Treyarch's follow-up to Call of Duty: World at War was far more ambitious and risky than the studio's previous efforts. At the time, Call of Duty: Black Ops had sold record numbers not only for its fantastic iteration on classic Call of Duty multiplayer, but also its engaging and unique story campaign. The game was the first of its kind to explore the Cold War, and was the beginning to a subseries that would provide some of the most popular Call of Duty games ever made.
With Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War confirmed as a direct sequel to the first Call of Duty: Black Ops, it's important to report back to the first game's story and how it may impact this sequel. Alex Mason's tumultuous journey throughout the earlier years of the Cold War was one of Call of Duty's best written campaigns, even to this day. Black Ops was incredibly ambitious compared to earlier Call of Duty campaigns, including a fully voiced protagonist and a story with thrilling psychological elements. Here's the story of Alex Mason and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
The Bay of Pigs and Mason's Brainwashing
Unlike Black Ops Cold War, 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops takes place much earlier in the Cold War. Players take on the role of CIA operative Alex Mason, as he's assaulted with questions in a torture chair about enigmatic "numbers" and their meaning. This recurring interrogation scene sets up the story of the whole game, ranging from Cuba, to Vietnam, to Russia. The game begins with the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961; Alex Mason, alongside fellow operatives Frank Woods and Joseph Bowman, participate in Operation 40 in a bout to assassinate Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro. After the notably botched attempt and the killing of a decoy, Alex Mason is captured.
Castro turns Mason over to Nikita Dragovich, a Russian general planning a biochemical attack on the United States. Mason is placed in the Vorkuta Gulag labor camp for several years, where he befriends a familiar face in Victor Reznov from World at War. Unbeknownst to Mason, Dragovich had installed a brainwash protocol instructing him to assassinate John F. Kennedy. Reznov realized this, and corrupted Mason's brainwashing to his advantage: Mason was to kill Dragovich instead, along with second-in-command Lev Kravchenko and Nazi scientist Friedrich Steiner, the man who created the Nova 6 gas Dragovich was planning to attack major US cities with.
A Short Stint in Southeast Asia
After Reznov hijacked Mason's brainwashing and the "two" of them escape Vorkuta, Mason returns to the United States Pentagon with CIA handler Jason Hudson in 1963. He is given a special mission from Kennedy himself to assassinate Dragovich at a Soviet cosmodrome, all the while resisting his initial programming to murder Kennedy. He avoids Dragovich's programming and heads to Russia with Woods and Bowman in an attempt to take down Dragovich. The team stops a nuclear missile launch, but Dragovich escapes, and the team spends the next five years searching for Dragovich again. Five years pass, and in 1968, Mason and his comrades are deployed to Vietnam.
After taking part in the Battle of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, Mason befriends a returning Victor Reznov, who is the unnamed Russian defector providing information to the U.S. SOG team. After a short detour to Hong Kong with Hudson, the CIA have determined Dragovich's plan to prepare and unleash Nova 6 gas attacks across the United States. Reznov tells Mason of a secret Russian mission he undertook in the events after World at War, where he served under Dragovich and discovered Nova 6's devastating effects. Then Mason tells of his remaining time in Vietnam, where Mason, Woods, and Bowman were captured by Viet Cong. Bowman and Woods die, while Mason and Reznov kill Kravchenko and escape.
Stopping Dragovich's Nova 6 Attack
This is where things get quite messy in Call of Duty: Black Ops. While Hudson independently determined where Dragovich's Nova 6 operation would be orchestrated, Mason's information from Vietnam also brought him and Reznov to Rebirth Island. Hudson had begun a light assault on the compound where Nova 6 was being prepared to launch. Mason tells Hudson during the interrogation that he and Reznov had also infiltrated Rebirth Island, and that Reznov managed to assassinate Steiner.
However, those "numbers" that had corrupted Mason were part of Dragovich and Reznov's brainwashing, and Mason was revealed to be the sole killer. Reznov had actually died during the Vorkuta escape and Reznov's existence was Mason's hallucination due to brain trauma. Steiner was supposedly the last person alive who knew where the Nova 6 broadcast station was, but the "numbers" were code for the location, and those numbers were extracted from Mason during the interrogation. Mason tells Hudson where the base is, and the two begin an assault on Dragovich's underwater base. Dragovich is ultimately killed by Mason, fulfilling the brainwashing and preventing the Nova 6 attack.
That's where Black Ops lands at the end, but it does pose an interesting curiosity with Black Ops Cold War. Frankly, it's unbelievable that Mason would even be considered an operative viable for field work, and yet he's part of the team alongside a now-alive Woods. Not to mention this game takes place 13 years after the events of the first game, during the height of the Cold War in the 80s. The connections to Black Ops will come out in due time, but as a direct sequel, fans are obviously curious as to what's next for Mason and the new team.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War release on November 13, 2020, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X versions will release "holiday 2020."