Vorkuta (level)

"He and us, are not so different... We are all soldiers, without an army. Betrayed, forgotten, abandoned, at Vorkuta we ALL are brothers!"

- Reznov

Vorkuta is the second campaign level in Call of Duty: Black Ops. Taking place on October 6th, 1963 the player controls Alex Mason as he attempts to escape the Russian Gulag Vorkuta with Viktor Reznov and many other Russian prisoners.

Walkthrough
Mason starts off in a fight with Viktor Reznov to draw out a guard. This is a cutscene, so the player does not need to do anything here. They succeed in doing so, and a guard armed with a baton comes up to the two. After Reznov calls him svoloch (scum), the guard starts to beat him with the baton, until Mason gets up and knocks the guard out with a single blow from a rock. He then helps Reznov up, and Reznov takes keys off the guard, completing Step 1 of their escape - "Secure the keys".

The band of prisoners proceed down a mine tunnel, and Mason is now armed with a unique prison knife. Reznov encourages the band of prisoners by asking what the steps to their escape are. The steps are:


 * 1) Secure the keys
 * 2) Ascend from darkness
 * 3) Rain fire
 * 4) Unleash the horde
 * 5) Skewer the winged beast
 * 6) Wield a fist of iron
 * 7) Raise Hell
 * 8) Freedom

Mason fights his way down the tunnel where he encounters a brute named Sergei. Fortunately, Sergei is on their side. At the end of the tunnel there is a lift which takes the band of prisoners out of the mine. In the lift, a prisoner questions whether Mason, an American, can be trusted or not. Reznov sticks up for him, stating he could trust him with his life.

Outside the lift, there are some unarmed prisoners surrounding a prison guard armed with a Makarov (with his back to the lift), who is shooting them as they try to take him down. Sergei exits the lift armed with an pick axe, and brutally kills the guard. The player can now pick up a Makarov to help him fight off any resistance. The prisoners then push open a large metal door which opens up into a coal truck yard, to complete step two of the escape, which has a guard tower with a machine gun turret overlooking it. This prompts Reznov, Mason and Sergei to run behind a coal truck and use it as moving cover as they push it along the track towards the tower. Mason must cover Reznov and Sergei as they push the cart by killing any resistance coming in on their sides.

The tower is then destroyed by an improvised incendiary device launched from a slingshot, which is step 3 of the escape. The band of soldiers can now enter the military compound of the gulag. Mason goes to the top of the building they enter and uses a giant slingshot to destroy three targets. The slingshot works similarly to a grenade launcher and has the same aiming reticule. After destroying the three targets, Mason goes down and can now arm himself with a KS-23, and plenty of ammunition from an arms room which Sergei opened.

The prisoners exit the building and Mason shoots the lock to the gate. The prisoners go through this gate and engage the prison guards. The prison guards are armed with AK-47s. After proceeding to the objective, Mason picks up a harpoon-firing KS-23, and fires the harpoon at the Mi-8 Hip helicopter which had been keeping them pinned down with door machine gun, As the end of the rope was tied to a pipe, the helicopter cannot move and spins into some tanks and is destroyed. This completes step five of the escape, Skewer the winged beast.

The prisoners now enter a large building full of guards. The player can pick up an AK47 with Grenade Launcher to take out soldiers who are using moving cover. Once the prisoners reach a closing door, Sergei rushes in to hold the door up. However, he is shot from a floor above and killed, letting the door close, but not before Mason slides under the door and to the other side. Mason then opens the door, and the prisoners need to fight their way to a garage, where Reznov finds a blowtorch which he will use to open the armory door. Mason then needs to cover Reznov as he does this. Once the door is open, Mason picks up a Death Machine. Which is step six, Wield a fist of iron.

They prisoners now must fight their way to a warehouse where they can make their escape. Using the Death Machine, Mason can easily destroy incoming trucks of soldiers (Step seven, Raise Hell) Once near the warehouse, the guards will use tear gas on the band of prisoners, knocking out Mason who is saved by Reznov. Mason wakes up in the warehouse, where he and Reznov take some motorbikes in an attempt to accomplish step eight, Freedom. They then smash through a window, make a break for a train, while under fire from enemy soldiers. Mason has a Model 1887 which he can use to protect himself during the escape. Reznov and Mason then take a truck with a DShK machine gun on it, and Mason uses the machine gun to eliminate as many enemies as he can. They then come alongside the train, and Mason jumps for a ladder on the side of it. He exclaims to Reznov to jump, but Reznov replies that only freedom for Mason was intended.

Trivia

 * The player drives a motorcycle while armed with a Model 1887, a reference to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He also reloads the shotgun with the flick of his wrist just like the Terminator.


 * It is established later in the campaign that Reznov was killed by the pursuing Soviet forces after the end of this mission, having given his life so Mason could escape. All encounters with Reznov after this point are in the form of hallucinations on the part of Mason, who was brainwashed during the course of his captivity, first by Dragovich and then subsequently by Reznov.
 * The fight seen between Mason and Reznov might also be a reference to the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
 * Parts of this level may be a reference to The Last Castle, taking place in a military prison, and using an incendiary slingshot to eliminate guard towers, and a harpoon to take out a helicopter.
 * The escape plan and how it is organized is an allusion to the 1967 war film The Dirty Dozen. In that film, the convict unit of Major Reisman prepares for their eventual commando mission by repeating each step of the operation in a lyrical fashion, much as the prisoners do here.
 * Step 2: "Ascend from darkness" is the same as one of the strange messages in zombie map "Nacht der Untoten".
 * Step 4: "Unleash the horde" is a reference to the Zombies.
 * Step 6: "Wield a fist of Iron" is buggy and in the 1.02 version can sometimes require a level restart to complete. Reznov fails to put on the backpack and open the sliding door in some instances.
 * Step 7: "Raise Hell" is similar of Reznov's quotes in Their Land, Their Blood.
 * The Model 1887 fires two shots before Mason must cycle the action. As it is not a double-barrel shotgun, this is inaccurate.
 * In real life, the Vorkuta uprising took place in July 1953, ten years before this mission. Vorkuta itself was closed by the Soviet government in 1962.
 * Although there's no limit of ammo with the slingshot nor there's a time limit in destroying the 3 guard positions, but:
 * if the player managed to nail them with one shot each, "Slingshot Kid" achievement/trophy will be unlocked.
 * Reznov's rallying speech over the PA system ends once you destroy all 3 targets, so if the player lets this part drags on, he/she would be able to hear the full version of it.
 * The slingshot is a crossbow on the wii version of the game.
 * Once exiting the elevator, go to the desk near the gate, Look at the books on the floor. It will say Edward Richtofen on one of them.
 * It is unknown how Reznov manages to run through the tear gas without being affected by it.