Project Nova

"This is not our war!" "Then who do we fight?" "EVERYONE!"

- Reznov and Nevski fleeing the ship.

"Project Nova" is a single player flashback level that details the events which lead up to Viktor Reznov's incarceration in Vorkuta.

Walkthrough
The level starts out with Reznov talking to Mason about his father at Stalingrad in Vorkuta. He explains that his father was a musician during the German occupation who was killed by Nazis who found him to be a symbol of defiance. He goes on to say that collaborating with any Nazi is a betrayal against Mother Russia. He then says that Nikita Dragovich and Lev Kravchenko were not hindered by such crimes. After this, the actual mission starts.

We now cut to Reznov looking off a cliff with Dimitri Petrenko and Nevski. The group then charges down the cliff where we meet young Dragovich and Kravchenko. Here Reznov will receive his orders to capture Dr. Friedrich Steiner alive. He and his crew move out on a snowmobile where Petrenko will ask why he doesn't trust the two primary antagonists, to which Reznov will say that at Stalingrad, Dragovich left him outnumbered and never sent reinforcements. He then tells Dimitri Petrenko that the two men are not to be trusted. Note this is said as Reznov's snowmobile passes Dragovich's and Kravchenko's snowmobile. The game then cuts to Reznov saying that Petrenko was the bravest man he ever knew, and that his heroic feat at Berlin should have made him a hero, but Stalin had little need for heroes.

It then cuts back to the mission, where Reznov and his men begin to fight for Steiner. Opposition here is fairly weak, and the player will be armed with a PPSh-41 and a Mosin-Nagant with RGD-33 grenades to deal with them. Russian comrades will burn down buildings to kill all Germans inside. Some Germans will attempt to surrender, but Reznov has no sympathy and tells his soldiers to kill them all anyway. After searching a few buildings for Steiner, the player will be given smoke grenades to mark target for mortars. Here Germans will be standing on bridges with MG42s and Panzershrecks so it is smart to throw smoke grenades on these structures and to pick up a Scoped Mosin-Nagant to eliminate these soldiers, and when you have cleared out some of the earlier buildings and get close to them, to pick up an StG-44, which at this closer range, being an assault rifle, will be very effective for suppressing enemy firing positions, so you and your comrades can maneuver into the buildings and flank them. This is the most effective tactic for getting you past this area. Eventually you will fight your way through stiff opposition to Steiner who will insult you and tell you to take him to Dragovich. We now cut to Reznov telling Mason he should have killed Steiner then and there, but his belief in orders stopped this.

Now we cut to outside a Nazi ship where Kravchenko will be executing POWs and Steiner will talk to Dragovich about how the Germans are sworn to protect the Reich, but Dragovich says to Steiner that there would be no problems. Now Reznov brings his men into the ship while the evil antagonists discuss the genius Project Nova and how Washington D.C. and Moscow were to meet a horrible end by the hand of the Fuhrer using V-2 Rockets tipped with Nova-6. However, Berlin had already fell to the Soviets and the SS failed to destroy the Nova-6. We then reach the remaining reserve of the gas.

Reznov then says that the victory was short lived, for Dragovich wanted to see the effects of the gas first hand. He then orders Reznov, Nevski, and Tvelin to be thrown in one gas chamber, and Petrenko, Viharev, and Belov to be thrown in another. The latter is to be gassed first. Dragovich unleashes his weapon on Petrenko's chamber, killing everyone inside. Dimitri and his men suffer an agonizing death; caged like animals instead of dying for their country according to Reznov. Before Reznov's chamber can be condemned, British commandos thumb|300px|rightbreak in to the ship and fire a rocket into the chamber, opening it for Reznov and his men. The soldiers begin to fight their way out, battling through both their traitorous comrades and the British in a two-way battle. Reznov will eventually arm an explosive to a main support beam. The player will be given three minutes to escape the ship. Tvelin is killed at some point during the combat at the end of this towards the end of this mission, but Reznov manages to escape with Nevski having destroyed the gas containers, containing Nova-6.

Found In Level
The following weapons can be found with and without attachments. The Tokarev TT-33 with a Flashlight is given automatically to the player when searching the ship but disappears soon after. One without a Flashlight can be obtained from the British commandos as they pull it out in Last Stand.

Transcript
Project Nova/Transcript

Trivia

 * In the first section with combat, a rare glitch happens when a random German soldier will do the animation for ducking behind cover, but will freeze there. He can't be killed but some Russian allies will run past and quickly shoot him to little effect.
 * This is first time the player both allies and fights his own faction in the same mission.
 * This is also the first time in the series where the British are enemies.
 * This is the second time the player goes into a flashback, and assumes the role of an important character to their game.
 * The execution scene where Kravchenko is shooting the surrendering Germans and runs out of ammo when he gets to the last German is likely a reference to a similar scene in the film The Pianist.
 * There is a very rare glitch present on the PC version of this level which forces the player into a limited noclip mode. They can only move forward and backwards, cannot move up and down and cannot use any weapons. While this glitch is active there is no way to turn off the game, only through turning off the computer is the player able to exit the glitch.
 * The SAS cannot immediately be killed while they are sliding on the deck of the ship. However, once they exit the animation and are on their feet they will instantly die if the player shot them while they were sliding.
 * According to a map found in one of the buildings, the base seems to be at Baffin Island in North Canada. If this map is accurate, than this is the first level in the Call of Duty series to be set in Canada.
 * At the end of the level when the player is running away from the ship, if the player turns back around to look, they will fall to the floor.
 * The gun pickup symbols in this level seem far more elaborate than in any other part of the game.
 * When entering Steiner's room while using a Panzerschreck, the player will swap to a PPSh-41 and point it at Steiner, even if he wasn't carrying one.
 * All of the Nazis that Kravchenko execute look the same. This is probably because different character models would have taken up too much space.