Is Captain Value useless? It’s an affordable query to have on the finish of Trendy Warfare 4’s marketing campaign, contemplating how typically characters we thought had been gone have come again over the course of the four-game story — I’ve misplaced observe of the variety of instances Graves has returned now. We spoke to developer Infinity Ward to get a solution, and we received one. Properly, form of.
In a mid-credits scene, Mads Mikkelsen’s The Archer will be seen taking a captive Captain Value away on a truck. An ambush permits Value to interrupt free, although, because the automobile crashes, leaving The Archer to scuttle away into the snow as our hero wrestles with a steel pipe protruding of his abdomen. After stumbling after the villain, Value turns the tables on him and makes use of mentioned pipe to puncture his throat, leaving the rogue Russian minister of protection very a lot useless in the midst of a frozen-over lake. Ghost then arrives on the scene to share his former squadmate’s ultimate breaths with him as Value lies nonetheless, presumably useless, subsequent to his sufferer. However is he?
I requested Jeff Negus, narrative director at Infinity Ward, if that’s the case. “I am going to say this. We went out of our approach on this recreation to tempo character deaths, each in the place they occur and within the expression of the second taking place,” explains Negus. “And I’d say that scene is in line with others.”
So, not a sure or a no, is it? A number of characters established in earlier collection entries meet their makers throughout Trendy Warfare 4’s 16 missions, together with Makarov, Gabriela, Graves, and Gaz, to call however a number of. Whereas we don’t see any of them put within the floor by no means to rise once more, a few of them meet fairly conclusive ends, with the Gs — Gaz, Graves, and Gabriela — all receiving bullets to the top. Makarov’s head is now pulp on a snowy New York avenue, however he appeared fairly lifeless the final time we noticed him, and seeing as he’s dispatched so early within the story, certainly he would’ve come again by now. Archer wants a cause to go after Value and avenge his son, in any case.
If Value does certainly meet an finish “in line with others,” then certainly this implies he’s useless. It might appear to be a becoming place for the Trendy Warfare reboot saga to finish, and really feel like an precise particular conclusion. However we all know issues are by no means that easy with regards to Name of Responsibility, and I can see why the door could also be left barely ajar for him to come back again if wanted. If MW4 is well-received critically and proves a industrial success, Activision would wish to maintain issues rolling.
For my cash, I’d say he’s useless. He’s achieved what he got down to do firstly of Trendy Warfare 4’s story, and has even realized a lesson or two about selflessness alongside the way in which. It’s the fundamentals of any hero’s journey, and it resulted in superb sacrifice, taking down a menace to the Western world within the type of The Archer’s diabolical plan. What do you suppose? Has Captain Value died? Tell us within the feedback.
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. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.