[SPOILERS - AW and MW] Singleplayer plot considerations (rant)

[Turtle.]

Imma try to keep it in chronological order, I have finished a campaign in almost one seating half an hour ago and I wonder if any of you who is reading this post thinks same/differently about the stuff I'm gonna write here.

But first, let me say that I really enjoyed the singleplayer campaign and I think I'm gonna try to beat it on veteran at some point, I finished it on hardened, took me about 8 hours to do so (including having to restart a game due to random crashes, loading screens etc.). Anyway, let's go for actual rant, Imma split it a little bit. Oh and I mostly didn't like some final missions, so gonna focus on those.

1. The whole thingy about Hades is just barely believable, there's not enough focus on this character IMO, and his death scene really reminds me of Soap's death - "he knows". It feels stupidly weird, along with fact, that SH also was creating MW3 along with Infinity Ward, feels like they used the same element in their newest game and that just looked and sounded stupid for me. I feel like Hades just was used as a filling character in the whole story of the game.

2. The whole "eliminate or catch Irons" situation was just holding off for too long. 4 missions before the actual "final" mission I thought that it's actually gonna be over, and it wasn't. I think the "bridge" mission could have been fused with " aircraft carrier" mission, there was close to no story in between, just endless gunfights. That's the moment when I wanted to tell myself that I'm going to finish the game another time. But I somehow managed to move on.

3. Irons had 3 (THREE) times to kill Mitchell, he knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but the thing that annoyed me the most was Irons saying "I'm not a monster" and sparing him for 3rd time. In meantime, he left Cormack to bleed himself out, which was somehow (in Irons's opinion) meant to be less cruel than just pulling a trigger and killing the main character. It's just not believable enough.

4. Last one, the ending was dull as hell, it has to be 2nd worst ending after Ghosts in CoD franchise since CoD 4. Nothing explained, just Irons dying and that's it ? Nothing said about death of Cormack ? Nothing said about other characters ? Mitchell and Gideon turned out to be the only important characters here ? I expected more after chasing the main evil character of the whole game through more than half storyline.

Honorable mention - Bridge. Another bridge has been destroyed due to some terrorists blowing it up. Prediction of the decade - each following game with "warfare" in its name is going to have a bridge being blown up. Mind my words.

Anyone who has beaten up the game feels the same or disagrees ? I would really like to know your opinion as well, maybe I'm not alone with this :)

[Sarge]

I have played campaing twice now and presently on my third go at Veteran, in response to your comments

1. it's a game
2. it's a game
3. it's a game
4. it's a game

I hope that in some way helps you to come back to a reality

[Turtle.]

Yeah, of course it is a game, but still it just feels illogical even for a Call of Duty game to have such terrible "details" in the overall story, except maybe Ghosts which was a flop overall. I'm not saying that the plot was terrible overall, I just want to point out stuff like that which, in my honest opinion, was really stupid, especially Irons letting Mitchell live so many times. Even a fiction should have at least some reasoning behind it.

[BunBox]

Personally?
I was alright with Hades death sequence, though admittedly the story may have done better with a more drawn out connecting the dots before it became apparent who was really behind it all, rather than "WELL HEY YOU KILLED ME. GUESS WHAT. HERE'S THIS USB I CARRY THAT HAS ALLLLLLLLLLLL THE EVIDENCE YOU'LL EVER NEED! DON'T BOTHER ASKING HOW I GOT IT! :'D"
But hey, I can look past that, it was a minor blip compared to what was a great story well executed at that point.

The last 3/4th of the game though, starting with Collapse?
Eh.
I can't shake the feeling that the game at that point on was being rushed to completion and the story suffered for it.
Starting from collapse onwards, I was having a totally different experience from what I had been having up to that point in the campaign and I can't imagine that drop in effort/writing having occured so suddenly without some external pressure, so I'm putting my money on pressure to release.

"Aftermath" has to be the best post-apocalyptic urban environment I've seen yet which was really surprising to see in CoD of all places.
As a world designer by trade, the complete break from reality in terms of cause and effect that is seen in most post-apoc environments in games torments me to no end, so I was really happy to see a rendition of a post-apoc urban environment that fit with the universe it was set in for once <3
(P.S. don't even get me started on Fallout 3, worst case of disparity between world design and environment design I've ever seen)

[Turtle.]

Oh yes, you reminded me with Hades holding a USB in his hand, as if he knew that he is going to end up dead right at this time in this situation. I even felt that Rorke was more believable than Hades was even considering the fact that I really dislike Ghost's storyline and the game overall.

Last 2 missions felt like some sort of a filler for me the most, slowly walking in prison made the mission last so long, maybe even too long. Last mission and walking under water with the whole "mech", you freaking what ? Nothing even happened during that time, it was just walking for at least 5 freaking minutes, who the hell designed this thing ?

And yes, "Aftermath" looked amazing, as for level design and game mechanics they stepped it a little bit forward with making a few more "stealth" elements to the overall game flow, I really like it. Especially the mission with breaking into Irons's place, felt like playing a different game for a moment.

I haven't played through Fallout 3, but I played Fallout: New Vegas and this one looks really good in terms of post-apocaliptic environment, there are some questionable elements but overall it is a good design after all.

[The Wretched]

I'm playing through my second time, and so far I have 2 questions:

1) How's the KVA strong enough to carry out coordinated attacks on nuclear plants throughout the world?
2) You would think that someone would have mentioned the stealthed soldiers in Aftermath to Irons (turns out they're Sentinel). Something like, "Hey, Irons, thanks for the backup. Those stealth suits are cool". Irons-"Wait, what"?

[BunBox]

Originally posted by V.Nine:

I'm playing through my second time, and so far I have 2 questions:

1) How's the KVA strong enough to carry out coordinated attacks on nuclear plants throughout the world?
2) You would think that someone would have mentioned the stealthed soldiers in Aftermath to Irons (turns out they're Sentinel). Something like, "Hey, Irons, thanks for the backup. Those stealth suits are cool". Irons-"Wait, what"?

You're mistaking strength with zealotry.
In truth, a single person can be as effective as an entire combat unit if applied to the correct place with the correct tactic.
Think of the KVA as more of a rogue spec ops team.

[RdJokr]

1. Hades was just a filler character, a side villain to create some sort of background for the true villain that is Irons. However, when you look back at past COD games, particularly MW1, the villains weren't that much better. In fact, Zakhaev, the Ultranationalist leader in MW1, was also pretty much like Hades. Zero focus, except for the two flashback missions in Pripyat, and the final ones where he supposedly declares vengeance on America for "killing" his son (who committed suicide). At least, in AW, SHG had the decency to not stretch Hades' role out any further than it should be.
Though there should've been some explanation on how Hades even got the footage of Irons killing the technologist in the first place.

2. I don't really see what's wrong with this. People wanted a longer campaign, well there you have it. Now you want it shorter?

3. Let's be honest here: Irons isn't the same type of villain as Hades, or the terrorist forces in the Modern Warfare series. He was a good guy, with good intentions. And he treats his men like his own children. Even if he did some terrible things to Mitchell, the fact is, he still considers him the closest thing he has to a son, now that his real son is dead. He doesn't want to give up on Mitchell that easily. He wants to make him see things the way he sees, in the hopes that he would join up with Atlas once again.
And yes, him saying that he's not a monster is purely hypocrisy, but hey, no person can be perfect.

4. Cormack's death was just that. He died trying to bring Irons down. Mitchell, Gideon and Ilona helped him fulfill his wish. No need to bring it up again.
And this was pretty much Mitchell's story. This is about him and his fight. Sure, other characters matter, but at the end, it's about how he feels that matters most. A good closure, while still leaving room for a sequel without feeling a bit too forced (looking at you, Ghosts).

[Turtle.]

I like longer campaigns but it felt a little bit forced, especially some moments I mentioned in my 3rd post here, that is walking in prison, walking underwater with this whole mech stuff attached to you. The only concern about unnecessarily making the game longer are these two cases plus the "bridge" and "airport carrier" mission, I had no idea how they went from being on bridge to fighting on airship carrier without being shot in meanwhile, can't remember there was something said about air support or friendly fleet. If they explained it a little bit more then it would be ok.

Overall you made a lot of good points, I only got a little bit different opinion on Irons, he was treating his men well but I think the whole Atlas plan was like a ticking bomb, he waited for an opportunity to trigger it in a good moment since his son died so his intentions seemed to be a bit evil from the start.

Also, uhm, Ghosts, I have nothing to say about this one, so disappointing at all aspects. This time the game's plot left me with a few questions, which is a good thing if they want to make a trilogy out of this, even second game could end the story of it, CoD has taken a good way forward with this one.