It was enough to make us break out a notepad, which is always a treat in a modern AAA game, where puzzles are usually liquidated.

There’s enough variety in the mission locations and gameplay to keep you interested, and we enjoyed the fact you could collect evidence in the essential missions to complete optional puzzles that further contextualize the clandestine narrative. It’s propaganda, but at least the 80s soundtrack is cool, and it doesn’t drag on too long, clocking in at around six hours. Expect gruesome takedowns, rockets blowing up beautiful villages, cheesy mission codenames and helicopters exploding while you’re in them. There are some standout missions where the game flips the script and slows down the pace to create Hitman-esque stealth sequences, but the whole thing boils down into a popcorn action-movie of questionable ethics. You create your own character this time around, and you get to pick your gender and the tenets of your psychological profile, with choices like ‘Tormented’ providing you with double the lethal and tactical equipment because you always “over prepare for a negative outcome.” Edgy.

It’s a far cry from last year’s Modern Warfare, which at least tried to deal with its subject matter with some tact - even if its execution is debatable. A deified Ronald Reagan provides a bunch of boneheaded operatives carte blanche to commit war crimes to protect “the free men and women of the world.” You’ve seen it all before, and you’ll see it again.

At least it looks lovely in 4K at 60 fpsĪs you might expect from the marketing so far, Cold War’s campaign is a real turn-your-brain-off, politically acerbic story.

Character customization feels like a half-baked idea.

A morally bankrupt narrative that descends into absurdity.

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