First things first: I want to mention that I am keeping this as spoiler free as possible, since the story has a few twists that might be be a bit surprising.
I tried to complete the whole campaign on the hardest difficulty ("Veteran") which is actually the second hardest because you unlock "Realsim" as additional difficulty once you complete the campaign on any difficulty.
However, I needed to turn it down at some spots since would have rage quitted otherwise. Sometimes it seems to be just too unfair to enjoy the game. At least for me.
Like, "Here is a bottle, defeat alle the special forces" or "Yeah, you got a gun, go destroy that tank chasing you" ... Too much for me.
At the end, the campaign took me almost 10 hours as I tried to discover as many hidden items and easter eggs as possible. Failed on one code though.
But now, here comes the story:
Strike
The first mission drops you in the desert which is a pretty easy start to the game...
Allready at first glance, you notice pretty nice textures. Graphics definetly improved!
"Target Destroyed" ... a sentence you can use at almost every end of a level. Call of Duty doing Call of Duty thing.
Kill or capture
No CoD without a night level!
Night vision is pretty well done. Weirdly it seems, that most enemies on night levels have night googles too... not wanting to get too realistic here I guess
Some wise words from our friend "Ghost"
Wetwork
At this point we learned that we are hunting missiles that are threating the USA.
Of course... there are always some guys threating USA with rockets. A bit uncreative, but okay...
However, time to jump from the desert to Europe. To Amsterdam to be more precise.
Swimming at night...
Tradecraft
...and taking a walk at day. Levels are pretty and full of live compared to older CoDs.
Too bad we can't stay longer and listen to the street musicians.
Borderline
We are leaving Europe and heading to Mexico. (I wonder how much time my character spends in an airplane)
As expected seeing the level name, the theme of this level is the war on illegal immigration and drugs across the Mexican border.
Running through the suburbs of some random village near the border...
... will get you quite warm. Many cutscences and scripted events tell the story. Not too deep though. More like an ordinary action movie. So, everything as expected.
Cartel Protection
So, we are not only fighting some terrorists but also mexican cartels. And corrupt police... and corrupt military... and basically everyone...
At least the chickens are friendly!
Close Air + Hard Point
Two missions which implement another traditional CoD feature. War from above! Let there be a rain of fire!
Recon by Fire
Do you remember this legendary mission from the old MW2? The one you crawl around in Prypjat in you Ghilli Suit? Yes, we also got this covered!
In this mission I noticed for the first time how useless your team colleagues are!
As long it's not a scripted event, they don't hit shit. Like Storm Troopers from Star Wars!
They don't even give you cover!
And there is a strong enemy bias towards you!
Enemies rather try to snipe you across the field than shoot at your team mate 2 meters away.
I once watched a team mate shooting at an enemy standing like 10 meters away without any cover. Said enemy was shooting back...
FOR SOLID FIVE MINUTES!
Nobody got hit...
Violence and Timing
A pretty funny and fast paced mission. Also the first one where I tuned down the difficulty.
Please CoD... don't try to be an Mission Impossible car chasing game...
*actually not a bug...!"
El Sin Nombre
So... we are looking for a drug lord!
This mission gives some neat Hitman vibes. Corss-Dressing. Stealh. Stealing stuff... nice!
And we made new friends!
Dark Water
Too bad this friend is not exactly a friend, but as promised, no spoilers here :)
Watch you language lady!
If you saw the first CoD gameplay trailer you will be familiar with this mission, taking place on an oil plattform in the ocean.
Yes, the sea is "a little bit rough"!
Yes, we need to get on that ship!
No, you can't just wait here like the others!
Most dangerous enemies on that mission: moving containers! Soap stating the obvious.
Alone
The first rather frustrating mission. You get nothing but have to sneak and defeat dozens of enemies. Once you get the feel on how to beat the level, it gets a bit easier, but never the less, once again, you are supposed to be an one-man-army.
This mission also introduces you to the CoD crafting system. Nothing too fancy. Collect some stuff and build traps, smoke bombs and other more or less usefull things.
I get some strong Mac Gyver vibes here!
Prison Break
What is better than breaking out of a prison? Yeah! Breaking into a prison!
And rescuing a beloved friend! (No, not the woman from above ;) )
A cool part of that mission is where we guide Ghost through the prison using installed cameras and giving him orders. Slow and steady to victory!
I almost missed introducing an old friend: Shepherd!
But again, as high rank military he is doing some weird military shit.
I would'nt invite him to my next BBQ!
Ghost Team
So, after figuring out that not all new friends are friends, and our General is just another highly ranked asshole, we create our own secret team. Like, the secret team within the secret team while we chase others who didn't make it into the "secret secret team" ...
Too bad that we are not allowed to use the choppers on our own...
But at least we can give it orders to blow shit up!
At the end of this mission you have to fight a tank. For this you need to collect C4.
So you are running around looking for C4 while the tank is chasing and shooting you.
And also armored enemies spwan trying to prevent you from collecting said C4.
Why do I have to do this shit alone while the others are having a cold beer or something?!
Countdown
The last mission remembers "Mission Impossible - Phantom Protocol"
You decend from a high tower, fight through a server room and jump through windows.
Ah, yes, and you want to prevent a missile from detonating!
But at the end, everything went well.
We saved the USA (again)
We killed hundreds of terrorists (again)
We traveled the world (again)
So we sit there with our buddies (nobody of the ever dies obviously... ah yes... Storm Trooper accuracy... I forgot) and drink some Whiskey, just to learn that it is not over yet!
After all, and despite some really annoying parts, I really enjoyed the campaing. Full of action and enough variation between the missions.
On higher/highest difficulities it tends to be rather unfair for my taste. But maybe I am just too bad ;)
Now, the time has come for the multiplayer part!