Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War (opens in new tab) is still a few weeks away, but the launch trailer is here today, setting up a guns-blazing tale of Frank, Al, Jay, and a global conspiracy that threatens to wipe out half of Europe.
"1981. The Cold War is at its peak. World powers grapple for control and a hidden threat looms," the YouTube listing says, breathlessly I assume. "In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, players will engage in deniable operations, fighting the battles that never happened to stop a conspiracy decades in the making."
The source of that existential threat is presumably Perseus, a Soviet agent—or agency, perhaps?—based on a "real" 1970s spy who allegedly infiltrated Western intelligence agencies and then got away clean (opens in new tab). The official story is that his identity was never uncovered, but perhaps the truth is something different. Something... darker.
Ronald Reagan figures prominently in the trailer, because of course he does—he's basically the avatar of Cold War machinations, which is why he's also front-and-center in games like Wasteland 3 (opens in new tab) and the newly-announced Mobius Front '83 (opens in new tab) from Zachtronics. More interesting to me is the Robert Redford-looking guy with the sweet shades and sexy scars: The Call of Duty Wiki (opens in new tab) says that's veteran CIA spook Russell Adler and IMDB (opens in new tab) says Adler is voiced by Bruce Thomas, but he sure sounds a lot to me like Michael Ironside, the man behind black bag badass Sam Fisher of Splinter Cell fame. Could some kind of Activision-Ubisoft franchise mega-crossover event be in the works?
I am beyond thrilled to announce that I voice the character of Russell Adler in 𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝙳𝚞𝚝𝚢®: 𝙱𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙾𝚙𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚆𝚊𝚛 - 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛 https://t.co/h9Hv1fX1g8 via @YouTubeAugust 26, 2020
Well, no, obviously not, and Thomas also said back in August when Black Ops – Cold War was revealed that he's voicing Adler. But it's weird, right? Rock and roll has destroyed my hearing, it's true, but if I didn't know better I'd swear that's Ironside.
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War is out on November 13. It will kick off a "completely new chapter" of Zombies (opens in new tab), but snipers (opens in new tab) are the same as they've always been.
