - Extract Steiner and destroy the ship containing Nova 6.
9. "Victor Charlie" - Battle Viet Cong forces in the Vietnamese jungle.
10. "Crash Site" - Locate the downed Soviet cargo plane containing Nova 6.
11. "WMD" - Infiltrate a Soviet base in the Ural Mountains.
12. "Payback" - Escape the Viet Cong complex and confront Kravchenko.
13. "Rebirth" - Relive the efforts to extract Steiner from both Mason and Hudson's perspectives.
14. "Revelations" - Discover the truth behind the numbers.
15. "Redemption" - Destroy the broadcast station and confront Dragovich.

Computer Codes

Main article: Call of Duty: Black Ops Data Servers

At the main menu, the player is strapped to the chair in which Mason is interrogated. By rapidly pressing the left and right trigger (Xbox 360), L2 and R2 (PlayStation 3), or Spacebar (PC), alternately shaking the WiiMote and the Nunchuk, the character can break free of the chair and move freely about the interrogation room. In the back of the room, near the left corner, there is a computer terminal that can be accessed by the player.

Zombies

Main article: Zombies (mode)

Call of Duty: Black Ops features the return of Zombie Mode from Call Of Duty: World At War. Zombie Mode can be played solo, split-screen, and online with up to four players. Two Zombie maps are included with the game, and seven are currently available as part of the four DLC map packs. Call of Duty: Black Ops also features a unique mode called Dead Ops Arcade.

Maps

• Kino Der Toten - Unlocked by default
• "Five" - Unlocked by completing the campaign, or entering "3ARC UNLOCK" in the Computer Console
• Dead Ops Arcade - Unlocked by the command 'DOA' or '3ARC UNLOCK' on the Computer Console
• Ascension - Included with the First Strike DLC
• Call of the Dead - Included with the Escalation DLC
• Shangri-La - Included with the Annihilation DLC
• Moon - Included with the Rezurrection DLC

Additionally, the four maps from Call of Duty: World at War (Nacht Der Untoten, Verrückt, Shi No Numa and Der Riese) are available as a part of the Prestige or Hardened editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops, or the RezurrectionDLC. These maps also include exclusively some of the weapons in World at War, such as the Thompson andM1897 Trench Gun.