https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/v-evrope-nastupila-era-kommunizma-v-cold-war-odna-iz-luchshikh-kampanii-v-istorii-call-of-duty

Perhaps the most beautiful Call of Duty

Cold War is a noticeable step forward in terms of visuals. The developers have released a set of textures and models in HD in a separate file, which weighs 40 GB. It’s not necessary to download it, but it will definitely be more enjoyable with it. However, few people can be surprised by simply beautiful graphics in 2023, so Cold War attracts more with its level design. The KGB building on Lubyanka is one of the most beautiful and elaborate places in the game: from portraits of general secretaries and huge chandeliers to typical Soviet wooden benches and marble walls.

The atmosphere of the 1980s is well emphasized by the main personalities of that period: Reagan’s speeches, parades on Red Square, the embraces of Brezhnev and Castro – all this immerses in a historical context. By the way, both Reagan and Gorbachev, who can be met at the meetings, turned out to be quite similar. The developers also got into the era with the appearance of the heroes: for example, Agent Adler looks exactly like an actor from the action movies of the 1980s.

But the quintessence of the time machine at that time was the mission “Brick in the Wall”: everything visually attracts there – from the German metro to a small bar where a meeting with a messenger is to take place. The mission takes place just near the Berlin Wall, so from one of the rooftops we have an overview of both the GDR and the FRG. The developers made a rather moderate contrast in the design of the two Germanies, so that it was noticeable that they are, in fact, two completely different worlds, but at the same time they did not bump into completely caricature, exposing the socialist half of Berlin in a miserable and impoverished light.

Against the background of Berlin, the conditional Cuba and Yamantau turned out to be less memorable, because we in one interpretation or another could already see them before. Still, the overall impression of the visual component of Cold War was extremely positive.

Brick in the wall and attentiveness test

Cold War is primarily a shooter. There aren’t a lot of spy games here, but the ones that do bring an interesting variety to the gameplay. In addition to the main storyline, there are also side missions, which should only be approached after you have collected all the necessary evidence. In different locations, you can find items that will help, for example, get access to a diskette with information about “sleeping agents” in the United States or calculate which of the European politicians is an agent of Perseus. And just collecting evidence is not enough: they also need to be compared. The gameplay side missions themselves will not differ in any way from the usual Call of Duty: landed, cleaned out a hundred enemies, flew away. However, the very approach to them, which forces us to sit over the mission card, digging through the evidence, is in itself curious.

The most spy mission in the Cold War is “Brick in the Wall”, in which we are sent to the GDR to track down one of the agents of the game’s antagonist Perseus. We carefully maneuver through the dark Berlin streets, trying to bypass all the Stasi units, which are checking everyone we meet. There is a minimum of shooting (not counting the final of the mission), but the atmosphere of a spy detective is more than enough. This noticeably adds tension to the process: in the scene where we sneak into the house of the agent Perseus and try not to catch the eye of him and his son, more nerves are spent than in battles with a hundred Soviet soldiers. Such moments add a certain freshness to Call of Duty, and in particular, Cold War is made closer to a real Cold War.

KGB as decoration

The Cold War is one of the most curious confrontations in history, but Activision gives players the opportunity to look at it from one side only. Although even in this case, the campaign could have turned out to be more integral if our special unit fought directly with the KGB. However, the antagonist of the game was the Soviet agent Perseus, who acts behind the back of the USSR leadership. And what about the KGB itself? What goals does the committee set, what is it trying to achieve? All this remained behind the scenes.

In the mission “Extreme Measures”, we, playing as double agent Dmitry Belikov, will even attend a KGB meeting on Lubyanka with Gorbachev and young Imran Zakhaev. However, this will not in any way reveal the position and goals of the USSR in the Cold War, because only the problem of the “mole” in the KGB will be discussed there. Therefore, the Soviet special services in Cold War are nothing more than ordinary decorations, which are needed exclusively as targets in the Extreme Measures mission. And it really looks strange. Imagine that in Call of Duty 2 you would not fight with Germany, but with some insane general who is waging his war behind Hitler’s back. Games based on real events, of course, should not be documentary, but if you completely remove the most important actor from the historical context, it will turn out to be somehow ridiculous.

The Cold War is a battle between intelligence agencies and two ideologies, where it is difficult to name “good” and “bad”. Activision did not label the KGB and the USSR as an enemy: it artificially separated a certain antagonist from them and dedicated the entire plot to him. Probably, if throughout the game we fought directly with the current KGB agents, it would cause a lot of hate and accusations of Russophobia against the developers, but it would make Cold War really a game about the Cold War, and not a stylization with communist decorations and a random antagonist …

Comrade Belikov, I will ask you to stay. Speaking of Dmitry Belikov. It is a pity that the developers did not disclose the motives of the double agent – why he decided to go over to the other side, what moved him, etc. All we know about him is that he loves baseball and smells fumes from him. By the way, a rather strange scenario miscalculation is connected with Belikov. In Echoes of the Cold War, he helps us in a helicopter at an abandoned Soviet base in Yamantau — a seemingly risky move for a double agent. Later we learn that Belikov is the head of the internal security service in the KGB on Lubyanka. What he did on a helicopter in Yamantau and how it could go unnoticed by the Soviets at all are unanswered questions.

Vietnamese flashbacks

Perhaps one of the most interesting and unusual missions in the entire Call of Duty franchise is the penultimate mission Breakout. In it we have to go through the events of the Vietnam War in order to find a clue to the plans of Perseus. This is a non-linear, hallucinogenic mission in which the main character, pumped up with certain drugs, will be guided by Agent Adler. Moreover, the gamer will have the opportunity not to follow the advice, but to choose his own path in order to learn more about himself.

Breakthrough is like Groundhog Day – we will experience the same Vietcong attack over and over again to get to the bottom of the truth. Based on the achievement, there are seven different memories and four paths in the mission. One of them led me into a dark cave, in which I was killed with one blow, either by a predator or by a zombie. After that, Adler’s angry voice immediately rang out: “Stop lying, show how it really was. Inject him again, let him try again. “

The “Breakthrough” task not only looks extremely interesting, but also evokes quite curious feelings. It’s like a kind of social experiment, where you are encouraged for strict adherence to instructions, and you are shocked for insubordination. So here: the player is given the right to decide whether to follow the voice of the charismatic Adler, who was so kind to us throughout the campaign, or to disobey and show his true personality. Looking through the red door of a bunker in the jungle, we find ourselves in the labyrinths of our own consciousness. Fragmented images and endless closed corridors bring the psychedelic level to the maximum. Visually, this is done just fine. And, of course, having opened the very last door of our subconscious, we will finally know the truth that changes everything.

We meet the dawn of communism

To the pluses of Cold War, I would also attribute the possibility of choice, even if in some places it is done rather mediocre. For example, on the task “Brick in the Wall” we have a choice: remove our messenger caught by the Stasi agents or release. In the second case, he will surrender us and the hero will be captured, however, even if the agent is neutralized, we will still be caught.

In addition, dialogue options were added to the protagonist, and although their influence on the plot is not so noticeable, they add variety. This looks especially curious in the last episode, where the hero, standing opposite his ideological rival, can strike at the recitation of his political views, like a cartoon character of the action movies of the 1990s, or, without further ado, put the plan into execution and end the enemies.

Although the developers did not give gamers the opportunity to play the role of ardent communists, they will still allow us to choose a side. The final mission, which can take place in two different locations, will even depend on this. And, perhaps, as a result, the “dawn of communism” will nevertheless shine over all of Europe. After the end of the last mission, we will also be told how our decisions and successes in side missions influenced the geopolitical situation in the world.

Cold War is a breeze. Despite the rather banal plot of the plot – “a certain Russian agent is planning to detonate bombs” – the overall story turned out to be rich and unexpected moments. Thanks to this, you don’t even pay attention to the rather average shooting or some inconsistencies in the script. Cold War isn’t a perfect shooter, but the game’s campaign is definitely one of the best in the series in years. And most importantly, the developers have finally discovered a new theme that looks fresh against the background of the last parts.

An overview of the zombie mode and multiplayer in Call of Duty: Cold War, to which gamers had the most complaints, can be found in the material by Yulia yulch1q Iskovskikh.