That's not to say Black Ops Cold War's campaign is one to avoid entirely. That's because Black Ops Cold War is all over the place even before reaching that screwball climax, from its disturbingly unironic portrayal of one of America's most pernicious presidents, to its grabbag mix of levels, positioning bafflingly old school corridor shooter sequences next to wild, experimental capers inspired by the spycraft of its setting. Yet it's also the ending that, to me, feels most fitting for Raven Software's first stab at a Call of Duty campaign, though I would be surprised if anyone (especially Black Ops creator Treyarch, who co-developed the game) considers it canonical going forward. It is, by all accounts, utterly ridiculous, cramming decades of Black Ops lore into a blender and shredding up the timeline, making it impossible for the other sequels to even take place. 'The campaign doesn't so much as jump the shark as it does repeatedly shoot it in the head until there's nothing but fish guts.' From there, Perseus launches the last part of his master plan, nuking the entirety of western Europe and staging America as responsible, before whisking you away to a secret location safe and sound. In this scenario, you'll have to gun down all of your former friends one by one, including Adler and even Black Ops mainstays Woods and Mason, complete with bullet-cams chronicling their demise in gruesome fashion. If you pursue the latter, while also managing to contact Perseus via a radio that can be uncovered in your safehouse, you'll be rewarded with the chance to stage an ambush on Adler and his crew as revenge for their manipulation.

As part of the game's big twist bombshell drop, CIA operative Adler reveals that he's been brainwashing your character, a former Russian agent nicknamed Bell, into believing they've been allies for decades.įrom there, you have the choice to either help him hunt down Cold War's big bad, Perseus, or deceive him, providing false intel on the villain's location.

Let's recap that ending first, with full spoilers as a warning to those who haven't completed it yet.

Fuck call of duty