Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War introduces two spies joining your squad

(Image credit: Activision)

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War would like to introduce you to two spies you would never, ever hear about if they were real.

A new post on developer Treyarch's official site runs down the agents on the intelligence side of Cold War's campaign. First up is Russell Adler, who you've already met in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War scene trailer from Gamescom. He joined the CIA in 1966 then went to Vietnam in 1967 with the assignment of "investigating covert Soviet activity". His service records disappear after that, but when we pick back up with him in 1981 he's established himself as a key CIA operative.

According to the description, Adler is a highly trained social chameleon, switching from a charming scoundrel to a heartless killer at a moment's notice. He's an espionage expert, and he's the one who assembles the team you belong to at the start of Cold War. Your first objective is to track down a lead somewhere in Amsterdam.

Adler's MI6 counterpart is Helen Park. I guess that makes her the James Bond to his Felix Leiter, though neither of them seem like the "sipping martinis on the casino floor" type. She's a dialed-down operator who questions Adler's seeming impetuousness, but they still respect each other as professionals.

Park always puts MI6's interests first, which may create some tension in Adler's American-backed operations. But what good is spy fiction if you're not constantly questioning everyone's loyalties?

Back on the shooty-er side of Black Ops, the original Frank Woods voice actor says Activision didn't reach out to him about reprising his role for Cold War.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.