User blog comment:Crazy sam10/Some thoughts surrounding Ghosts/@comment-24.13.48.199-20140312000922/@comment-1055346-20140322031701

"And don't even get me started on Reznov..." Almost makes me feel like you didn't pay much attention to the campaign at all. Reznov appears for one brief cameo that is explained perfectly.

In Black Ops, the reason Mason was seeing Reznov everywhere was that Reznov had essentially re-coded an element of Mason's brainwashing to make him kill Kravchenko, Dragovich, and Steiner. Once Mason seemed to have done this (Wood's "killing" Kravchenko, Executing Steiner, and Strangling Dragovich) The brainwashing's effects seem to subside. Mason doesn't see or hear the numbers anymore and he doesn't see or hear Reznov anymore.

You play through the entirety of the first level with Mason never even mentioning the Numbers or Reznov. Then we play through the near entirety of Old Wounds with no mention of Mason or Reznov. The second Mason sees Kravchenko though, it all comes back to him. His mission is complete. Kravchenko must die. That's what he's been brainwashed to do. The numbers start coming back into his vision and he starts hearing Reznov's voice again, telling him to kill Kravchenko.

It doesn't matter who kills Kravchenko, Mason or Woods, but the second he dies the brainwashing subsides a bit. Mason is then beaten within an inch of his life and left for dead in the desert with his friends.

Along come two random travellers, who save Mason and crew and give them water. Mason has just been through a pretty traumatic moment in his life. His brainwashing re-surfaced (and he possibly gave into it) and he's probably near death.

In Vorkuta Reznov had always been a friend and protector of Mason, and even the imaginary Reznov was a close friend and protector of Mason in some ways.

And then we find out it wasn't Reznov. Woods claims to have never saw him, even if Mason claims he was there.

So all in all, Reznov's short cameo actually makes a lot of sense and isn't forced in or dumb at all. It calls back to the last Black Ops in a clever way, it isn't shoved down our throats, and explains the idea that Mason's brainwashing never really subsided. It was just dormant. If anything, this is a testament to WHY Black Ops II is one of the better written stories, not WHY NOT.

But to give a less overly detailed explanation, Reznov is cool so it's cool the creators found a way to include him in the game.