What's most amazing about the campaign is that, despite its broad canvas and numerous intersections with history, it never attains enough burdensome weight to feel irresponsibly epic. You usually play Mason—though sometimes you'll also control his compatriot, Hudson, or his mysterious Soviet contact, Reznov. But Mason is always near the center of the action, giving you a clear eyewitness view of one man's perspective on civilization-shaking events, and reminding you of the constant ebb and flow of forces far greater than Mason that have made his world, and ours, what it is.

The sheer breadth of the simulation contributes greatly to the excitement. Your fists will fly and your guns will blaze as you plow through Cubans, Viet Cong, and Soviets by the score; a few additional battles are conducted from tanks, gunboats, helicopters, and an SR-71 Blackbird; and at still other times, you'll be required to take out mammoth vehicles or even marauding missiles with your own specialized weaponry, rappel down the side of a mountain, or infiltrate a compound when the streets are choked with deadly nerve gas. I have no idea if real special forces agents in the 1960s had to do quite so much—my guess is no—but it's part of what makes the campaign so full of surprises. Interrogation scenes, interspersed throughout the missions and primarily responsible for forcing ahead the narrative and amplifying the omnipresent feeling of dread, also keep you on your toes. And excellent voice acting from some Hollywood heavyweights like Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, Ice Cube, and Topher Grace lends real gravitas to the drama.

Compellingly written and presented as the story is, from its mysterious beginning to its chilling, understated ending, it unfortunately seems as if it's over before it's even begun. The campaign took me only about ten hours on the standard difficulty setting (there is also one easier setting and two harder ones), and a significant portion of that was because I was c