With Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War finally out, players are pouring over both the multiplayer modes and the game's 80s-inspired campaign. As players continue to charge through the game, unlocking Black Ops Cold War's difficult challenges and perfecting speedruns, some fans have found Ester eggs from older titles sprinkled throughout the new story.
YouTube content creator TheGamingRevolution recently posted a video detailing one of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Easter eggs that calls back to a controversial mission from Modern Warfare 2. Spoilers Ahead on both the Modern Warfare 2 mission, as well as the new Cold War mission that appears to serve as a homage.
The mission in Black Ops Cold War is called Desperate Measures, which tasks the player with infiltrating the Lubyanka Building for an initially covert operation that turns to action later on. It's the turn that acts as a callback to the Modern Warfare 2 mission No Russian, as the fighting starts when an elevator opens and the player is instructed to open fire on a number of soldiers. While the situation isn't exactly the same, players have noted that the vibe as the elevator doors open is strikingly similar to the divisive mission in the older Call of Duty.
For those unaware of what this Easter egg points to, the Modern Warfare 2 mission involved participating in a terrorist attack on an airport, requiring players to gun down civilians. The mission sparked controversy not only in the games media, but in the mainstream media, as tensions had still been high when the game launched in 2009. This is likely why the homage is much more subtle in Desperate Measures, with the unsuspecting victims being enemy soldiers, as Activision likely didn't want to see a new controversy compromise the relative praise Black Ops Cold War has received.
Considering how the original mission in Modern Warfare 2 was received, leaving a homage to it may have been a risky decision by Treyarch, even if the scene in Black Ops Cold War is made better for it. However, it is likely the kind of thing that fans of the original Modern Warfare trilogy would appreciate seeing in the new title. Especially with Black Ops Cold War looking to outperform Modern Warfare, these kind of subtle Easter eggs for veteran players can enhance the player experience.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
