Payback (Black Ops)

Payback is a single player level in Call of Duty: Black Ops set in Laos. In this mission, the player operates a Mi-24 Hind. Although the player has full control of horizontal movement, they cannot control vertical movement.

Overview
The level begins with Mason and Woods in wooden cages, half underwater. The Vietcong then takes them to a room with VC and a Soviet Interrogator, with a table in the center, to play Russian Roulette. Mason sits down with Bowman sitting opposite. The VC get a Python and tells Bowman to "play" to which he refuses and insults the Soviet, who kills Bowman by hitting him on the head with a pipe saying "next". When Bowman gets "removed" off his seat, the player sees Woods coming into the picture and sits where Bowman was sat; Woods asks Mason what the plan is, while the VC is getting impatient. The VC spins the gun which lands on Woods who pulls the trigger but it does not fire and passes it to mason. Just as he is about to pull the trigger he shoots the VC but the Soviet escapes while Woods and Mason chase him through heavy reinforcements. Finally they shoot the Soviet as he is about to escape through the door.

The 2nd part of the mission begins just outside the cave, where they ambush some Spetsnaz guarding a Russian Mi-24A Hind at the opening. Mason then pilots it along the river to the POW compound, while on the way wreak havoc on the Ho Chi Minh Trail below, destroying SAMs, a Mi-8 HIP, sampans, NVA PT boats, armored AAAs, ZPUs on wheels and emplacements, guard towers that fires RPGs, radar tower, bridges, oil pipeline, and finally 2 Mi-24 Hinds before you land somewhere not far from the compound. Mason and Woods then reach the compound, located inside a large cave and fight their way in.

Mason finds captured American soldiers and Reznov in holding cells. After releasing them they fight their way into the cave to reach Kravchenko. When Mason kicks open the door of Kravchenko's office he is ambushed by Kravchenko, who then beats Mason. Just when he is about to knock Mason out, Woods sneaks up behind and stabs Kravchenko in the back who retaliates by pulling the pins on his grenade belt which would've kill everyone in the room. Seconds before it detonates Woods shoves Kravchenko and throws himself and the Russian through the window, followed by a big explosion below. Reznov returns to Mason and they find the documents leading to Rebirth Island.

Trivia

 * While there were other levels planned for the player to control aircraft in the series, this is the first not scrapped.


 * This is the third time in Call of Duty series, the level begin with the player and his squad were captured. The first time was "Semper Fi" and the second time was "Their Land, Their Blood" in World at War.
 * This is also the second time in the Call of Duty series that the player watches their companion's execution outside of battle. The first one was in "Semper Fi".
 * Woods swearing at the top of his voice while playing Russian Roulette is the only time, during gameplay, that the word "Fuck" is not censored in captions aside from when Mason chokes Dragovich to death.
 * The Russian roulette scene in this level seems to pay homage to a very similar scene from the movie "The Deer Hunter", in which two prisoners are forced by the Vietcong to play Russian roulette, even the conversation between them, and the loud scream before pulling the trigger are near identical.
 * This level was presented at E3, but only the helicopter portion is shown. Even the text at the bottom left hand corner that begins each level was shown at the part where Woods and Mason hijack the helicopter.
 * When Bowman is chucked to the side and Woods enters, Bowman's body disappears just as the camera is not focused on him.
 * On the E3 Demo, before entering the helicopter, the player was seen using a Commando. On the final version of the game the player uses any weapon they pick up on their way out of the VC prison. It is not possible to find a Commando in this level.
 * If you listen closely, when Kravchenko is about to strike the windows with Woods, and kill them both, you can hear Woods swearing the word "Fuck" exactly like he does when being forced to play Russian Roulette at the beginning of the mission.
 * The Olympia and Uzi can only be found in this level of the campaign.
 * In the room with Steiner's location a picture can be found of Dragovich, Kravchenko, Steiner and Reznov. The side with Reznov on is cracked up the middle obviously showing that Kravchenko and Dragovich split from the Red Army.
 * There are several weapons caches hidden in the tunnels the player has to fight through.
 * As the player kills the VC Bookie, and grabs his pistol if you look over to the right before shooting the other VC you can see a guy with the cleaver stuck in his face and then fall over
 * When using the noclip cheat at the part before you kill the men guarding the hind it is possible to go up behind one of the guards up the back and a message is displayed allowing you to melee. If you were to melee him it shows and incomplete animation of breaking the mans neck and discarding the body. This leads to a theory of if you were originally meant to kill the guards stealthily.
 * Woods and Mason seemed to have liked Bowman very much - when Bowman was killed, Mason screamed at the top of his lungs and swore to kill the Russian; when chasing him down, Woods yelled something along the lines of "That bastard's gonna die," and when they killed him finally, they both said, "For Bowman."

E3 Demo
thumb|400px|left|E3 2010: Call of Duty Black Ops Press Conference Gameplay