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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Story Recap Ahead of MW4
ReCall of Duty: Modern Warfare Story Recap Ahead of MW4
Ahead of Modern Warfare 4, a recap of the reboot trilogy's tangled story: Task Force 141's formation, the stolen chemical gas, and the conflict in Urzikstan.
With Infinity Ward's rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare saga set to conclude in Modern Warfare 4, the studio has released a story recap covering the tangled events of the three games released so far. The recap traces how Task Force 141 came together and how a stolen shipment of chemical weapons drew the United States, Russia, and the fictional nation of Urzikstan into a widening conflict.
The 2019 Modern Warfare reboot begins with CIA agent Alex Keller witnessing the theft of highly valuable gas used to make chemical weapons. An unidentified team seizes the shipment en route to Urzikstan, escalating tensions between Russia and the West. The next day, the Urzik-connected terrorist group Al-Qatala attacks Piccadilly Circus in London, pulling British SAS operative Kyle «Gaz» Garrick into the story. Garrick joins Captain John Price to hunt the attackers, and their investigation leads to Al-Qatala leader Omar «The Wolf» Sulaman, who is hiding in a hospital in Urzikstan.
Alex Keller is already in Urzikstan, having teamed up with Farah Karim, leader of the Urzikstan Liberation Force. Farah wants to expel Russian General Roman Barkov, who occupies her country, and Alex agrees to help in exchange for assistance recovering the stolen gas. Alex and a Marine unit capture Sulaman from the hospital and hold him at the US embassy, but Sulaman's lieutenant, Jamal «The Butcher» Rahar, storms the embassy and frees him. The team then attempts to ambush Al-Qatala along the «Highway of Death» to retake the prisoner. The risky sniping mission collapses when Russian forces attack both the terrorists and Farah's fighters.
The operation takes a darker turn when Farah learns that her own brother, Hadir, stole the chemicals in the opening mission. He detonates them in a massive explosion that kills Al-Qatala and Russian forces alike, leaving Alex and Farah barely alive. Hadir's motive is revenge: twenty years earlier, a Russian invasion left him and Farah orphaned. Consumed by hatred, he joins Al-Qatala and breaks with his sister. The revelation aligns the goals of the various factions, and they launch a joint operation to infiltrate the terrorists' base and find Hadir. He and the gas are gone, but the team locates and kills Sulaman, leaving Al-Qatala without its leader.
The fallout reaches Washington. With the chemicals still missing, the CIA declares the Urzikstan Liberation Force a terrorist threat. Alex defects to Farah's group in protest. Meanwhile, after a terrorist attack in Saint Petersburg, Price and Gaz pursue Hadir but instead capture Rahar, who under interrogation reveals that Hadir's next target is Barkov. Price and Gaz save the Russian general and apprehend Hadir, who discloses the location of Barkov's chemical weapons operation. CIA Chief Kate Laswell takes Hadir into custody but approves the mission, and Price, Gaz, Farah, and Alex reunite to destroy Barkov's gas factory. Alex appears to sacrifice himself triggering the explosives, though a later seasonal update revealed he survived, losing only a leg. Farah kills Barkov before he can escape by helicopter.
The campaign ends with Laswell creating Task Force 141, the elite unit led by Price. Its first mission is to hunt Victor Zakhaev, a Russian ultranationalist familiar to players of the original Modern Warfare series. The recap notes that key plot points have also unfolded outside the core campaigns, in places such as Warzone's Verdansk, making the full story difficult to track. With Modern Warfare 4 set to bring the saga to a close, the summary is intended to prepare players for the finale.
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