Black Ops Cold War is set 13 years after the events of Black Ops, with the return of signature characters such as Mason, Woods, and Hudson. The original band teams up with newcomer Russell Adler and his team to stop a Russian spy codenamed ‘Perseus’ who has gained access to the American nuclear weapons program dubbed Operation Greenlight. There are nine main missions in the Black Ops Cold War campaign, with nine more, including the briefings and the alternate ending. Also, counted in the eighteen are two side missions that you can complete by finding evidence and clues in other main story missions. These two side missions are Operation Chaos and Operation Red Circus.
Nowhere Left to Run
The first mission starts on January 12, 1981, in the Netherlands, with you assuming control of Mason, as you and Russell Adler wait for the police chief Hans in a bar. Hans arrives and gives both CIA agents an update on the Iranian terrorist Qasim Javadi’s location concerning a hostage situation. Hans gives them a specific time to move in on the targets while ensuring that his police force is not in the vicinity and so that they can look the other way.
Mason and Adler make their way out of the bar and into an alley to meet up with Frank Woods, who is waiting by a car full of weapons. The team gears up and makes their way to the apartment where the Iranian terrorist is holed up. Mason and the team open fire on Javadi’s men through the window and, while clearing out the men, make their way upstairs.
A thrilling rooftop chase is initiated by Mason, Adler, and Woods chasing Javadi while clearing his men on the rooftops, eventually catching up to the target. Once he is caught, Mason is tasked to interrogate him and ask about the whereabouts of Arash Kadivar, the leader of the terrorist cell Javadi is a member of. He eventually tells the team that Kadivar is at the Trabzon airport in Turkey.
At this point, Mason can either let Javadi go, kill him or capture him. If you let him go, Adler will execute him, whereas the interrogation will continue if you choose to keep him in captivity. Continuing to talk with Javadi will reveal a piece of evidence that can be used to solve a side mission called Operation Chaos.
The team arrives at Trabzon Airport 18 hours later (on January 13, 1981) to find the airport surrounded by Kadivar’s men, busy loading the supplies into the cargo plane. Shortly after, Kadivar arrives in a car to surprisingly get out and shoot the other car passengers. The team confirms Kadivar’s identity, after which Mason tries to eliminate Kadivar using his Sniper Rifle but misses. The missed shot alerts everyone at the airfield and forces Kadivar to escape in the cargo plane.
The team engages in a fierce firefight as they chase the cargo plane in one of the airport vehicles. Eventually, Mason uses the RC-XD to detonate under the plane, which resulted in the plane crashing. The team finds Kadivar in the crash and drags him out to question. Adler executes Kadivar after he taunts them and tells them about the Russian Spy, ‘Perseus,’ who everyone thought was dead.
CIA Safehouse E9
Parting with Mason and Woods, Adler assembles his team in the CIA Safehouse in West Berlin on February 23, 1981.
This is where Bell (you) is formally introduced to the rest of Adler’s team that includes:
Eleazar “Lazar” Azoulay: He was formerly in Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, and later joined the CIA thanks to his dual American citizenship. Lawrence Sims: Sims served in the US Army for two years before joining the CIA. Coincidentally, his first assignment was on Russell Adler’s MACV-SOG team deployed in Vietnam. Helen A. Park: Park is an expert when it comes to international relations. She joined the MI6 that ultimately put her on a task that involved Russell Adler. She later joined Russell Adler to pursue Perseus, but MI6 always comes first for Helen Park.
Russell Adler briefs the whole team about the next assignment and asks Bell to revisit Vietnam’s events, where apparently Bell served alongside Sims and Adler. Bell then interacts with the evidence board, where you can choose your next mission.
Fracture Jaw
Along with his team, Adler reminisces about the events that took place in Vietnam a decade ago on January 26, 1968, during the war that was the setting of the original Black Ops. Adler wakes up Bell, and they both walk to the chopper where Sims is waiting for them while reading a book. Adler tells the team that there may be a valuable asset loose in the jungle that the Viet Cong wants to apprehend.
Bell boards the helicopter with Sims, and they start flying towards the objective but soon come under heavy Viet Cong fire. Bell takes control of the chopper mini-gun and eliminates the RPGs, Snipers, and enemy defenses, after which both Sim and Bell infiltrate the site. They fight their way in and eventually run into Soviet soldiers.
Bell and Sim grab the Intel and fight their way back outside to the exfil point where Adler is waiting for them in a chopper.
At this point, Bell assumes control of the chopper and flies it to another site that Viet Cong is trying to infiltrate.
Bell and the team use the chopper to destroy the incoming convoy and land at the site only to collect a nuke.
As the team flies back with the nuke, their helicopter is shot down by the enemy. The Viet Cong troops then surround the team. Bell quickly uses the mini-gun on the chopper to take down as many enemy soldiers as he can, followed by calling in an airstrike.
Adler, Sims, and Bell fend off the incoming enemies until finally, a friendly airstrike comes in, dropping a napalm strike on the enemy troops. The three rejoice as this memory fades to a black screen.
East Berlin Briefing
Once again, on February 24, 1981, Bell is back in the CIA Safehouse where Adler briefs the team about the next mission undertaken in East Berlin. Before moving on, this is the first time you get two side missions on the evidence board: Operation Chaos and Operation Red Circus, as mentioned earlier.
Brick in the Wall
On the same day (on February 24, 1981) during the Brick in the Wall mission, the team travels to East Berlin to find the Russian gangster Anton Volkov associated with Perseus.
Bell and Adler make their way to the rooftops to find Franz Kraus, an ex-Stasi agent who now works for Anton Volkov.
He enters the bar to meet up with Anton Volkov, and Adler then asks Bell to meet their informant in the bar, a woman named Greta Keller. Bell meets up with the informant, who also asks a favor of her own - she asks Bell to find her friend named Lukas Richter, who has been captured by the Stasi.
As Greta and Bell are spying on Kraus, one of Volkov’s men come to the bar and informs Kraus that he has been followed and that Volkov will meet him again at another place and time. Shortly after, two Stasi come into the bar looking for the person who followed Kraus, a.k.a, Bell.
Bell makes his way to the bathroom and then out through the window. From here, Bell is on his own where he can either make his way to Greta’s friend to either rescue or kill him, or he can directly make his way to Lazar. This part is player-determined.
If the player decides to go to the informant (either to rescue to eliminate), they can find evidence that will be used to solve the puzzles associated with the side mission Operation Chaos on the evidence board.
After dealing with the informant, Bell makes his way to Lazar and Park, where they orchestrate a plan to sneak into Kraus’ apartment and steal his briefcase that contains important information. Bell is tasked to do so, and once he gets inside, he finds out that Kraus’ wife and daughter are also in the house. You can also find another piece of evidence for the side-mission Operation Red Circus here.
Either way, Bell manages to find a secret room in the apartment where he finds the briefcase and Greta Keller tied up in Kraus’ wardrobe.
Bell plants the tracker on the briefcase. As soon as Bell finds Keller, he is knocked out by Kraus.
Bells wake up in an abandoned warehouse where Volkov himself interrogates him. As the interrogation fails and Volkov gets frustrated, he decides to kill Bell. As soon as he is about to shoot Bell, Adler and the rest of the team drops in to save the day.
Volkov is wounded in the process and runs for his life. Park helps Bell up, hands him an MP5, and asks him to get Volkov. An intense firefight erupts as the team chases Volkov. Bell finally catches up to Volkov, where the player can either kill Volkov here or capture him for the MI6, as Park requested.
