Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is finally here, and one part of the military FPS that people are particularly enjoying is the campaign and its story. The Black Ops brand has always had a special flavor to it. It is less serious–remember this?!–and more narratively open-minded than the ripped-from-the-headlines storylines in the other historical and modern Call of Duty games.
With Black Ops Cold War, the game’s story plays with history and covers real historical events, but with a healthy amount of conspiracy theories and deniable operations baked in.
With that in mind, we connected with former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation operative David Callan (who has since become a comedian, but more on that later), who told us about his experience as a counterintelligence officer. Callan worked for the ASIO in the ’80s and ’90s, which was a stormy time for international politics and clandestine operations. Callan shared stories and insight from his time in the service, and he also discussed what he thinks Black Ops Cold War, which is set in early 1980s, gets right about its depiction of the era.