Call of Duty has been establishing an integrated narrative since the release of Modern Warfare 2019, and the one thing that annoys me so much is the super thick plot armors around the characters. Many previously “dead” operators have found their way to the land of the living in the past couple of years, but their unexpected returns were grounded on weak logic. That said, the release of MW3 Season 5 Story trailer features the return of one dammed and dead villain operator that I’m pretty sure was shot in the head point blank.
There are many theories, statements, and even announcements about how Alex survived the bombing, how in the flying tank Graves wasn’t in that tank, and my brother in heavens, how was Soap and Zakhaev Jr. still alive. Now, all of these are poorly explained in-game. Alex lost a leg, Graves’ dead body was never seen, Soap’s story in Season 4 is before his death, and Zakhaev, well, just survived falling from a 50-ft. free fall.
But even if we get along with all these massive plot armors, what’s with Ivan coming back from absolute death? MW3 has had the worst story follow-ups in its seasons so far, and now Makarov’s right-hand operator is somehow alive after being shot in the head right in front of all his so-called comrades in Season 5.
During the first MW3 Campaign mission called “Operation 627,” you play as Ivan Alexxeve, one of the leading Konni Group operators. After a moment of hesitation over a command, Makarov orders Nolan to shoot Ivan in the head after removing his Konni Group badge. The same badge that Ivan is again wearing after coming back from dead in MW3 Season 5!
As of right now, it seems like the plot doesn’t even matter at all in Modern Warfare 3. This isn’t what we were used to seeing in different seasons of a Call of Duty game, where with every massive update, we received a cutscene to follow what we had left by the end of each year’s Campaign. Will it be fixed after Season 5, though? I don’t think so.
There’s only one more season of MW3 coming this year before Black Ops 6, and it seems like the final story cutscene is in MWZ Season 5. So, we’re left with nothing but to hope that Black Ops 6 won’t treat us this way by bringing back the dead Alex Mason in bundles.
