It’s honest to say that, throughout the three video games within the reboot collection thus far, Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare’s story has been removed from a easy one. With the quantity of motion taking place throughout every mission, mixed with key plot factors occurring exterior of the core campaigns in locations like Warzone’s Verdansk, it may be tough to maintain observe.
Fortunately, we’re right here to offer you as succinct a abstract as we will of the story thus far forward of Modern Warfare 4’s launch. With Infinity Ward’s saga set to come back to an finish imminently, let’s recap how we received right here. Warning: could include numerous chasing stolen missiles world wide.
Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare (2019)
2019’s Modern Warfare reboot tells the story of Process Drive 141’s creation. That’s the elite crew of operatives helmed by Name of Responsibility veteran Captain John Worth (however not the identical John Worth who was within the unique Fashionable Warfare, nor the John Worth who was within the unique two Name of Dutys. Look, we did say this was difficult).
However we’re already getting forward of ourselves. Initially of Fashionable Warfare’s marketing campaign, earlier than 141 is established, Worth and the British SAS are working with CIA Chief Kate Laswell to assist get better extremely worthwhile gasoline used within the creation of chemical weapons. The opening mission, wherein you play as CIA agent Alex Keller, particulars the theft of the gasoline, as an unidentified crew steals it en path to the fictional nation of Urzikstan. The heist intensifies pressure between Russia and the West.
The subsequent day, that pressure is additional ratcheted. An Urzik-connected terrorist group referred to as Al-Qatala assaults London’s Piccadilly Circus, bringing Kyle “Gaz’ Garrick into the image. With a purpose to seek out the atrocity’s perpetrators, he groups up with Worth to raid a London house and find the whereabouts of Al-Qatala’s chief, Omar “The Wolf” Sulaman. It seems that he will be present in Urzikstan’s Ramaza Hospital.
Alex, conveniently, is already in Urzikstan, after agreeing to crew up with the state’s Liberation Drive chief, Farah Karim. She needs to do away with a Russian normal, Roman Barkov, who has occupied her house nation. Alex makes it his mission to assist, and in flip, Farah will help in recovering the stolen gasoline — one thing she doesn’t realise will likely be discovered far nearer to house than she might think about.
Alex and a crack Marine unit efficiently seize “The Wolf” from his hospital hideout and maintain him on the US embassy. Sulaman’s lieutenant, Jamal “The Butcher” Rahar, isn’t very blissful about this, although, so he assaults the embassy in an effort to extract his boss. Regardless of the very best efforts of Alex, Farah, and the newly arrived Worth and Gaz, Rahar succeeds.
The crew is again to sq. one. Farah has a plan, although – ambush Al-Qatala as they drive alongside the “Freeway of Demise” and take again their former captive. After a little bit of long-range sniping, this dangerous mission goes completely awry. The Russian forces flip up, attacking each the terrorists and Farah’s Urzikstan Liberation Drive. As if issues couldn’t get any worse for her, Farah then finds out that it was her personal brother and fellow freedom fighter, Hadir, who stole the chemical substances through the marketing campaign’s first mission. He deploys them in a large explosion, killing each the Al-Qatala and Russian forces, and leaving Alex and Farah barely alive amongst the rubble and smoke.
However what would drive Hadir, who has thus far been depicted solely as Farah’s loyal ally, to do warfare crimes? Revenge, in fact. 20 years prior, a Russian invasion left each Hadir and his sister with out dad and mom. In an act of desperation born out of hatred, Hadir now joins Al-Qatala and distances himself from Farah. This occasion brings the pursuits of all of the protagonists’ respective factions into alignment, and they also execute a joint operation to infiltrate the terrorists’ base and discover Hadir. Sadly, he and the stolen gasoline are nowhere to be discovered. Fortunately, the mission isn’t a complete bust: the crew locates and kills Sulaman, leaving the terrorist group with out its chief.
The fallout is felt again within the US, although. With the chemical substances’ whereabouts nonetheless unknown, to make issues much more tough than they already have been, the Urzikstan Liberation Drive is said a terrorist risk by the CIA. Alex isn’t greatest happy, to say the least, and opts to depart his nation behind and defect to Farah’s group.
In the meantime, it’s all kicking off in Saint Petersburg. Following a terrorist assault within the Russian metropolis, Gaz and Worth are sizzling on the path of Hadir, however, once more, they don’t discover him. Who they do seize as an alternative is Sulaman’s former right-hand man, Rahar, who, after a questionable spot of torture, reveals that Hadir’s subsequent goal is Barkov. And so, Worth and Gaz head to the Russian normal’s house, save him, and apprehend Hadir within the course of. Job executed? Not fairly.
Hadir reveals the place Barkov’s chemical weapons operation will be discovered, however earlier than Worth has time to go there, the CIA arrives. Laswell takes Hadir into her custody, however offers the mission her blessing. And so the quartet of Worth, Gaz, Farah, and Alex reunite with Barkov’s gasoline manufacturing facility (not a euphemism for his butt) of their sights. In the course of the battle, Alex seemingly sacrifices himself to set off the explosives that may convey the manufacturing facility to the bottom, thus ending the Russian’s operation. Nevertheless, a seasonal multiplayer replace later fully retcons Alex’s heroic dying by revealing he truly simply misplaced a leg – extra on this bizarre strategy to storytelling later.
It’s Barkov’s flip to be not greatest happy, however earlier than he can full a helicopter escape, Farah kills him. This “profitable” mission results in Laswell creating Process Drive 141, with their first mission set to be looking Victor Zakhaev, a Russian ultranationalist and a well-recognized identify to anybody who performed by means of the unique Fashionable Warfare.
Which may be the top of the reboot’s marketing campaign, however extra story was hidden past its credit. Sulaman could also be useless, however Al-Qatala lived on in Particular Ops mode. There wasn’t a complete lot to it, aside from taking out the remaining senior figures of the organisation one after the other, however it did result in the revelation that Zakaev had been benefiting from buying and selling arms to the group.
You’d assume the intention of all that may be to arrange the story that the sequel would go on to inform. However no. Zakaev was handled, fairly bizarrely, in Name of Responsibility’s battle royale, Warzone. In a high-stakes recreation of cat and mouse happening throughout town of Verdansk, it’s finally revealed that the arms vendor has delivered weapons to quite a few bunkers all through the map.
Alex re-enters the motion, as a result of he didn’t actually die and simply misplaced a limb in that large, gasoline factory-obliterating explosion, and he’s joined by new recruit, Simon “Ghost” Riley. Upon discovering Zakhaev has been utilizing tunnels underneath town to remain hidden, Worth calls in but extra assist, who arrive within the type of extra Warzone skins to fill battle passes with. Farah and Worth’s Russian confidant, Nikolai, joins the battle, reclaims the tunnels, and learns of Zakhaev’s base inside a nuclear silo. Zakhaev goes full Bond villain and threatens to launch a nuclear weapon, just for Worth to shoot him and chuck him into the void. A lot for that sequel, then.
One other new member of Process Drive 141, John “Cleaning soap” MacTavish, then calls Worth, finishing the reboot’s reassembling of the unique trilogy’s core solid.
Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare 2 (2022)
Modern Warfare 2 kicks off within the Al Mazrah desert. Right here, Process Drive 141, on the orders of US Normal Shepherd, kills an Iranian Normal referred to as Ghorbrani. A couple of months later, his second-in-command, Hassan Zyani, takes purpose at the US as a method of payback. Shepherd and Laswell catch wind of his plans, so Cleaning soap and Ghost are despatched to seize Zyani earlier than his plan involves fruition.
The duo fail, however make a stunning discovery: an American ballistic missile is discovered at Zyani’s base. And so the unraveling of the thriller as to how US ordnance ended up in his possession begins — until you performed the unique Fashionable Warfare 2, that’s, and know that somebody referred to as Normal Shepherd isn’t to be trusted.
Not that 141 is aware of this but. Their chase finally results in the Mexican Las Almas Cartel, who’ve been offering safety to Zyani. After teaming up with Mexican Particular Forces’ operative Alejandro Vargas, Worth and co. seize Zyani with assist from Shadow Firm, a mercenary group owned by Phillip Graves and commanded by Shepherd.
As is at all times the best way relating to geopolitics, although, Zyani’s seize isn’t that easy. The crew is left with no alternative however to launch their captive to stop a warfare from erupting between the USA and Iran — a state of affairs that the US would by no means, ever enable to occur, in fact.
The seek for the origin of the mysterious American missile continues, the plot thickening because of the invention of Russian GPS trackers in Las Almas-owned missiles. So many missiles!
Al-Qatala, the Urzi terrorist group from the primary recreation, rears its head once more, kidnapping Laswell. Whereas Worth and Gaz are as soon as once more helped by Farah to rescue her, Cleaning soap and Vargas keep in Mexico and take a captive of their very own: “El Sin Nombre”, the chief of Las Almas. It seems she’s Valeria Garza, a former confederate of Vargas, who reveals that the missiles 141 are chasing will be discovered on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig.
An enormous raid effort is launched, consisting of 141, Alejandro, and the very clearly shady Shadow Firm (c’mon, it’s within the identify) who, in fact, betrays our heroes. Graves decides that everybody related to Vargas should die, so he orders his weapons for rent to commit mass homicide on the streets of Mexico. 141 involves the rescue, although, and Alejandro lives to battle one other day.
It’s revealed that it was the US all alongside that gave missiles to its Center Jap allies, and it was Graves and Shepherd who spearheaded that operation. That plan hit a hitch within the highway, although, when a Russian navy group ambushed the convoy and stole three missiles for themselves. Shepherd coated up the entire mess to save lots of face.
Worth isn’t happy, however focuses on the duty at hand, pledging to convey Shepherd to rights as soon as the Graves state of affairs has been resolved. To do this, 141 storms the Shadow Firm base, kills Graves, and finds out that Zyani is now in Chicago. The crew beeline it to Illinois and finish each Zyani’s life and plan, stopping a missile from reaching the Pentagon.
However what in regards to the Russians who stole the missiles within the first place? Effectively, to cite former England soccer captain Wayne Rooney, “A brand new satan is arriving”. That might be Vladimir Makarov, the villain of the unique Fashionable Warfare trilogy. Will he do “No Russian” over again? Discover out after we recap a bunch of storylines that occur in Fashionable Warfare 2’s Particular Ops mode and Warzone.
Alex Keller returns in Spec Ops and asks for help, which is a reasonably daring transfer contemplating he was AWOL for the entire of the principle marketing campaign. He’s nonetheless engaged on bringing down Al-Qatala for good, particularly now Farah’s brother, Hadir, has turn into its chief. Worth, Farah, and Alex finally discover Hadir, who urges them to make use of a nuclear missile to guard Urzikstan from the Russians. After all, the crew opts to destroy the missile and kill Hadir.
Over in Warzone, Graves’ Shadow Firm lives on with out its founder and is now accountable for Al Mazrah. The Las Almas cartel additionally decides it needs a bit of the motion, and so hostilities are reignited.
Elsewhere, the Dutch metropolis of Vondel is taken over by the Peacekeepers, a brand new navy organisation. It’s not lengthy till it’s revealed that they’re a entrance for the Konni Group, the Russian navy unit behind the theft of Shepherd’s missiles.
A couple of months later, Graves arrives again on the scene – it seems that he faked his personal dying, making this reboot collection two for 2 on video games that includes characters who die after which come again in seasonal updates. Showing to have modified his tune, Graves now needs to crew up with Farah’s Liberation Drive and battle towards the Konni Group as they transfer in on Al Mazrah. Issues don’t go properly for Shadow Firm, although, who’ve traitors of their midst. Konni Group tears them aside from the within and steals gasoline wanted to create extra devastating weapons, thus main us all the best way again to that little satan, Makarov.
Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare 3 (2023)
The hell Makarov resides in could be the Modern Warfare 3 marketing campaign itself: a number of rehashed multiplayer maps and slices of Warzone’s Verdansk that hardly handle to carry collectively a narrative. But, right here we’re.
All of it kicks off with Makarov being rescued from Warzone’s gulag map. He’s been serving a life sentence within the well-known PvP area after being captured by Cleaning soap and Worth previous to the occasions of all three video games.
In the meantime, again in Urzikstan, Makarov’s Konni Group intercepts Grave’s Shadow Firm and steals missiles meant for Farah’s liberation efforts.
With Makarov now free, Worth makes an attempt to intercept him at an deserted facility that’s house to what stays of Barkov’s chemical supplies. The mission is a catastrophe – Worth barely escapes together with his life, and Konni will get its weapon gas.
In a greenback retailer rendition of the unique Fashionable Warfare 2’s landmark “No Russian” mission, Makarov levels a terrorist assault aboard a industrial airplane, designed to make it seem like Farah’s Urzikstan Liberation Drive have been the perpetrators. Alex helps Farah thwart this plan, although, stopping any “proof” of ULF involvement from being found within the airplane’s wreckage.
Worth tracks a cargo heading Konni’s means, however it seems that there aren’t any supplies inside. As an alternative, he discovers – drumroll, please – Normal Shepherd! He’s again and searching worse than ever, having been kidnapped by Makarov. Worth resists the urge to kill him, and as an alternative learns about Makarov’s plans to destroy the Gora Dam. Again to Verdansk we go.
The town’s inhabitants is saved from catastrophic flooding, and 141 shoot down a helicopter they presume is transporting Makarov. Place your bets now as as to if he’s useless or not…
Worth isn’t falling for it, so he continues the search again in London, the place he finds out that Makarov’s subsequent transfer is to explode the Channel Tunnel, the underwater rail line that hyperlinks the UK and France. 141 rapidly heads into the tunnels, however their flood-obsessed nemesis ambushes them. Cleaning soap meets a bullet to the pinnacle in as clear a kill as his identify deserved.
Makarov scampers off into the darkness as Worth is left to defuse a bomb. He succeeds, however it will possibly hardly be referred to as a victory. Later, Cleaning soap’s ashes are launched from the highest of a Scottish cliff, marking the top of this awkward chapter. Effectively, virtually the top. That poignant second is capped off with a post-credits scene displaying Worth lastly getting his payback for the entire bother brought on by Shepherd in Mexico. He sends a silenced gunshot into the disgraced normal’s cranium. One villain down, at the least another to go: Makarov continues to be on the market, ready to satisfy an identical destiny.
And that’s the place Worth and Process Drive 141 are forward of Fashionable Warfare 4. There are another free threads, however I’m not going to spend time digging into no matter it was Zakhaev was doing within the Zombies mode. As a smart woman as soon as stated, “Ain’t no person received time for that.”
So, how do you assume the brand new string of Fashionable Warfare tales goes to finish? We all know Makarov’s clock is ticking, however will Worth sacrifice himself for king and nation? And what position does Mads Mikkelsen’s “The Archer” play on this complete image? We’ll discover out very quickly.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Comply with him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.