Just Like Old Times


 * "The healthy human mind doesn't wake up in the morning thinking this is its last day on earth. But I think that's a luxury, not a curse. To know you're close to the end is a kind of freedom. Good time to take... inventory. Out-gunned. Outnumbered. Out of our minds. On a suicide mission. But the sand and rocks here stained with thousands of years of warfare... they will remember us. For this. Because out of all our vast array of nightmares this is the one we choose for ourselves. We go forward like a breath exhaled from the earth. With vigor in our hearts and one goal in sight: We. Will. Kill him."
 * — Captain Price

"Just Like Old Times" is the seventeenth campaign mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. With most of Task Force 141 eliminated and nearly all out of allies, Captain Price and Captain MacTavish resolve there is nothing left to do but neutralize General Shepherd. Now labeled war criminals and wanted fugitives, the duo embark on a suicide mission to infiltrate Shadow Company's command base with one goal only: Kill Shepherd. The player takes control of John "Soap" MacTavish.

Main Characters

 * John "Soap" MacTavish (Playable)
 * John Price
 * General Shepherd
 * Nikolai

Level Briefing
"Just Like Old Times"

Day 7 - 17:32:36-43

"Soap" MacTavish

Site Hotel Bravo, Afghanistan

Walkthrough
The mission starts with Nikolai telling Price he'd be ready to pick them up in three hours. Price tells Nikolai not to bother, as this would be a "one-way trip." They are in a sandstorm while the player (playing as John "Soap" MacTavish) and Price are hiding in the sand. The two then proceed toward a ridge and ambush a group of Shadow Company soldiers. Soap hooks up on a bridge and rappels down with Price. The two take out two more guards below them standing in front of the cave and then head inside.

They later are forced to hide as a patrol of soldiers check out what happened to the group they took out earlier. They sneak past a group of soldiers having a meeting. Price warns Soap of two soldiers with tactical lights coming down the stairs. They kill them and the two continue. Upstairs, Price stabs a soldier before he notices two more are behind him. Soap and Price learn that Shadow Company soldiers are about to breach the door.

The two quickly take out the group as they come pouring in. Price tells Soap to take a Riot Shield for cover and walk along the catwalk while Price takes out the group. They later learn that Shepherd is being evacuated. They take out several groups of soldiers before proceeding to a door that Shadow Company soldiers have locked.

The duo then breach the door and kill all the soldiers behind it. After the room is clear, Shepherd notifies the soldiers in the cave that the site has been breached and that he is going to set off explosives inside the cave to attempt to kill Soap and Price. Price and Soap quickly hack the door controls so that they can get out before the explosions go off.

During their escape, Soap is injured, but quickly recovers. Shepherd then calls in an artillery strike, "danger close," in another desperate attempt to kill the two, but they still manage to survive. Price comments, like Corporal Dunn had earlier in the campaign, that Shepherd doesn't care about danger close. Price and Soap then proceed to the Zodiacs that Shepherd mentioned earlier, and the level ends.

Starting Loadout
The following weapons are the initial starting weapons.

Found in Level
The following weapons can be found with or without attachments.

Intel Locations
1/4 Intel: After shooting the enemy smoking in front of a security monitor, head east, the intel is on a gray crate.

2/4 Intel: After Price knifes the guard at the top of the stairs the player will be ambushed by a patrol. After clearing the room, Price will exit the cave to the east. Just before exiting the cave, look to the northeast, the intel will be between the last two red lights. The face of the intel will be pointed towards the cave wall so it may be difficult to spot.

 3 /4 Intel: Before engaging in the firefight through smoke and riot shields (before breaching the control room), head north along the right side wall; the intel is on a crate with an MG4.

4/4 Intel: This intel is located inside the control room which the player breaches with a plate charge. There is a table located on the left of Capt. Price as he is using the terminal, before exiting the cave. The intel is there, amid a load of soda cans.

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

Trivia

 * The level's name is a reference to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, as the player controls Soap with Price, as opposed to Roach with Soap.
 * Before either rappelling down the cliff or after rappelling and killing the guards, the player can see civilian cars on the other side of the canyon. If they scope in with their Intervention to look closer, they can see no one is driving them. They are the same model but their color is randomly generated. Although they obviously can't see the cave system itself, the large flights of Little Birds do little to preserve the secrecy of the site. Later on during the mission after Shadow Company acknowledges Soap's and Price's presence, they're forced to traverse the rock bridge. When moving across the bridge the player can see tanks and Humvees moving across instead of civilian vehicles.
 * In the beginning cut-scene, Soap says "We've got one good UMP, they've got a thousand" to illustrate how out-gunned they are compared to Shepherd's men. Interestingly, even though he says this, neither Price nor Soap have a UMP45, but a SCAR-H and Vector instead, respectively. However, in the French version of the game, Soap talks about submachine guns, and does not mention the UMP45 at all.
 * The soldier that is watching the TV (the one who can be spared) is watching security footage of "The Gulag".
 * After Shepherd orders the rocket barrage, Price will say "Since when does Shepherd care about danger close?", a quote also said by Dunn in "Team Player."
 * Price says "This decryption code better be worth the price we paid", which is a near exact quote from the Star Wars franchise episode Return of the Jedi.
 * The instructions from Shadow Company HQ to "Terminate with extreme prejudice" is a reference to Captain Willard's mission in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.
 * Directly below the hill that Price and Soap slide down after killing the enemy patrol, there is a spot where the player can jump off the cliff and survive. When the player lands, a mission failure screen appears saying "Friendly fire will not be tolerated!"
 * When the player takes out the first group in the beginning of the level, Price sometimes says, "Dog neutralized. I count five tangos down." However, this happens only if Price kills the dog. If the player instead kills the dog before Price does, Price will say "Just like old times," referring to when he and Soap (or he and Cpt. MacMillan) worked together during the events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * In the explosive-rigged (by Shadow Company) control room at the end of the level, before the player breaches the exit, a table with a map of Shepherd's areas of responsibility can be seen. On the table lie "X"s and "O"s.
 * Early on in the level, when Price talks his lips do not move. This occurs in various times through the campaign.
 * Shadow Company uses the same screams and cries as the Militia and the Spetsnaz when shot or injured.
 * Before Price goes to kill the guard at the top of the staircase, he says "He's mine." If the player kills the guard before Price does, he will say "Never mind, then." Similar to Soap in Cliffhanger. Sometimes he won't respond if the player kills the guard quickly enough.
 * The Little Bird that arrives (after leaving the cave near the end of the level) with Shadow Company troops can be destroyed with an AT4. The same goes for the Black Hawk.
 * The Little Bird/Black Hawk can also be destroyed by a grenade launcher.
 * Toward the end of the level, right before the player breaches the control room door, it is impossible to kill the Shadow Company soldier before he closes the door.
 * When the player is in the tunnel system and the two soldiers come through the door with the stairs and the red light, if they can kill them both, Price will say "Impressive."
 * Price seems to carry three weapons: a SCAR-H with a thermal scope, suppressed Intervention, an ACR with a Holographic Sight (briefly visible when on the catwalks).
 * It is possible to find Akimbo red dot sight TMP's in the war room, but if the player keeps them for the next mission, they will only have one.
 * It is possible to get past the troops firing at the player with MG4s without taking a Riot Shield, but it is very difficult to do.
 * After the artillery strike, there will be Shadow Company troops wounded and on fire. Shooting or knifing them will extinguish the flames.
 * If the player alerts the guards at the beginning, they can run up the slope while the player can only slide down.
 * When Soap and Price are rappelling down the cliff, Price's shadow is visible on the ground near the guards. One will look at Price's shadow, but will not react to it. The guard below Soap however will look up and see Soap if the player takes too long to kill him.
 * On lower difficulty levels the game will brake the automatically upon reaching the bottom after rappelling down. On higher difficulties the player will fly off the cliff if they do not brake.
 * After avoiding the first patrol in the cave and then taking out the guard the patrol passes, the player can stealthily follow the patrol to where they are headed. The patrol walks to the entrance of the cave and then stops. One soldier in the rear of the patrol will turn and spot the player, alerting the rest of the group. If the player listens to their comms, the patrol does indeed find the bodies of the guards at the cave entrance (indicated by one of them saying, "We got a man down!"). This is likely how Shadow Company knows Soap and Price are there and ambushes them in the 'steam room' later on.
 * For some reason, the two guards that Soap and Price knife after rappelling carry silenced weapons. The soldier that Soap knifed has a Vector Silenced ACOG Sight, while the other has a MP5K Suppressed Red Dot.
 * The two guards model appearance are always the same.
 * When taking out the first group of guards, Price fires his Intervention faster than is physically possible, as he doesn't cycle the bolt.
 * The ACRs that have Silencers, Red Dot Sights, and Heartbeat Sensors on a rack in the steam room that Shadow Company breaches have a unique black paint job and a max ammo of 1260.
 * When the player first sees the ACRs in the steam room they have normal gray finish, but when the player picks them up they have black finish on.
 * The guard which Price tells the player not to engage when they first enter the cave seems to be smoking and blowing smoke through his balaclava.
 * The player can shoot the TV before the guard walks up to it and he will not notice it.
 * If the player alerts this guard and runs out of the cave, Price will yell "Soap, where are you? Get back here!". Soon after, the player will receive the mission failure screen "You abandoned Captain Price!"
 * In the cave among the other Shadow Company soldiers there are two men playing chess. Also, if the player keeps watching, one of the men will whack the other man's head to get his attention.
 * If Soap is attacked by the dog in the beginning and manages to break its neck, the character model for a US Ranger is used.
 * If the player looks at Price's Intervention just before they snipe the patrols, they can see there doesn't seem to be a magazine in the weapon.
 * Sometimes, if the player falls off the cliff before hooking up, a message will appear with the players death, saying "KILL_DEATHQUOTE_QUOTE".
 * Even if the player goes ahead of Price before the explosion, the debris will still fall on them.
 * If the player throws a grenade at the Shadow Company patrol at the beginning of the level the explosion will turn out pixelated.
 * The Vector the player starts with as their secondary weapon has a unique black finish.
 * When the player has to breach the door to access the explosive rigged room, he can throw a fragmentation grenade at the door and breach simultaneously, the enemies become alerted and the player is unaffected by its explosion. The grenade will stick to the door.
 * Via noclip, a mounted M249 SAW can be found in this level.
 * Just before the rappelling sequence, if the player looks to the left, they can see through the cave walls and onto the edge of the mountain where the player will later walk on the metal catwalks with the riot shield.
 * At the start of the mission, if the player goes to where Price was lying down, the player will see his ghillie suit. Strangely, if the player goes to the spot where the player was lying down, the player will not see any ghillie suit.
 * When the player has 2 ACR's, the max ammo that the player has in reserve is 1,890 rounds plus 60 in both ACR's which is total of 1,950 rounds.
 * Once the player and Price get into the "Steamroom" and are attacked by a patrol, the door that the player came in through will be shut.
 * On lower difficulties, player can clear the catwalk quickly without using riot shield or with one shot of Grenade Launcher.
 * This is the only level where the player can get a Vector with a Silencer and ACOG scope on it.
 * When the player enters Shepherd's control room, there is a white golf bag. This may be a Dr. Strangelove reference, as General Ripper parrell's Shepherd in several ways. First, they both start a war with Russia on their own, second they both are somewhat off base when it comes to morality, and both keep white golf bags in their offices, although Ripper's had a browning .30 cal in it.
 * If the player follows the large patrol when first entering the cave, they will still use their flashlights when they exit the cave.
 * In this mission can be little notable a curiosity thing: when Price executes a Shadow Company soldier with a knife from back is the same animation when he kills a Russian guard with a knife too at the same way in the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in the mission "Ultimatum" in the house before to rescue Griggs.
 * At the beginning of the level when Nikolai flies away from Soap and Price after Price says "Don't Bother. This is a one way flight, mate." Nikolai says "Then good luck, my friend." he can be heard saying "Thank God" in Russian."