It is possible to do the mission with only the prison knife (minus the slingshot, the grappling hook/harpoon and the Death Machine)
After you have accomplished eliminating the three targets by means of an improvised slingshot, if you look at Reznov it seems that he wielded an AK-47 after his speech. The Arms Locker down the stairs, however, only contained KS-23 shotguns. It is possible that Reznov got the AK-47 from the dead guard on the floor next to the PA system.
At where the player uses the slingshot, a huge bucket-wheel excavator can be seen in the distance, exactly like the one inRadiation, meanint that this map was based of it & vice versa..
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.
It is interesting to note that in the Wii version, Reznov may start rushing lines, which can sometimes cause the game to lag.
Step 2: "Ascend from darkness" is similar as one of the strange messages in Nacht der Untoten.
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 World at War mission, Their Land, Their Blood.
When Reznov gets the blowtorch you can walk to the right side of the room and actually shoot trough the window, on the prison guards and kill them without breaking the window.
The Model 1887 fires two shots before Mason must cycle the action. As it is not a double-barrel shotgun, this is inaccurate. It also is a lever action, so it must be re-cocked.
Reznov's rallying speech over the PA system ends once you destroy all 3 targets, so if the player lets this part drags on, they would be able to hear the full version of it.
The slingshot is a flaming crossbow on the Wii version of the game. There are also 4 positions to destroy in the Wii version.
After Sergei holds the door and subsequently killed, a glitch might occur where Reznov falls through the floor, making impossible to continue the mission without restarting the whole level (unless the player was lucky enough to get to a checkpoint before the glitch.
In this same place, if the player waits for the door to close, it will open again once the player gets closer.
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, although it is possibly a reference to World at War, in the level Eviction, when Reznov gives advice on how to be unaffected by toxic smoke.
Glitch: After obtaining the Death Machine, shooting the trucks outside will cause them to flip around and turn in random directions, the gunner is still alive and can shoot you, though this glitch is very rare.
If the player triggers the tear gas while facing backwards (looking to were you came), one will notice that Reznov spawns out of nowhere to help Mason. This can't be seen while facing forward since Reznov's spawn will be inside the tear gas cloud.
The Prisoner talking to Reznov in the elevator will always have a randomly generated name, but will always have the same character model.
If you kill guards before they finish beating prisoners to death, the prisoners will "die", but their mouths will move and they will blink forever. Also, if you aim at certain parts of them, your reticle will turn green, possibly indicating that they are simply stunned or unconcious.
When moving to the second floor of the room where Sergei is killed, you can see enemy troops sliding in through a glass ceiling via a rope, if you look up at the ropes, you will see that they are not from any type of aircraft, but are rather just attached to the ceiling.
If the player does not shoot the guard manning the machine gun on the truck, he will just fall off the truck when the player gets on.
If the player does not pick up the guard's Makarov, one will be on the ground behind the coal cart.
It's impossible to escape the tear gas near the end.
In the beginning of the level, Reznov uses the guard's baton like a knife to cut the keys off of his belt.
If the player has the subtitles on during the closing cutscene, Reznov's first name will be misspelled as "Victor" instead of "Viktor".
If the player misses the helicopter with the harpoon, he/she will not be able to go inside, which will result in their death.
If the player fails to follow the escape plan, Reznov will yell "NO!"
The word Reznov yells at the guard in the beginning of the level is a Russian word, "svoloch", which translates to "scum" or, in some cases, asshole. He uses the same word to refer to a sniper that almost hit him in the World at War mission Vendetta.
Mentioned above when Reznov calls the prison guard a "svoloch" it looks as if Reznov smiles a little.
Reznov does not wear prison garbs like the other inmates.
Some prison guards wear riot armor, allowing them to sustain more damage than normal enemies, especially from low penetration weapons such as the Makarov or AK74u. They can easily be dispatched with a grenade launcher (grenade must detonate), a headshot, the KS-23, or Death Machine.
Vorkuta was a real gulag built to hold German POWs from WW2.
There was a real uprising in Vorkuta in 1953. Inmates refused to work from July to August which ended in an estimated 66 killed.
Mason's role in Vorkuta could be based on Homer Harold Cox, an American military policeman kidnapped and arrested by the Soviets in 1949, whom Mason resembles similarly.
In the Armory where the Death Machine is found, there are also AK-47's inside. These can't be picked up and appear to have every single attachment for the AK-47 on them. Some of the attachments overlap and are "inside" each other (like the red dot sight and reflex sight being covered by an IR scope)
There is a rare glitch that can occur in the armory where Reznov disappears and the objective indicator will go to the bottom of the screen.
If the player initiates friendly fire, he/she will get a message saying "You are a traitor to your brothers!". This is similar to the message the player gets in the Russian campaign in World at War should the player open fire on his/her comrades. This message also later appears in Project Nova as well.
A Russian guard may use a AK-47 with a GP-25, sniper scope and a silencer, but it cannot be picked up.
After the machine gun towers gets destroyed a guard with an AK-47 may fly out of the tower, you cannot pick up his gun and it will disappear soon afterwards.
It is impossible to gib the armored soldiers but if they are shot with a powerful weapon they will still have the same death animations and screams.
Once you get the Makarov, you can knife again, and if you look closely, it is the default knife. This is incorrect, the only knife you have is the prison knife.
When Reznov gets the blowtorch, you can see three Russian Prison Guards pass by, yet when they breach, two Riot Guards come out, although you can see two dead Russian Prison Guards outside where they breached.
Some of the prisoners have the letter C before their number. In Russia, this would be incorrect, as there is no C in the Cyrillic alphabet used there. However, the Cyrillic C is the equivalent of the Roman alphabet S, so it could also be correct if the player understood the Cyrillic alphabet.
This is the only appearance the Model 1887 makes in the game.
The anonymous prisoners that fight by the player's side can be killed without penalty, but they can only be killed while the player has the prison knife. However, if certain anonymous prisoners are killed, the game will give the player the penalty.
This is the second time in the series where Reznov appears to feel no pain or effect of something that incapacitated the player. Here it was the tear gas, where he does not cough or have any side effects, and in World At War it was when Dimitri was crushed by a burning log in Vendetta, where he showed no pain pulling a burning log that was established as too hot for the player to move.
The prison guards in this level use similar models to the Soviet soldiers in Project Nova.
At the very start of the mission when you are running down the tunnels, you will see some prisoners fighting three guards, if you wait near them, the guards will kill three of the five and rest will run down the tunnel opposite, the guards will attack you if you get in their way.
Many people wonder why Reznov is friends with Mason because of the fight scene in the start of the level. However, this was just to create a distraction so Reznov could get the keys from the guard.
The green shield next to the armory door is bulletproof against enemy fire but not the player's fire. This is very helpful on Veteran difficulty, where the player can die easily. You can shoot through the glass and kill enemies, however, it is not recommended to shoot full auto because the glass spray may block the player's view.
Although during the armory section where Reznov asks you to defend him, every enemy will not attack him, and will, rather, try and kill you.
Mason possibly reloads only two shells into the Model 1887 knowing that he could not hold all the shells with one hand while being able to stay on the motorcycle. Even so, he would have to reload two shells after running empty, not just spin-cock the weapon.
Mason's choice of a Model 1887 seems odd in that Reznov can be seen firing an AK47 (or possibly an AK-74U) with one hand while riding his motorcycle.
