The campaigns featured within the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy stood out for a number of reasons. Excellent level design resulted in classic missions like Cliffhanger, All Ghillied Up, and Mile High Club, while a wide variety of weaponry was made available across each entry. Most of all, the games were remembered for their iconic cast of characters, with great villains like Commander Shepherd and Vladimir Makarov featured alongside Task Force 141.
After Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 introduced gamers to a new timeline, Infinity Ward confirmed that Captain Price was getting the band back together. The new version of Task Force 141 features two beloved members in Soap and Ghost, as well as a newcomer in Gaz, as the original version of the character never made it beyond Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This time around, though, fans may be seeing Captain Price die instead of all his comrades.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Mission List Gives Reason To Be Concerned
Alongside leaked camo challenges for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the mission list has appeared online, and it has a few names that caught the attention of fans. Though gamers have been quick to look to the opening mission’s title of Backstabbed, its placement at the very beginning of the campaign makes it unlikely for any Task Force 141 members to be killed off. After all, players will have hardly seen the group together at that point.
However, the final mission being called Wounded seems to be a fair bit more telling. Infinity Ward may even be going with a new take on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s ending and Modern Warfare 3’s opening, with the character gamers are controlling being near death at the end of the final battle. This time around, though, the injured figure could be Captain Price instead of Soap.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Killing Price Would Be a Fun Reversal of The Old Story
After nearly being killed by General Shepherd at the end of the second Modern Warfare game, players end up healing and saving Soap MacTavish in the opening act of Modern Warfare 3. Unfortunately, this rescue is short-lived, as the character goes on to die anyway a handful of missions later. By the end of the original Modern Warfare timeline, only Captain Price has survived, with every one of his comrades being dead.
With its new Modern Warfare universe, Infinity Ward has aimed to tell a story with the same core characters, but is making tweaks here and there. For instance, fans are expecting General Shepherd to turn out to be good in this new timeline, but the fact that he is still a General shows that some things stay the same. Similarly, though Ghost’s mask has changed, the version of Simon Riley keeps the skull motif. Task Force 141 is still the name of the main group of heroes, Zakhev remained a threat, and Gaz is a nickname given to a key character.
With all this in mind, Captain Price being the character to be “wounded” only to eventually die would fit with the trend of putting new twists on classic moments. This time around, almost everyone in Task Force 141 could survive, but the leader could be the one to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Seeing Soap or Gaz try to fill Price’s shoes would be intriguing, and characters like Ghost could rise to prominence with Price hogging less of the spotlight.
While this may be an example of reading too much into a name from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 mission list, the “Wounded” title and its placement at the tail end of the campaign is concerning. Though any character could die, reintroducing Ghost and Soap just to kill them off would be odd, and Gaz has been positioned as a series mainstay - though it is odd that he was missing from the Operator lineup in the beta, as it suggests he could be in trouble. Still, Price being the character referenced in this mission name would not be shocking, and his death could lead to some fresh storytelling opportunities in future Modern Warfare games.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launches on October 28 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.