One of the ironies of Call of Duty’s longstanding success has always been its campaign mode: Despite being a world-class spectacle that delivers a level of first-person shooter bombast that is increasingly rare in the genre, it is also easily the last reason many players even get the game. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), is hoping to remedy that by offering multiplayer rewards like cosmetics, weapon blueprints, and XP boosts for diligent players who play through the campaign, in a bold effort to implore players not to ignore it.
An update to the Call of Duty website lays out these rewards in detail, in addition to an additional hook: Those who preorder the game now will get early access to the campaign “up to one week” before the game’s official Oct. 28 release date (The site, curiously, does not specify when “early access” begins). The appeal is simple: players who pre-order will get to unlock all those campaign perks and have them ready for when the multiplayer goes live on launch day, and Activision gets your money faster, making the game’s launch weekend even bigger.
The rewards are:
- Calling Card: “Soap’s Determination”
- Emblem: “What’s Done Is Done”
- 30 Minute Double XP Token
- 30 Minute Double Weapon XP Token
- Calling Card: “Chainlinked”
- Base Operator: Chuy
- 30 Minute Double XP Token
- 30 Minute Double Weapon XP Token
- Calling Card: “Gaz”
- Base Operator: Nova
- 1 Hour Double XP Token
- 1 Hour Double Weapon XP Token
- Calling Card: “Shadow Company Ops”
- Base Operator: Reyes
- 1 Hour Double XP Token
- 1 Hour Double Weapon XP Token
- Base Operator: Hutch
All of these rewards can be earned piecemeal as players progress through the campaign, with the blueprint for famed Call of Duty hero Captain Price’s signature weapon “Union Guard” as a reward for finishing the whole thing.
It really seems like everyone involved here wants you to just play the damn Call of Duty campaign for once. As Modern Warfare hero John “Soap” MacTavish loves to say before he does a war crime, eat your damn vegetables.