YMMV / Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

• Accidental Aesop: The evil ending of the game has a couple:
  • It could be interpreted as an aesop on how vengeance is destructive, since you end up killing millions of Europeans in the process of getting back at Adler.
  • From that same ending: The ends do not justify the means, and doing something ruthlessly pragmatic, such as what Adler did to Bell, can have consequences that negate whatever good you intend to do or can be wholly counterproductive in the worst way possible.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Perseus simply a patriot who believes his country is on the right side of history and wishes to see it prevail against its greatest enemy, as he holds himself out to be, or is he, as Adler believes, a narcissist and sociopath whose only true loyalty is to himself? The fact that he seems perfectly willing to assassinate his own leaders if they don't follow the policy positions he wants certainly makes Adler's accusations seem more credible.
  • Assuming Bell betrays Perseus and reveals his headquarters to the CIA, did Bell really do that of their own free will as Adler claims, or is Bell still subject to the CIA's brainwashing?
  • Bell seemed ready for Adler to try and kill them in the 'good' ending when he tries to tie up loose ends, drawing their pistol fast enough to be able to shoot Adler as well. Can we chalk this up to Bell having good reflexes and instincts? Or was Bell planning on killing Adler for brainwashing and stealing their identity, only holding off because they wanted to put the greater good ahead of a personal grudge (and for that matter, was this incident the excuse they needed)?
  • It's possible for Bell to betray Adler but not signal the deadly ambush in Duga that would save Bell's life from their understandably pissed team. Is this because Bell is Too Dumb to Live and thinks they can take on their former crew alone, or is it because Bell still believes in Perseus' cause but doesn't have the heart to kill their former CIA team (with a hint of Death Equals Redemption)? Or perhaps Bell was brainwashed to be loyal to their immediate comrades as well, and that part of the brainwashing still held?...
  • Is Adler a Well-Intentioned Extremist ready to sacrifice his soul for the sake of his country and millions of innocents? Or is his title 'America's Monster' well-earned?
  • Was Adler's brainwashing and possible killing of Bell a necessary evil that pales in comparison to what Bell's former organization sought to unleash? Or was the threat posed by Perseus an excuse for Adler to give his evil tendencies free-reign?
  • Did Adler shoot Bell in the Good Ending out of his own volition or was it under the orders of Hudson? Audio logs which you can listen to in the mission "Redlight: Greenlight" imply that it was Hudson's idea to kill Bell once they learn the truth. In the CIA briefings before the missions "Desperate Measures" and "End of the Line", Hudson makes 2 remarks about Bell being expendable, and in general acts like a Jerkass to them. Before Adler shoots Bell, he does compliment Bell with words of comfort and calls them a hero that saved the world, while he could've just offed them while they weren't looking.
  • Is Belikov a brave defector helping to stop the Soviet empire or is he just a psychopath? His friendship with Charkov seems go back years, and Charkov genuinely takes a massive risk for Belikov by not reporting him as the mole- none of which stops Belikov killing him.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The description for the Pelington's "Recon Barrel" caused a bit of head-scratching due to being both smoothbore and rifled. This type of barrel, which is mostly smoothbore with rifling at the final segment, exists in reality, and is known as paradox rifling, designed to allow shotguns to fire both scattershot and rifled slugs effectively. It is also used, in Russia for example, to allow certain civilian rifles to be classified as shotguns and make them easier to legally obtain, an example of which is the VPO-209, a civilian semi-auto only variant of the AKM chambered for the .366TKM cartridge, which features a paradox rifled barrel (in this case, smoothbore with the last 120 mm of it being rifled).
• Awesome Video Game Level:
  • Desperate Measures. The first half of the level has you taking control of The Mole in the heart of KGB headquarters, as he assists Adler and Bell in infiltrating the building. You're given multiple ways to accomplish your objectives, with stealth mechanics that makes it play more like a level from Hitman than Call of Duty. Action fans aren't to be left out either, as the second half of the level has you taking control of Bell as you and Adler shoot your way into (and out of) the vault underneath the headquarters.
  • The Final Countdown. After deciding to betray Perseus and sell out the location of his headquarters in Solovetsky, Bell, Adler, Woods and Mason lead a massive strike force to attack Perseus' HQ, with the mission opening up with a dramatic entrance, with Bell and the team using Soviet tanks to smash through the front gate, with the player being given a grenade launcher for this section so they can have Stuff Blowing Up to their heart's content. Then once they make it inside, Bell and Adler fight their way down one side of the base while Mason and Woods take the other, laying waste to enemy forces and anti-aircraft guns along the way, before one final push to destroy the last gun while sixty seconds remain before Perseus uses Solovetsky's radio towers to nuke all of Europe, culminating in Bell blowing up the last gun and watching as American bombers swoop in and destroy the entire base with them still inside. And they live through all of it. At least until Adler takes them out back and shoots them, anyways.
• Best Level Ever:
  • Desperate Measures is a highlight of the campaign for its Unexpected Gameplay Change to a Hitman-esque Stealth-Based Mission. Break On Through is also beloved for its Mind Screw Surreal Horror vibes. Finally, Ashes to Ashes is held in high regard for its Catharsis Factor; after it's revealed that "Bell" is actually a former Perseus lieutenant who was brainwashed and tortured by Adler, many players wanted revenge and chose to bait their former team into the middle of nowhere to ambush them. We then find out that Perseus is actually an Affably Evil Benevolent Boss who treats you way better than Adler ever did and holds no hard feelings for you betraying him temporarily. Another thing that makes this specific mission so popular with the fandom is the very fact that you can actually fucking kill Mason and Woods. Holy shit.
  • The Miami multiplayer map, which, for many gamers, looking like Vice City remade for the present generation graphics.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Lazar's flirting with Park during End Of The Line comes out of nowhere. While they have a few interactions in the safehouse and there are hints that he's attracted to her during Brick In The Wall and his conversations with Bell, him abandoning subtlety to out-and-out flirt with her is a bit jarring.
• Catharsis Factor: Due to The Reveal of Bell being brainwashed against their will the entire time by Adler and the CIA, it's quite satisfying to get some payback against all of them in the bad ending. Doubly so because you end up screwing Ronald Reagan over as well.
• Contested Sequel: As usual, there are those who think this is just as fun as usual, old-school fans who lament how this iteration of Black Ops took itself too seriously compared to the Treyarch original (which was, to begin with, Darker and Edgier if not for the inclusion of Zombies mode and Reznov), and those who think the game storage size is grossly large as usual for a Call of Duty game.
• Designated Hero:
  • While Adler is one of the good guys, his many ruthless actions in the past and in the campaign, combined with his acceptance of his amoral nature and fanatical patriotism would make him a perfect villain if it wasn't for Perseus trying to nuke the world. Even his nickname, 'America's Monster', is sufficiently evil enough for most works.
  • Hudson, mostly because he keeps secrets from the team, is outright antagonistic to Bell, and helped set up Operation Greenlight, a nuclear weapons program that would wipe out a good chunk of Europe. His Never My Fault tendencies and deflection onto Adler don't help either.
• Disappointing Last Level: The bad ending of the game, where Bell leads the CIA strike team into an ambush at Duga and proceeds to kill Adler, Mason, Woods, Park/Lazar and a number of other CIA operatives, is rather underwhelming compared against the good ending, which involves an epic, cinematic final battle worthy of a Call of Duty game.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Perseus is praised for being a good friend of Bell in the evil ending, but that doesn't change the fact that he plans to steal the detonation codes to the Greenlight nukes that America has hidden across most of Europe in the worst case scenario of Soviet takeovers, and cause at least hundreds of millions of deaths by making them all go off at once, all just to frame America and give the Soviet Union the opportunity to Take Over the World.
  • Some fans choose to emphasize Adler's more positive traits to turn him into a Team Dad figure who mentors Bell and serves as a Parental Substitute for them, while downplaying his more negative qualities (of which he has many) and the part about him possibly shooting and killing Bell in either ending of the game.
• Evil Is Cool: The Spetsnaz mooks in the game and Perseus himself. Many players wish for them to be added into multiplayer as playable Mil-Sims. See Rooting for the Empire below in regards to the latter. Also, there are any operators associated with Perseus in the multiplayer.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Woods and Mason walk out of this game with their reputation intact, even if The Other Darrin does put a few people off. The duo are just as competent and fun to hang around as ever, with their Bash Brothers dynamic fully intact.
  • "Bell" is pretty popular in the fanbase for being a self-insert character handled much better than Call of Duty: Black Ops III's divisive "Player". Many were distraught upon getting the "good" ending, in which Adler very likely executes them once they outlive their usefulness and want a better ending for them, hoping that they survived the shot somehow.
  • Helen Park has her fair share of fans, being a competent fighter and having a professional, yet sly persona that contrasts well against the more rough-and-tumble members of the cast. Lazar and Dimitri Belikov also have a fair share of fans.
  • Adler is actually pretty popular, with his in-universe "dark charisma" clearly drawing a fair share of fans who see him as as tormented Anti-Hero doing his best in a very bad situation. His sharp wit, Black Comedy and competence certainly help this perception.
  • In the 'bad' endings, "Perseus" turns out to be Affably Evil, intelligent, perceptive, and witty. Despite all the damage Bell has done to his operation, he trusts Bell enough to personally set up an ambush on short notice, and takes Bell back into the fold without hesitation. In short, he's a total comrade. If the player hesitates before killing Adler, "Perseus" is sympathetic to Bell's conflicted feelings. It's almost enough to make you forget he's trying to commit the worst act of mass murder and terrorism in human history.
  • On the Multiplayer side, Harry Stone seems to be a fan-favorite, somewhat due to being an evil Expy of Simon "Ghost" Riley and the fact that Bell uses his viewmodel. Some players, especially those who shaped them to match Stone's description (Caucasian, British, male), like to pretend that he is Bell, who survived the "good" ending and wants his revenge against Adler.
  • Yirina Portnova, also from the multiplayer side, is a fan favorite, in no small part due to her Perky Goth tendencies, wit, and, of course, her looks, which evoke the likes of the Black Widow or Joanna Dark.
  • Samantha Maxis is one for Call of Duty: Zombies veterans. Many are delighted to see Sam all grown up and kicking as much zombie ass as the OG crew.
• Fandom Rivalry: An unfortunate one with Modern Warfare (2019) after Cold War was integrated with Warzone. There was already a bit of a rivalry concerning which game was a better experience, between Modern Warfare being more tactical with an emphasis on realism and Cold War being more fast-paced and arcadey, but when both games invade and advertise each other on their title screens, tensions rose a bit. What really seemed to set off major disputes is the neglection of Modern Warfare in favor of Cold War and Warzone, of which both share a Battle Pass while Modern Warfare has no Season 7 in sight, even losing its place on the Blizzard launcher in favor of Warzone.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game sold 84,000 copies in Japan when the game was released there on the PS4.
• Genius Bonus: The American traitor that you can kill in "Operation Chaos" is named Robert Aldrich, combining the names of the two worst (known) American double agents: Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames.
• Good Bad Bugs: Be careful when switching magnification level while looking through a variable zoom optic, because everyone in the lobby will hear you doing it.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • If you choose the good ending but fail to eliminate Aldrich's spy ring, Hudson will later remark that extreme measures like enhanced domestic surveillance will be required to help take it down. He later expresses frustration that such measures won't be allowed. Black simply replies: "Not yet."
  • One of Ghostface's takedown animations involves stabbing the victim from both front and behind before sliding the knives down and kicking them dead on the floor afterwards. That's exactly how Dewey got killed in Scream (2022). Worse than that, the film was released only a few months after the Ghostface character was released.
• He's Just Hiding: Many people believe that Bell didn't actually get killed in the good ending, making up various theories for it.
• Heartwarming Moments: Has its own page.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This isn't the first time a prequel game to a high-profile franchise had Bell and Adler created for it, and with one of them being a traitor.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: If the campaign deserves any criticism, it's the extremely short length compared to others in the franchise, which is unfortunate, as the story is rather enjoyable and could've stood to be fleshed out some more.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A common criticism of the game from the Alpha and Beta, such as Act Man's take on the Private Beta, is that the game's general interface and weapon customizations closely resembles how Modern Warfare 2019 looked; the main menu looks the same, as does the Scorestreak menu, and the Gunsmith compartment is downright identical, even down to the camera angle when previewing attachments. Of course considering Modern Warfare was one of the better-received COD titles, and past games tend to copy and build on previous games' mechanics (such as the Pick 10 System) anyways, this isn't surprising.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • CIA agent Russell Adler is the head of a black ops squad out to stop Perseus' plan at all costs. Willing to murder and torture to stop the Soviets from activating nukes across Europe, Adler has Perseus' severely wounded second-in-command implanted with false memories and renamed "Bell" to be used to track down Perseus. Mentally torturing Bell into reliving a series of distorted memories once time's running out, should Bell side with Adler and stop Perseus, Adler summons Bell to personally kill them to tie up loose ends. Even if Bell betrays Adler and has the Soviets gun him and his squad down, Adler shows defiance against Bell even when he's on the verge of death.
  • "Perseus" is a rogue Soviet Union agent who seeks to increase his country's power. Stealing the detonation codes for Operation Greenlight, which will involve initiating a series of American neuron bombs planted on European soil, Perseus plans to activate the bombs and kill millions, with America taking the brunt of the blame while the SU will rise as a global superpower. Perseus is able to remain hidden throughout the game, getting away with killing his own scientists after they successfully reverse-engineer the bombs to activate upon his command. Anticipating his former associate Bell regaining their memories, Perseus launches a successful ambush against Adler's men should Bell choose to side with the Soviets, even allowing his former comrade to activate the bombs and secure victory.
  • The Player Character known as "Bell" is secretly the brainwashed second-in-command of Perseus turned US black ops soldier. After aiding in a series of secret missions to uncover and prevent Operation Greenlight, Bell rediscovers their true identity and is given a choice that decides the fate of the two global superpowers of their era: should they side with their current associates, Bell aids in the operation that effortlessly prevents and thwarts Perseus' plans to burn the West to the ground. Should Bell decide to side with their former associates, they are able to divert the US operatives' attention long enough for Perseus to detonate the nukes, being able to take things further by secretly setting up an ambush with their Soviet allies that wipes the entire team out, and then personally giving the order that leads to Russia becoming the dominating country of the world.
  • Dimitri Ivanovich Belikov is the Head of Security at the KGB Headquarters that has been acting as The Mole within the organization for about fourteen years. Being tasked with getting his US black ops allies into the Lubyanka Building to obtain a list of erased names, Belikov, while his treachery is being suspected, manages to use a combination of framing, stealth, bribery, and outright murder to get Alder and Bell inside with disguises. After being rescued when his cover is blown, Belikov leads his allies to sets of heavy Soviet combat gear before fighting with them through a whole building of armed Russian forces, managing to escape with no casualties on their side and with the list they came for.
• Memetic Badass: Belikov is sometimes compared to Agent 47 in the first half of the level "Desperate Measures" for his ability to take down and then hide the bodies of the soviet guards and him having the option to kill Charkov in order to gain the bunker key.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • ”We’ve got a job to do.”
  • Press F to send crack to the inner cities.^ExplanationGiven his divisive reputation, many were baffled at Reagan's portrayal as an unambiguous Big Good figure, creating a derivative of "Press F to Pay Respects" referencing the problematic decisions of his administration.
  • "I'm a goddamn onion, Mason. You should know that."^ExplanationSaid by Woods when Mason calls him the expert in quiet, the line came across as ridiculous and cringeworthy for many players, with some jokingly drawing comparison to the "onions have layers" meme. Even James C. Burns, Woods' previous voice actor, found this line utterly ridiculous and out-of-character.
  • Simp. ^ExplanationFans of Helen Park quickly got this term attached to them, due to the perception that fans of Park focus entirely on her attractiveness and nothing else. It's mostly in good fun, however, as those who do use the term do recognize that Park has several reasons to be the Ensemble Dark Horse that she is, and so "Simp" is mostly used in a joking context.
  • Commie Mommy. ^ExplanationYirina Portnova's fans often refer to her as such, because she's a Soviet KGB operative with gothic tendencies who happens to have a number of customization options that properly make her look the part, and because "Commie" and "Mommy" rhyme.
  • "That's one less loose end." ^ExplanationThe "good" ending in which Bell betrays Perseus and prevents Europe from being nuked has Adler presumably execute Bell out of the off-chance that they might defect back to the Soviets. To many-a-CoD player, this brings back harsh memories of General Shepherd's betrayal of Roach and Ghost back in Modern Warfare 2.
• Memetic Psychopath:
  • Adler's tendency to default to Pay Evil unto Evil and his The Unfettered personality have made him a fan favorite for hypothetical scenarios where he kills people for extremely absurd reasons.
  • Dimitri Belikov became popular to interpret as someone who makes people around his workplace disappear with alarming frequency. Others joke that he's a serial killer even by KGB standards, and one particular interpretation is that he's the grandfather of the Hitman and that his skills at spycraft and murdering people are hereditary.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Perseus' entire plan is to steal the detonation codes to the Greenlight nukes that America has hidden across most of Europe in the worst case scenario of Soviet takeovers, and cause at least hundreds of millions of deaths by making them all go off at once, all just to frame America and give the Soviet Union the opportunity to Take Over the World.
  • Although far smaller in scope, Adler's plan for stopping Perseus is incredibly amoral. Brainwashing a critically injured Perseus soldier and rewriting their identity and memories just for a desperate shot at figuring out what Perseus' plans are, then disposing of this person in the Good ending even if they still chose to save thousands of lives after Adler revealed the truth to them. What makes this even worse is that Adler is doing the exact same kind of brainwashing that was done to Mason at the hands of Dragovich and Steiner, which left him psychologically damaged for decades after the fact.
• Narm:
  • In the bad ending if Bell shoots Woods, Mason or Lazar/Park, they will be blown back with full force despite being hit with a single bullet. This is very hard to take seriously, especially with the Ragdoll Physics implemented, and since the camera zooms in and slows down right at the moment of their death, it might catch really bizarre poses in mid-air.
  • The descriptions for weapon attachments are this for people who have knowledge of how firearms work. The 1911 Cavalry Lancer barrel is an "anti-infantry" barrel designed to do more damage to vehicles, and the Milano's drum mag has rounds arranged "side-by-side in a single stack". (While still somehow being inside a circular drum.)
  • When Mason calls Woods the expert in quiet, Woods replies: "I'm a goddamn onion, Mason. You should know that." It's obviously meant to be a Badass Boast, but instead, it comes off as something ridiculous and cringe-worthy to CoD fans^note hilariously, Woods' original voice actor agrees.
  • In 'Desperate Measures', when you're playing as Bell it's possible to carry dead bodies right in front of the guards, who don't even react. You can even carry GENERAL CHARKOV around without anyone batting an eye, even into the elevator where Zakhaev comes in with you. Makes you wonder how demoralized the Lubyanka staff really are.
  • The already hammy voice lines of the multiplayer announcers get even funnier when you are playing the game's official Prop Hunt mode. It's pretty surreal to hear Hudson tell you "CIA Team! Defend our freedom!" when your opponents are defenseless chairs, gas pumps or bags of coca leaves.
  • Rambo will scream when using the Death Machine (or sometimes when killing a large group of zombies), which sounds cool on paper but sometimes this can happen when there are no or barely any enemies in the vicinity. This will either make him look ridiculous or hilarious.
• Narm Charm: Rambo and McClane's slightly Off-Model looks (particularly in Warzone) and shoddily-ripped film quotes have been interpreted by some people as a deliberate use of Stylistic Suck to make the two come across as animated action figures.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has it's own page now.
• Older Than They Think:
  • There was a lot of less-than-positive press about Ronald Reagan appearing in the story to "absolve" the player of committing war crimes. Yet the first Black Ops features the main character getting briefed by John F. Kennedy himself, who implores them to save their way of life from communism, before ordering them to illegally infiltrate the Soviet Union and basically massacre a space launch facility. And then, in the non-canon Zombies mode, Kennedy teams up with arch-nemesis Fidel Castro to fight zombies.
  • The plot point where Mason and Woods, two of the series' most prominent main characters, dying permanently based on the players' choice actually has been there since Black Ops 2, although Cold War allows players to kill them at the same mission as opposed to Mason and Woods' different death moments in Black Ops 2 (the former in 1989 and the latter in 2025).
• Rooting for the Empire: There were many fans who actually prefer the the bad ending, since it's very rare to see the villain outright win in a Call of Duty game. It also helps that the protagonist, Bell, would have ample reason to betray the CIA since they were forcibly brainwashed by them to betray Perseus. Not to mention, the path where Bell sided with Adler ends with a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Cliffhanger, whereas Perseus greets you like an old friend. Some Players might use Insane Troll Logic to justify Bell killing the likes of Woods, Mason and all those Europeans.
• The Scrappy: Unlike his previous two portrayals where he was reasonably well-liked or at least sympathized with, Hudson falls victim to this trope in Cold War, mostly because he's outright antagonistic to Bell, he works behind the scenes rather than actually getting into the action like his previous outings in the series, he adopts Never My Fault as a personality trait, and he had a big hand in setting up the program to nuke Europe if the Soviets invade, and is implied to have ordered Bell's execution. That said, his antagonism towards Bell is at least somewhat justified given that Bell is a brainwashed Perseus operative working for Hudson's strike team, and he helps keep the plot moving along, and he does genuinely compliment Bell here and there, so it's not like he's completely useless or without positive traits.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Those who hated the vehicles and skill-based matchmaking in Modern Warfare 2019 will be less than pleased to find both of these making their return here. Additionally, the new Scorestreak system has caught its fair share of flak for not resetting upon death.
  • The "Best Play" feature in Multiplayer has gotten a fair amount of ire from players, due to its convoluted way of determining the best play, and for replacing the Last Kill feature from every other game in the series. It also does not base this on skill or performance, but on how many players are killed in a short span of time. So, a player can very easily get the Best Play by camping and kill-spawning, tactics that many players deride as lazy and unsporting (while camping is not as much of a Berserk Button anymore, since it's fairly easy to beat, kill-spawning is widely hated since the victim has little to no chance of defending themselves.)
  • For those who like a challenge, the campaign oddly gives the player essentially near-permanent scavenger, with enemies constantly dropping bags of ammo that refill the player's weapons meaning that managing ammo for rare weapons is simply not a thing in the campaign as well as making one of the perks the player chooses from when creating Bell that gives them one extra magazine in reserve for all weapons redundant.
  • A large chunk of the game's battlepass weapons (now unlocked via challenges) are clearly superior to most/all of the pre-battlepass weapons in the same category which both results in glaring balance issues but also makes multiplayer repetitive as many players will only run the battlepass weapons.
• Scrappy Weapon:
  • The Hauer 77 is straight up the worst shotgun in the game, notably unable to even consistently 1-shot enemies at point blank which is especially egregious considering how Tomahawks and melee weapons can always instant kill while the other shotguns are all semi-automatic and can easily land the second shot needed to finish off the enemy.
  • The Colt 1911 has basically nothing going for it, the Magnum has better headshot damage if you want accuracy, the Diamatti and AMP63 do far more damage at close-medium range (especially when dual-wielded) and the Marshall is a one-shot machine at close range.
• Shocking Moments: The bad ending, where the player personally murders the remnants of the CIA team, including killing Mason and Woods, and allows for Perseus to detonate the Greenlight nukes to frame America for obliterating most of Europe. For as short and simple as the last level is, it's easily the most talked-about part of the entire game.
• Special Effect Failure: The addition of John Rambo and John McClane for the '80s Action Heroes event came with their likenesses, but their actors didn't come in to reprise their roles; very strange in the former case knowing that he did come in for Mortal Kombat 11. This results in their dialogue being pulled from Rambo: First Blood Part II and Die Hard, respectively, but a lot of their quotes still have noise/grain in the background and hard cuts to better fit the context of the game. To a lot of people, this feels very shoddy and an example of Activision's cheapness in not reaching out to the actors to come in for this big '80s nostalgia event. For more optimistic fans, this could be seen as an example of Stylistic Suck as Rambo and McClane can be interpreted as action figures come to life.
• Squick: Getting an injection through your eye socket is about as disturbing as it sounds, with it getting the appropriate reactions from Sims and Lazar/Park.
• Tearjerker: Has its own page.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Unlike what happens with Harper and Farid in Black Ops II, the decision to save Lazar or Park only changes minor dialogue segments, and doesn't alter the plot in a drastic manner. As such, their plotlines are fairly static and don't really push the story in any significant direction once the decision is made.
  • Hudson, Mason and Woods are secondary characters in the game, and despite elements related to the first game cropping up as part of the story, they don't get too involved in the storyline, leaving Adler and Bell to do the dramatic heavy lifting.
  • Lev Kravchenko and Imran Zakhaev appear in the story, but they don't have any real confrontations with the heroes and are only around for bit parts.
  • Raul Menendez himself is alluded to, but he's also a no-show for the events of the game. Which is weird, because by this point in the timeline, his feud with Mason, Woods and Hudson is about five years away, and the question of how Raul ended up on their radar in the first place is anyone's guess.
  • Sims is Adler's right hand man who fought with him since Vietnam, but has very little screen time or speaking roles.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Teaser material from Treyarch called 'Pawn Takes Pawn' showed Joseph Bowman's son and Bruce Harris (who we thought had died in the first Black Ops game). None of this is ever mentioned or even referenced in the campaign.
  • Those who hoped the campaign would delve more into fighting against the communist subversion Yuri Bezmenov warned against will be largely disappointed, as such a premise was given relatively little attention in the campaign compared to the standard 'stop the world from being nuked' storyline. Then again, Bezmenov's testimony was Based on a Great Big Lie and was little more than fascist propaganda meant to demonize meaningful social reform, so that approach was probably for the best.
  • The evidence board could've been greatly expanded on and provide more depth to the campaign, but fully decoding the mysteries it provides gives you the good outcomes for 2 extra missions, whose outcome will only change a few lines of dialogue in either ending. The same can be said for the choices in the story, as most of them end up lacking any influence on the story.
  • Nova Six makes a brief return in the game, but besides using it to bump off a relatively minor character, it is never brought up again, despite it being the focus of the original game.
  • The so-called Evil Ending missed a brilliant choice. After Bell gets their revenge on Adler and Co for the brainwashing, Perseus gives Bell the detonator to usher in the new Soviet era. The devs missed a glorious moment for Bell to turn around and stop Perseus from committing the largest mass murder in history, by appealing to the moral high ground. Instead of actually detonating, they proclaim that they discovered a CIA plot to destroy Europe with American nukes, then blame it on the Kremlin. The nukes are indeed American, and the CIA (and MI6) were involved in the situation, thus forcing the POTUS to either disavow the CIA for such a plan or accept the political fallout of the events of the game. Meanwhile, Perseus, Bell and the KGB are hailed as heroes for saving the world from WW3 and it puts Russia in the foreground as a more 'trustworthy' ally to the rest of the world. This way, Bell would still be a hero, but on their terms, not Adler's.
    • In a similar vein, the player must side with either the Soviets or the Americans; there's no option to screw over both sides, which the game repeatedly shows they amply deserve. A lot of players enjoyed getting revenge on Adler and his team but wish it didn't come with the baggage of blowing up half of Europe.
  • A Call of Duty game taking place in the early eighties, dealing with hunting an expert Soviet agent and the risk of nuclear exchange, and at no point does it incorporate or suggest Able Archer 83 or Operation RYAN?
  • The plotline regarding the Iranian Hostage Crisis is dropped completely after the first mission, when it could've been used to further explain Perseus' motivations.
  • The Vietnam War is a major part of Adler's backstory, seeing as he hunted Perseus during the conflict and was explicitly stated to be one of the few people to have even come close to taking the Soviet agent down. Mason and Woods reveal in conversation with Bell that Adler's own fireteam fought alongside them during the Vietnam Missions set in the original Black Ops, and yet we only get the mission 'Fracture Jaw' to delve into Adler's backstory in Vietnam, when there could've been several.
  • 'Redlight, Greenlight' involves you hacking a Soviet computer with voice files of a conversation between Hudson and President Reagan. Considering this conversation discussed Operation Greenlight, it was a terribly missed opportunity for the CIA to uncover whoever was high-ranking and skilled enough to tap a phone line used by the President himself, and get their hands on such classified information.
• Unexpected Character: No one predicted Imran Zakhaev and Lev Kravchenko making an appearance in the KGB headquarters, especially the former as this seemingly sets up a long-awaited Shared Universe between Modern Warfare (2019) and Black Ops.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • After Black Ops 4 canceled its campaign to focus on Blackout, it makes a major return for the Black Ops series in Cold War, serving as both a sequel to the first game and a prequel to the second game. While the length is contested like most CoD campaigns, it seems to have struck all the right notes with the fans, bringing back alternate endings, optional side missions, and branching paths like in Black Ops 2. Having a lot of the staff behind that game's campaign working on the campaign of Cold War definitely helps.
  • Cold War zombies brings back the classic perk system, complete with the jingles. This was in response to massive fan backlash in Black Ops 4 zombies, which was criticized for being too confusing and having pay-to-win aspects.