Unlike most Call Of Duty games, Black Ops 4 doesn’t possess the typical campaign. Instead, in it’s place are minor cutscenes, brief exchanges, and audio segments.
Throughout this article, I will be discussing those elements in relation to Woods and Mason to give you a breakdown of their overall story as well as what this means for the series as a whole.
There will be heavy spoilers and it may be worth skipping this video for now if you’re yet to complete the game.
With that out the way, I’m Deffinition and I play the game so you don’t have to.
Call Of Duty: Woods & Mason Ending Explained
The ending of the Call Of Duty Woods and Mason story culminates in an exchange between the two. In order to fully understand the meaning behind it we must first break down Savannah’s overall plan ‘Project Blackout‘. Savannah is Mason’s granddaughter and is just all around a bad egg. Project Blackout itself, is a process in which highly reputable dead soldiers were cloned and trained to be at a Black Ops Level. This takes place in a training ground called ‘Blackout’. These soldiers are referred to as Archetypes and it is revealed that Woods and Mason are among their ranks.
Savannah’s sister, Jessica is onto this plan and thus Savannah needs her killed. It turns out that Woods has been working with Savannah in order to kill Jessica. Woods has been using the brainwashing techniques from Black Ops in order to control Mason and this is why we hear an audio file called ‘Mason’s Ladder’ in which he reads the numbers out loud to the character.
In the final exchange between the two, Woods tells Mason “It was you in the box, it always was.” This is in order to make him more compliant. It refers to the scene in Black Ops 2 where Mason and Hudson rescue Woods from a shipping container and thus tricks Mason into believing that Woods saved his life.
The final cutscene takes place in the Asylum area of the Blackout map, which adds a lot of weight to the theory that both Woods and Mason now exist in Project Blackout. Players that journey to the same spot in Blackout can find a note written by Mason showing the faces of the Specialists with names written underneath.
Other Notes
Overall Black Ops 4 has a lot that ties it into the prior stories and therefore makes it canon. Woods, Mason, Menendez and Reznov are all available characters and have been confirmed to have been a part of Project Blackout.
There also exists a lot of evidence to support the theory that Savannah is in fact an archetype too. In the cutscene ” I slashed the lamb and ewe, letting their black blood stream…” we can clearly see another person sitting next to Savannah on her bed. This person looks identical to her and could be her archetype.
There are a wealth of easter eggs currently developing in regards to the game and there is a great thread on reddit which is being regularly updated with new developments. It massively helped with putting together this video so make sure you check it out.
Your Thoughts
So, what are your thoughts on The Developing Story of Black Ops 4? Do you enjoy piecing together the tidbits of information we have been given or would your prefer and overall linear narrative? As I mentioned there are constantly evolving pieces of information so if I have missed anything or something has changed make sure to leave the updates in the comments.
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