Endgame


 * "Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye. And the world just fuckin' watched. Tomorrow, there will be no shortage of volunteers, no shortage of patriots. I know you understand."
 * — General Shepherd, preparing to kill Soap.

"Endgame" is the eighteenth and final campaign mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It continues where "Just Like Old Times" left off; Price and Soap are on a chase to kill General Shepherd before he escapes. The player takes control of John "Soap" MacTavish

Main Characters

 * John "Soap" MacTavish (Playable, W.I.A.)
 * John Price (W.I.A.)
 * General Shepherd (K.I.A.)
 * Nikolai

Level Briefing
"Endgame"

Day 7 - 18:10:24-31

"Soap" MacTavish

Site Hotel Bravo, Afghanistan

Walkthrough
Soap and Price begin the level in hot pursuit of the traitor, General Shepherd. They get into a Zodiac speedboat and chase him through the cave and down the river with Soap driving and Price firing at hostiles along the riverbanks. Along the way, OpFor will be taking potshots at both the player and Shepherd from the riverbanks and bridges. Price will gun them down using his M4A1 and occasionally M203, but the player can also return fire with a Mini-Uzi while driving the boat.

Eventually, the player and Price will follow Shepherd through a narrow cave, and into a wide open area. Enemy Little Birds and their miniguns appear and engage the player. After avoiding the first Little Bird, enemies on bridges and occasionally the shores, will fire at the player with RPGs.

Eventually, the player and Price make it to the rapids. Though rough at first, the river becomes more smooth as they progress. Hostiles will still attack the player from Zodiacs, RPG's, and Little Bird helicopters. The player will then go under a bridge, and see Shepherd's Zodiac enter the cargo bay of a Pave Low helicopter. Shepherd is forced to cut his speed drastically to board the chopper. Just when it appears that Shepherd will get away, the helicopter slows down and turns sharply to avoid flying straight into a sandstorm and hovers over a waterfall. With only a few seconds left before the chopper is out of range, Price tells Soap to steady the boat and fires at the helicopter. Eventually, his bullets hits one of the Pave Low's engines, this causes the helicopter to catch fire and violently snap to the right, the Pave Low then begins to start spinning out of control toward the riverbank below. As the chopper disappears below the waterfall, Price tells Soap to back up but the current is too strong, and the boat tumbles over the waterfall, plunging into the river moments before the burning Pave Low crashes.

After a brief wait period, Soap wakes up, washed up on the shore. He picks up his knife, and walks towards some flames in the distance. Moments later, he comes upon a Shadow Company soldier crawling from the crashed helicopter in the distance, as well as another downed Shadow Company soldier just ahead. The player will see Shepherd stumble out of the flaming wreckage of the Pave Low. He will glance at Soap and then run away into the sandstorm. Soap follows him and finds him leaning on a car.

Once Soap attempts to knife him, Shepherd will block this attack and ram Soap's head into the car, causing him to fall. Shepherd pulls out his own knife and jabs it deep into Soap's stomach causing him to black out from the trauma. Shepherd will give a brief speech, as Soap's vision returns to see Shepherd standing over him, loading two rounds in his .44 Magnum Revolver. He cocks the hammer of the pistol, points it at Soap's face.

Just then, Captain Price intervenes, tackling Shepherd and kicking the revolver out of his hand just before the player is executed. The player will be needed to crawl towards Shepherd's pistol. Before the player can get to the Magnum, Shepherd kicks it away and stomps on Soap's face, who blacks out.

Soap wakes up a few seconds later to see Price and Shepherd engaged in a brutal fistfight. After a few brief moments, the fight begins to turn in Shepherd's favor as he punches Price in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. While, Shepherd is slowly and relentlessly beating Price, Soap notices the knife still stuck in his own chest. The player will then take serious damage when pulling the knife out. Once done, Soap spins it around in his hand. The player aims the knife at Shepherd and throws it. Shepherd looks up just before the knife pierces into his left eye, killing him.

Soap almost blacks out before Price wakes up and stumbles towards him. While Price attends to Soap's wounds, he notices a Little Bird helicopter land on the riverbank behind them. Price tells Soap that the bandages will hold for now and helps Soap to his feet. The pilot of the Little Bird comes to assist Price and Soap, who turns out to be Nikolai. Price tells Nikolai that they need to get Soap of out there, and Nikolai responds by saying he knows a place to go, and the game ends as Price, Nikolai, and Soap are walking towards the helicopter.

Starting Loadout
The following weapons are the initial starting weapons.

Found in Level
The following weapons can be found with or without attachments. Although, they are all unusable.

Intel Locations
1/1 Intel: Right before getting on the boat, look left, it's on the crate. This Enemy Intel is considered to be the easiest to find throughout the game, yet it may be surprisingly easy to miss due to the hectic pace and Price urging the player to get on the boat.

Achievements/Trophies
Leave No Stone Unturned (10G / Bronze Trophy) - Obtained by collecting 45 pieces of intel.

Off the Grid (25G / Silver Trophy) - Obtained by beating "Just Like Old Times", and "Endgame" on Veteran.

For the Record (35G / Silver Trophy) - Obtained by beating the Campaign on any difficulty.

The Price of War (90G / Gold Trophy) - Obtained by beating the Campaign on Hardened or Veteran.

General

 * "Endgame" is a reference to chess. The Endgame in chess is the final few moves when both sides have very few pieces left (in this case, only Soap and Price are left to oppose Shepherd). This also ties into the multiple chess references in "The Enemy of My Enemy" and related achievements.
 * The player will start this mission with whatever weapons they finished the previous mission with. However, if the player ended the previous level with Akimbo TMPs, they will start this level with only one.
 * When the player looks at a friend on PS3 or Xbox 360 who is playing the very end of this level, it doesn't say Endgame. Instead it says "The Ending" which may mean that the level was originally supposed to be called "The Ending". This only occurs on the second part of the mission, as "Endgame" is used before falling over the waterfall, and then "The Ending" is used afterwards.
 * The multiplayer map Rust is based on the end of this level. Notice the background when the player kills Shepherd. If the player goes into spectator mode on Rust, he can clearly see a flipped Zodiac near the shore and a downed Sea Knight where Shepherd's Pave Low would have been. The crashed Sea Knight model is exactly the same as the one found in Crash in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Using "noclip" shows that the map has slight cosmetic differences from Rust but is essentially the same.
 * This is the only instance in the single-player campaign that a Throwing Knife can be used.
 * It is possible for the player to shoot Shepherd when he is leaving on his Zodiac. However, Shepherd can not be killed, as he is not supposed to die until after the boat chase.
 * This is the last mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that the playable character is Soap.
 * This is the only level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where Nikolai's face is seen, in the other missions, he is only heard talking over the radio.
 * According to the "_introscreen.gsc" the mission was at one point called "You Can't Win A War With A Bullet"

Boat Chase

 * The idea for a boat chase as a climax may have been inspired by the James Bond movie "Die Another Day". Both times, the heroes are British, they are chasing after a General that crossed them, and both involved a waterfall at the end of the chase.
 * If the player gets on the boat without Price and then tries to drive away, Price will always manage to get on in time.
 * If the player dies while driving the boat, their body will levitate above the water, and Price will also die for no apparent reason.
 * If the player enables the no-clip cheat, it is possible to see that Shepherd is the driver of the Zodiac.
 * It is possible to get onto one of the bridges with the boat. If so, the player will notice that the boat drives along land the same way that it drives on water.
 * At the part where the river widens and the first Little Bird appears, if the player goes near the left bank he can see two Opel Blitzs with the iron cross. Curiously, it resembles the model seen in Call of Duty 2.
 * The OpFor on the bridge where Captain Price warns the player about RPGs will just stand there after firing their RPGs.
 * Though the player is fighting OpFor and Shadow Company at the same time, when chasing Shepherd through the first few caves, the OpFor tend to focus more on the player than on Shepherd.
 * If the player turns on his minimap during the boat chase, a green helicopter icon will be visible, this is probably Nikolai following them in his Little Bird.

Helicopter and Waterfall

 * At the part when Price shoots down the Pave Low, Price's name will appear as Cpt. Price, not Captain Price. This also happens before the player gets into the boat.
 * Shepherd's boat is forced to slow down considerably to board the Pave Low, giving the player time to catch up. If the player can reach the Pave Low before it lifts off, the player will pass right through it, revealing that it is not actually a solid object.
 * After Shepherd boards the chopper, there is no way to stop the boat.
 * When Price shoots the Pave Low, his M4A1 makes the sound of an Intervention, probably for dramatic effect.
 * Warhorse 5-1 (the enemy Pave Low) shows up as a friendly Pavelow on the pause menu's minimap.
 * When the boat is falling down, first the player's minimap shows Price almost at Soap's position, then a few meters away, and finally his icon disappears.
 * If braking early, it is possible to not go over the waterfall. Doing so will cause the player to receive the message, "Shepherd got away!"

Looking for Shepherd

 * Using PC cheats, certain weapons can be spawned in the section after Soap goes over the waterfall, including an RPD, RPG and P90. Any spawned weapons can then be used on the injured Shadow Company and Shepherd, although to no effect on the latter. Shepherd will also strangely not appear on thermal sights or heartbeat monitors, suggesting in this mission he is an animated object and not an actual NPC. If the player gets a good angle of Nikolai when he lands, they can get a friendly fire message by shooting him to death. However, this is rather difficult to accomplish.
 * After the boat crash, the player cannot find Price on the ground even though he saves the player from getting shot by Shepherd. However, by noclipping the player can find that Price is in a frozen state right behind Soap's view, ready to jump right into action when he is scripted to do so.
 * If the player stays close to the downed helicopter, he can actually get close enough to knife Shepherd as he is running away, but the knife goes through him and doesn't affect him.
 * If fast enough after the crash, the player can run over to the Pave Low and catch up to Shepherd. It is also possible to run in front of him and run through him. He will then stop running until the player moves away. When the player moves away, he will start running again and it may look like he is holding a gun, even though he is not.
 * The model for the crashed Pave Low is the same model as Raptor's Pave Low in "Wolverines!".
 * The truck that Shepherd leans on can actually be seen outside of Rust.
 * If the player doesn't get close enough for Shepherd to attack him, he opens a conversation with the player. He says: "You know what they say about revenge... you better be ready to dig two graves... Go ahead and end it. It won't change anything... Hmph... I knew you couldn't do it... You're a good warrior... but you could never take that extra step... to do what was absolutely necessary." He sounds like he has a sore throat while saying these lines, but it could be the fact that he was just in a helicopter crash.
 * Shepherd will slam the player into the car if when close enough, even if the player doesn't attack him with the knife.
 * Even if the player crouches or goes prone as he approaches Shepherd, he will still yank the player into a standing position and still beat his head against the truck.
 * If the player stands behind the barrel Shepherd is standing next to, the player can swing his knife and slash the General from the other side of the barrel without engaging the battle sequence. The same sound can be heard as if he were slashing an enemy, and blood can seen spraying from Shepherd.

Killing Shepherd

 * The blood splatters on Soap's gloves when crawling toward the .44 Magnum are completely identical.
 * The animation used by Shepherd when he is beating up Captain Price is also used in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare when Captain Price is beating up Al-Asad.
 * The player can actually pull the knife out of Soap's chest before being prompted to. While Price and Shepherd are fighting, after the player is able to see Shepherd's knife, (i.e. when Shepherd kicks Price down) they can repeatedly tap the "use" button to start pulling the knife. Even though the player can throw the knife earlier, Shepherd will still be beating Price like he is supposed to be.
 * The player cannot throw the knife unless the crosshairs go red.
 * No matter where the player aims at Shepherd, the knife will always hit his left eye.
 * By no-clipping, the player can see Shepherd putting Price in a headlock, Price reverses it and holds Shepherd in a headlock until Soap pulls the knife out from his chest, then Shepherd will be punching Price like before.

Rescue

 * When Nikolai's Little Bird comes in to evacuate Soap and Price, there isn't a pilot in it before it lands. When the helicopter does land, the door does not open at all; Nikolai just appears outside of the helicopter.