In the campaign of the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, we hunt a mysterious Soviet spy named Perseus. This villain is based on a historical figure who has become somewhat of a myth to this day. We take a closer look at Perseus here.
Recently, the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War celebrated its release.
Since then, numerous players have dived into the Cold War Multiplayer or are hunting the undead in the popular Zombie mode. And single-player fans can rejoice as well, because this year, Black Ops also has a campaign on board. This continues the story of the arguably most popular first installment of the Black Ops series.
What is the campaign of Cold War about? Black Ops returns to its roots with Cold War and revisits the storyline of the first installment – it plays during the Cold War in the early 80s.
The story campaign places you right in the midst of the dirty geopolitical battle of the world powers, and you can experience cool agent action practically from the front row. You play as an elite agent of the CIA hunting the mysterious Soviet spy named Perseus, who is said to have infiltrated Western intelligence services and now threatens to undermine the USA’s dominance on the world stage.
What is the story behind Perseus? The Black Ops series often draws on real historical backgrounds and conspiracy theories. This is what makes Black Ops what it is, as Dan Bunting, Co-Studio Head of Treyarch, explained to MeinMMO in the big release interview for Black Ops Cold War.
For the main antagonist Perseus, they also drew on a historical template. What is particularly exciting is that Perseus is not only a character in Black Ops, but also a real-life myth.
Dan Bunting told MeinMMO:
We tell a fictional story, we have always done that. What we’ve enjoyed is going back in history, looking at certain events and saying: OK, we see this on the surface. That could inspire us – for a mission. For a character. But everything beyond that point is mostly unknown, so we create our own stories right there. That’s where we have our fun. As developers, as storytellers.
A good example of this is Perseus, our villain. He was a real historical character. There were many speculations about who he actually was, but this was never definitively uncovered. It was as if this person just vanished. And we thought it would be a suitable villain for Black Ops.
And as you will soon see: Black Ops could hardly have used a better template.
Who was Perseus?
In short: Perseus, also known as Mlad, Scientist X or Dr. X, is one of the most secretive and mysterious spies allegedly used by the former Soviet Union against the USA during the Cold War.
For his identity and whereabouts remain unknown to this day. No one knows his real name or background. Even his mere existence is questioned by some. He is regarded as a real-life myth, or even a ghost or mere rumor, whose name circulated in Western intelligence circles during the Cold War and caused headaches.
The story behind Perseus: The first information about Perseus only came to light after the fall of the Soviet Union when, in the early 90s, numerous top-secret files from the Soviet KGB were declassified and former agents began to give interviews or write books.
Perseus, who was also known by the code name Mlad, is said to have been a young American physicist at the University of Chicago in the 40s. He is said to have joined the Manhattan Project in 1944, during which the USA designed their atomic weapons in Los Alamos. At that time, he is said to have been recruited by the Soviets and supplied them with highly classified information for years until he ended the collaboration in 1946 and joined a movement against nuclear weapons testing.
However, the corresponding files and “sources” were quickly sealed again by the Russian successor secret service FSB, making this theory unverifiable. Some believe it, others do not.
Other known theories state that Perseus joined the Manhattan Project directly in 1939 and never ended his cooperation with the Soviet Union. Or that Perseus was a disinformation campaign by the Soviets to protect their agent Theodore Hall, who is said to be the “real” Mlad.
There were also rumors that it might not be a person, but an entire network of spies, or that Perseus was at least part of this grouping. This involved so-called Atomic Spies – a collective of Soviet intelligence officers who were said to have infiltrated parts of the US military and especially the nuclear weapons program.
In the mid-90s, decoded secret messages from the Soviets by US counterintelligence caused further unrest. These contained the unidentified code name “PERS,” which many involved believed referred to the mysterious Soviet agent who stole secrets from the USA. Furthermore, documents from US intelligence services are said to substantiate Perseus’s existence, although these have never been made public.
At the end of the 90s, there was a scandal surrounding Perseus when scientist Jeremy Stone claimed in his memoirs that a renowned physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the mysterious Soviet spy. The affected Philip Morrison was eventually able to prove his innocence, and Stone was forced to apologize.
Who or what Perseus ultimately is and whether he ever existed is still not conclusively clarified to this day. However, Black Ops Cold War skillfully incorporates his story and lets you hunt this agent myth.
By the way, you can find out what Perseus allegedly did in Black Ops Cold War here: Story trailer for CoD Cold War shows the villain you will soon hunt
