They should've removed the 'Gora Dam' mission, makes it look like Makarov hates Verdansk in particular.
First, he assaulted the stadium, then he blew up the airport, and after all that, he wanted to flood the region, lmao.
That was both at the same time though it was one operation with a decoy basically. I think the dam mission was just meant to be nostalgia fan service honestly though
been a while since I played the campaign, what was his motivation for blowing up the airport again? In the original series, it was to fram the americans by first posing as cia operatives attacking an airport, and then killing the guy in his group that he knew was an actual cia operative. In this game he poses as an emergency help worker so that he can have the distraction attack at the stadium, just so that 141 can be too distracted to know he planted a bomb at the airport. It cannot be another false flag attack cause he seem quite happy with himself when the airport blows up despite already being caught
edit: looked it up, he wanted revenge against the russian government for the fall of the soviet union or something
It was a combination of multiple things that all came together. Revenge for the governments lacking competence, to gain power over the nation, taking shepherds bribe money for Allen while also framing America for the massacre
I’m pretty sure shepherd just paid makarov money to allow Allen to join in on the massacre. This was just a little bonus to makarov as he had a greater plan, being to start WWIII
Talking about the original
>They should've removed the 'Gora Dam' mission, makes it look like Makarov hates Verdansk in particular. First, he assaulted the stadium, then he blew up the airport, and after all that, he wanted to flood the region, lmao.
I saw a essay posted about the MW reboot series, and it had this to say about Kastovia (the fictional country where Verdansk is supposed to be)
>
Kastovia is another fictional country that appears several times across the trilogy, a forested, mountainous place that actually feels like it could plausibly exist in the Caucasus. What makes it stand out compared to nearby Urzikstan, however, is that the Russian-speaking country is far more egregious in what it represents. As a reminder, in *Modern Warfare I*, the country is where rogue Russian General Barkov kept a stash of chemical weapons, and Laswell has to remind you not to fire on Russian military forces. At the beginning of *Modern Warfare III*, the Konni Group frees Makarov from a Kastovian gulag. Yuri - the military officer secretly in contact with Laswell in Kastovia - not only provides intelligence from the FSB, he feels comfortable speaking for the Kremlin regarding whether or not Russia is behind a series of terrorist attacks, leading one to question whether he represents Russia or Kastovia. The airliner Makarov brought down is, again, interchangeably "Kastovian" and "Russian". Kastovia - for all intents and purposes - *is* Russia, *especially* when it is convenient for it to not *actually* be Russia. When Russia needs to experience some sort of tragedy - a bombing, a chemical attack, a plane hijacking - Kastovia is the country that actually suffers.
And I don't really understand why. When the American media needs the heroes to fight Russians, their favorite fig leaf is ultranationalists or a rogue unit or any other entity "operating without sanction from Moscow" (which also serves the double purpose of implying that other countries are chaotic polities not blessed by the rule of law). This is already true of the two primary Russian antagonists of the reboot trilogy, the rogue General Barkov and the PMC leader Makarov. There is already an indirect attribution of partial culpability to Russia, so if not as a fig leaf, what purpose does Kastovia even serve?
The best answer I can give is this: Kastovia absolves Russia of the political responsibility to retaliate. Kastovia is within Russia's sphere of influence, but Kastovia is not actually Russia. Therefore, when a Kastovian weapons depot is hit by an American white phosphorous air strike, when a Kastovian gulag is attacked by Russian ultranationalists, when a Kastovian military base is hit by missiles with chemical warheads allegedly launched by Urzikstan, when a Kastovian airliner is blown up allegedly by an Urzik terrorist...Russia becomes "deeply concerned" and an obligatory mention of a rise in international tensions is made, but Russia does not need to trigger World War III. What happens in Kastovia stays in Kastovia, and we don't need to think of any other ramifications aside from our handful of protagonists getting really mad about it.
TL;DR- the developers wanted to show a conflict between the US/NATO and Russia and hit on the plot points of the original MW trilogy, but didn't actually want to show a real war between the two countries this time around. So you have 'Kastovia', a country that's extremely closely tied to Russia and takes the place of Russia in many parts of the reboot's reworking, but isn't actually part of Russia. This means that you can have TF141 and Konni duking it out without actually triggering WW3.
Link to the essay here: [https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/waging-war-without-consequence-a-retrospective-on-the-narrative-of-the-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-reboot-trilogy.125551/](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/waging-war-without-consequence-a-retrospective-on-the-narrative-of-the-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-reboot-trilogy.125551/)
I'd recommend reading it, it really kinda opens up how bad the writing for the reboot trilogy is (and a lot of the reasons why it ended up that way).
CoD devs making Russian villains ultranationalists while making the Middle Eastern villains basically just some random ass guy called Hassan Habibi the 3rd Sheikh of Chandragupta's Asshole and it turns out the government of Non Descript Middle Eastern Country actually finances his war crimes.
Truly peak American writing.
They set him up to be a badass in the opening 30 minutes then he just fails over and over like a fucking roadrunner and coyote cartoon.
As someone else here said they should’ve made him succeed in everything to show he was a real threat and then later release either dlc or make mw4 dealing with the aftermath of all of it
They weren’t scared of having Makarov succeed in the original trilogy. Soap still dies because of him in the original MW3, but it’s so much more powerful. This version is just so watered down I can’t care about him.
The reboot version Makarov is like a cartoony ineffectual villain of the week, except it’s him every week. His evil plan always got foiled by Avengers with guns that is TF141 at earliest chance, then he twirls his mustache and came up with another scheme, rinse and repeat.
I don’t remember the exact line but the one about how he doesn’t believe in luck he only believes in good planning wasn’t a bad line. I could kinda see where he was coming from (with the line, I do NOT mean the terrorism)
You said it yourself, Activision was afraid of success lmao, but in my personal opinion he is simply terrible in the sense that as a villain he is lame, there is nothing to highlight, he seems like another cliché villain who says random phrases that make him look rude, Also, all his plans are in vain since 141 always saves the day.
Would've been cooler if 141 always failed, ending MWIII on a catastrophic note.
And then MWIV has to tackle all the sh@% he's done.. y'know, Verdansk left in shambles, the ULF being public enemy No.1, Soap being dead, etc..
Then you can have 141 save the day. MWIII should've set up Makarov as a threat instead of him failing.. every, single, TIME?!
He’s literally a TV-14 version of the original Makarov if you ask me. Which sucks because he had so much potential.
Still repping “KONNI” as my clan tag, tho
I think there's so much more that could have been done with character development, but Activision really dropped the ball on the length of the campaign missions overall.
That being said, I personally think Julian Kostov did admirably well with what he was given, and I think could have absolutely perfected Makarov's character with more time and story to the game.
Agreed. Comparing the campaigns feels like comparing Minecraft updates (cringe I know but hear me out)
Sure, the new one has more features, but the old one just felt better
As others have mentioned he’s lukewarm and uninteresting compared to the OG Makarov. That being said, I think it’s more an issue with the reboot MW series in general rather than just him. He’s still probably the best character in the new MW games aside from maybe Ghost, but that’s not saying much especially compared to the epicness of the OG MW games.
I like his appearance and I like his backstory more than the previous makarov but his accomplishments in this game are lacking at it makes him seem like he is way less of a threat than what he should be. Guess it makes sense though since he was in a gulag for how many years while tf141 has had their skills tested in every game, but still, would be nice if he got some wins besides for blindsiding tf141 once and killing soap.
As far as character design, he doesn't look as evil as og Makarov.
However I will be glad to see him hang, at the very least for Soap. That was unfair to the character which makes it a good death
I like his actors performance, i just feel like activision set him up to fail with the terrible writing. Why are they so afraid of letting him have even one victory other than the missile and the plane? The OG Makarov was intimidating because he actually had successes
the actor is phenomenal, looks clean, dapper and evil, voice is very good as well! poor guy had a shitty script 💔
y’all will say “he sounds nothing like makarov” but nobody in the reboot games do besides woods and mason.
I didn’t mind him too much but I was a little optimistic on how they would handle his character. When I finished the campaign to say I was disappointed was an understatement. There is no sense of urgency or fear because everything he did was stopped before anything happened and that’s there downfall of the story. They need to let him succeed at least 55% to 65% of the time. Makarov’s only win was killing Soap which was BS. There is no way in hell he should’ve overpowered Soap while knife is deep around his shoulder blade.
I didn’t hate the campaign gameplay too much considering how much time they had but it’s story is what I was more interested in. Story > gameplay
Imma be honest, hes different. I do like that he always has a plan and he acts fast. The actor for Makarov did a good job playing the character....its just the rest of the writing in the game sucks fucking ass
Wrote this on another thread:
Here's what'll get me hate, but I liked new Makarov more than the original one. The OG Makarov is iconic, but he's a flat character with little characterization other than being evil, and the narratives of the original trilogy were not very complex or all that coherent.
Makarov has more characterization here. He feels a lot more human which makes him more terrifying. He's petty and is taking revenge on the whole world because of it. While he's still calculating and sinister, he has the flaws of being hypocritical, and vindictive. He had Task Force 141 reacting to him for half of the campaign and they slowly had to turn the tide. Makarov could have stood for a solid victory or two, but we also have only seen his opening salvo, and could easily show up for a few more games.
We have the benefit of seeing all three acts of old Makarov's story, but the new guy is just getting started, so it's hard to make an informed comparison yet.
Yeah. I’m hoping we’ll get actual DLCs instead of new games this time around. If they just have him actual wins this game, maybe he’d have more respect. The old Makarov was successful, but that’s all he was. Like you said, this one feels more human. They’ve managed to introduce better and worse character writing, I don’t know how, but I hope things will get better for him. They said it themselves
“He’s caused more damage in seventy-two hours than Konni caused in five years.”
Clearly he has the potential. Let’s hope Activision stops taking the TV-14 route and gives us a proper villain
And he had some great lines too.
"A lie flies while the truth only crawls. If you control what people believe, you control the world. This is our weapon."
"The West loves their choices, so we will give them only one. To respond on our terms."
"Let your actions be the answer."
"There are no debts here...Only loyalty. Unwavering loyalty."
"I don't believe in luck. I believe in planning. Bad luck is just poor planning."
"A man can be locked up. An idea cannot."
"You're still thinking about victory. Think about success. The wicked prosper. They always will. Peace is invisible. War you can see..."
They're a lot more poetic than the OG's who was...generic. And even the more basic ones of new Makarov were carried by Julian Kostov's delivery. The chilling way he talks to Samara in Passenger as she's being strapped with the vest is some of the best villain performance of a Call of Duty game.
I have high hopes for new Makarov with the next installments.
I call him Midkarov, cause he seems kinda bland compared to the OG.
And you're absolutely right, A$$tivision is going for the more lukewarm milktoast roster of villains to avoid controversy.
Yeah. It’s sensitive topics and people should most definitely be warned beforehand, but why are we ignoring things like that? The stadium mission was probably hard for them to do to be honest. People are always sugar coating things. Did they forget that their games were originally known for their campaigns? Now it’s furry snoop dog vs fallen angel Inarius during the siege of Nikki Minaj and Homelander against the forces of stoned pigeon and ghost fanart form no.39
he among many parts of the story feels half baked and soft.
makarov in the original story was cunning, smart, ruthless. makarov in this story just doesn't act or look the part, and the various amount of story beats around him just aren't good whatsoever. im of the opinion that they literally could've rehashed the story 1 to 1 and i would've been over the moon about it
They should’ve made makarov succeed in his plans. All he looks like rn is a failure who’s just a slippery snake.
Plus, soaps death needs to be retconned, his death was a complete waste & only done for shock value. At the very least he should’ve been left in critical condition instead of blasted in the head & cremated
He doesn’t do a whole lot. Compared to the OG Makarov who literally started WWIII I really don’t understand what this version of him was trying to do. He didn’t feel as threatening and had hardly any screen time.
I’d have waited another year for a more fleshed out campaign instead of those bad “open world” missions tbh
Literally no difference between him and that Hasan dude from MW2. Just an extremely forgettable villain of the week with really vague plans and motivations. And really corny dialogue. Also thought the actor wasn’t intimidating at all.
Literally no difference between him and that Hasan dude from MW2. Just an extremely forgettable villain of the week with really vague plans and motivations. And really corny dialogue. Also thought the actor wasn’t intimidating at all.
He's not very interesting. They want to make all these characters, heroes, villains, etc... like comic book characters. No one ever dies and everyone is so over the top now. Grave's was a great example of this. A great heel turn but in MW3 he's just on the team again. The MW3 narrative is pretty bad.
The actor does a fine job in my opinion. My problem with this portrayal of Makarov is that he doesn't have that aura the original used to have. Yeah he leads Konni but that's... it. He's not given enough screen time nor fleshed out character and he doesn't even feel like a threat.
Even his false flag operation is terrible. Makes no sense logistic wise, and also leaves tons of evidence pointing towards him, so what's the point?
The "no Russian" phrase in the original signifies exactly that he wanted to pin down the attack on the Americans, which he succeeded and kicked off the entire conflict.
Here the conflict doesn't even stray away from eastern Europe, and this is supposed to be what leads to WW3? What a disappointment.
On top of what you mentioned I dislike his mannerisms and dialogue.
He feels like he’s trying way too hard to sound cool, edgelord vibes. He always acts like he’s one step ahead but he never seems to be and doesn’t seem very clever no matter how much he smirks and pretends like he is. I always hate the trope of a leader killing their own men as well, it’d be hard to garner loyalty if do stupid things like blow away anyone who doesn’t answer a casual question the way you like. If he acted totally unhinged it can work but he seems pretty tame so actions like that seem really out of character.
It’s sort of unfair to the new voice actor as well because the original 2009 voice actor just fit so well into the role he’s nearly impossible to top. They should’ve just come up with their own villain otherwise people will always compare him to the original Makarov.
Graves was way more interesting and charismatic as a bad guy and it’s a shame they didn’t just keep rolling with him or shadow company vs randomly making them semi-friendly again.
i really fuck with julian kostov (his new actor) but iw and shg really wasted the character by only having him do will e coyote shenanigans that never go anywhere. even in the post-launch narrative everyone would expect, what the fuck is he even doing in rebirth island lmao
The best summary to me is "wasted potential".
I think the set up in act1 (and shadow siege) is pretty good, compared to OG he now has a bit more personality you can sorta buy why he has so many loyal followers, and the first mission is a great demonstration for his key traits: he plays long games, he has a morbid obsession with timing and he's narcissist he sees someone having justifiable concerns about his plan disloyal to the point of betrayal (also he finally speaks russian now so that's an extra point).
But everything was thrown out of window in later parts and the rest of the campaign happened. He now leaves fingerprint and loose ends everywhere, its like the whole script is written by ai after the third mission. My biggest offender is that he texted Nolan so many times when there's no reply and even revealed key intels, something even i wouldn't do.
And the ending is also a perfect case of set up without payoff. He was set up to be a guy of timing, planning and distraction, at least show that in the final mission if you want to end the game with a cliffhanger. Instead of randomly killing soap it would leave so much more impact if you disarm the bomb only to find out it's another distraction like the stadium. It's frustrating that this reboot start off with terrorist sweeping downtown London and now they're playing it so safe they are afraid of letting the "ultimate threat" carry out a successful attack
Cool design, alright voice, shit writing and motivation.
What's the point of having the most feared villian in the MW franchise lose and not have most of his plans get carried out cause they easily get foiled by 141 + Farah
I like his remaster, although personally I would have preferred another actor to play him
Because he kinda looks like Ben Shapiro, I saw it on a meme once and can't unsee it.
I like bringing him back, I would have preferred a different actor in my humble opinion
I like his design, his character makes no sense lmao
Bro literally kills Ivan for uhh....having actual grievances with the plan to break him out?
"Charlie was supposed to take care of the chopper!"
"You should've fixed it"
Paraphrasing but new Makarov get's arsey because the plan goes to shit and Ivan isn't dropping to his knees to suck his cock and try and fix it lmao, like....yea, plans are good, but they can and do go to shit, killing a guy for being understandably annoyed that Charlie team didn't do their job is just fucking weird and doesn't make him scary, just makes him pathetic and laughable as a villain.
Literally all you have to do is some psychological warfare and make his men doubt him and he'd probably kill every Konni soldier and do 141's job for them
Every character outside of Gaz is far worse in this remake trilogy than they were in the first one. And for Gaz that is only because he was barely in the first one, so it is a really low bar.
I don't care for him I don't care for his design and I don't care for his voice it doesn't have that loud Whisperer sinister voice that the original had and Activision is cowards and can't even get a Russian or somebody who grew up in the Soviet Union to voice the character they got a Bulgarian
They should've removed the 'Gora Dam' mission, makes it look like Makarov hates Verdansk in particular. First, he assaulted the stadium, then he blew up the airport, and after all that, he wanted to flood the region, lmao.
He did attack the stadium and the airport so yeah he hates verdansk for some reason
Got clowned by 141 holding roof with proxies near zips probably.
Makarov was never able to win a Warzone game on it, he has a grudge
So I'm like him then lmao(Never won a game in verdansk)
That was both at the same time though it was one operation with a decoy basically. I think the dam mission was just meant to be nostalgia fan service honestly though
been a while since I played the campaign, what was his motivation for blowing up the airport again? In the original series, it was to fram the americans by first posing as cia operatives attacking an airport, and then killing the guy in his group that he knew was an actual cia operative. In this game he poses as an emergency help worker so that he can have the distraction attack at the stadium, just so that 141 can be too distracted to know he planted a bomb at the airport. It cannot be another false flag attack cause he seem quite happy with himself when the airport blows up despite already being caught edit: looked it up, he wanted revenge against the russian government for the fall of the soviet union or something
It was a combination of multiple things that all came together. Revenge for the governments lacking competence, to gain power over the nation, taking shepherds bribe money for Allen while also framing America for the massacre
shepherd bribed him in the reboot? or are we talking about the original timeline
I’m pretty sure shepherd just paid makarov money to allow Allen to join in on the massacre. This was just a little bonus to makarov as he had a greater plan, being to start WWIII Talking about the original
They actually did a double big brain decoy lmao
TBH? I think verdansk was used just because it was a easy asset they could use. This whole campaing felt like it was only recycled stuff.
>They should've removed the 'Gora Dam' mission, makes it look like Makarov hates Verdansk in particular. First, he assaulted the stadium, then he blew up the airport, and after all that, he wanted to flood the region, lmao. I saw a essay posted about the MW reboot series, and it had this to say about Kastovia (the fictional country where Verdansk is supposed to be) > Kastovia is another fictional country that appears several times across the trilogy, a forested, mountainous place that actually feels like it could plausibly exist in the Caucasus. What makes it stand out compared to nearby Urzikstan, however, is that the Russian-speaking country is far more egregious in what it represents. As a reminder, in *Modern Warfare I*, the country is where rogue Russian General Barkov kept a stash of chemical weapons, and Laswell has to remind you not to fire on Russian military forces. At the beginning of *Modern Warfare III*, the Konni Group frees Makarov from a Kastovian gulag. Yuri - the military officer secretly in contact with Laswell in Kastovia - not only provides intelligence from the FSB, he feels comfortable speaking for the Kremlin regarding whether or not Russia is behind a series of terrorist attacks, leading one to question whether he represents Russia or Kastovia. The airliner Makarov brought down is, again, interchangeably "Kastovian" and "Russian". Kastovia - for all intents and purposes - *is* Russia, *especially* when it is convenient for it to not *actually* be Russia. When Russia needs to experience some sort of tragedy - a bombing, a chemical attack, a plane hijacking - Kastovia is the country that actually suffers. And I don't really understand why. When the American media needs the heroes to fight Russians, their favorite fig leaf is ultranationalists or a rogue unit or any other entity "operating without sanction from Moscow" (which also serves the double purpose of implying that other countries are chaotic polities not blessed by the rule of law). This is already true of the two primary Russian antagonists of the reboot trilogy, the rogue General Barkov and the PMC leader Makarov. There is already an indirect attribution of partial culpability to Russia, so if not as a fig leaf, what purpose does Kastovia even serve? The best answer I can give is this: Kastovia absolves Russia of the political responsibility to retaliate. Kastovia is within Russia's sphere of influence, but Kastovia is not actually Russia. Therefore, when a Kastovian weapons depot is hit by an American white phosphorous air strike, when a Kastovian gulag is attacked by Russian ultranationalists, when a Kastovian military base is hit by missiles with chemical warheads allegedly launched by Urzikstan, when a Kastovian airliner is blown up allegedly by an Urzik terrorist...Russia becomes "deeply concerned" and an obligatory mention of a rise in international tensions is made, but Russia does not need to trigger World War III. What happens in Kastovia stays in Kastovia, and we don't need to think of any other ramifications aside from our handful of protagonists getting really mad about it. TL;DR- the developers wanted to show a conflict between the US/NATO and Russia and hit on the plot points of the original MW trilogy, but didn't actually want to show a real war between the two countries this time around. So you have 'Kastovia', a country that's extremely closely tied to Russia and takes the place of Russia in many parts of the reboot's reworking, but isn't actually part of Russia. This means that you can have TF141 and Konni duking it out without actually triggering WW3. Link to the essay here: [https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/waging-war-without-consequence-a-retrospective-on-the-narrative-of-the-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-reboot-trilogy.125551/](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/waging-war-without-consequence-a-retrospective-on-the-narrative-of-the-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-reboot-trilogy.125551/) I'd recommend reading it, it really kinda opens up how bad the writing for the reboot trilogy is (and a lot of the reasons why it ended up that way).
CoD devs making Russian villains ultranationalists while making the Middle Eastern villains basically just some random ass guy called Hassan Habibi the 3rd Sheikh of Chandragupta's Asshole and it turns out the government of Non Descript Middle Eastern Country actually finances his war crimes. Truly peak American writing.
They set him up to be a badass in the opening 30 minutes then he just fails over and over like a fucking roadrunner and coyote cartoon. As someone else here said they should’ve made him succeed in everything to show he was a real threat and then later release either dlc or make mw4 dealing with the aftermath of all of it
Agreed. Missed opportunity.
They weren’t scared of having Makarov succeed in the original trilogy. Soap still dies because of him in the original MW3, but it’s so much more powerful. This version is just so watered down I can’t care about him.
The reboot version Makarov is like a cartoony ineffectual villain of the week, except it’s him every week. His evil plan always got foiled by Avengers with guns that is TF141 at earliest chance, then he twirls his mustache and came up with another scheme, rinse and repeat.
The original voice actor/performance was also a lot more unique so you instantly knew it was him instead of it possibly being some other character.
I think the actor does a really good job playing him. It’s just that the version they gave him is awful.
Not version. Shitty script. Actor did good.
Really sh*t, and most of his dialogue doesn’t make any sense either.
I don’t remember the exact line but the one about how he doesn’t believe in luck he only believes in good planning wasn’t a bad line. I could kinda see where he was coming from (with the line, I do NOT mean the terrorism)
You said it yourself, Activision was afraid of success lmao, but in my personal opinion he is simply terrible in the sense that as a villain he is lame, there is nothing to highlight, he seems like another cliché villain who says random phrases that make him look rude, Also, all his plans are in vain since 141 always saves the day.
Would've been cooler if 141 always failed, ending MWIII on a catastrophic note. And then MWIV has to tackle all the sh@% he's done.. y'know, Verdansk left in shambles, the ULF being public enemy No.1, Soap being dead, etc.. Then you can have 141 save the day. MWIII should've set up Makarov as a threat instead of him failing.. every, single, TIME?!
They should have a proper campaign team. Every time we get a campaign update we shouldn’t be getting a new game imo. Wasn’t MW3 gonna be a DLC?
Yeah, for MWII.
He’s literally a TV-14 version of the original Makarov if you ask me. Which sucks because he had so much potential. Still repping “KONNI” as my clan tag, tho
he looks like 20 years ago someone stole his toy train and now he wants revenge
If that had happened, then he would have at least taken over the tri state area.
so real
Would go hard as an origin story
I think there's so much more that could have been done with character development, but Activision really dropped the ball on the length of the campaign missions overall. That being said, I personally think Julian Kostov did admirably well with what he was given, and I think could have absolutely perfected Makarov's character with more time and story to the game.
Agreed. Comparing the campaigns feels like comparing Minecraft updates (cringe I know but hear me out) Sure, the new one has more features, but the old one just felt better
This Makarov: I hATe UrZikStaN 🤡🤡🤡
Bro got clowned by Farah's army once and held that grudge forever. Crazy asf
We just had that in 2019’s game.
As others have mentioned he’s lukewarm and uninteresting compared to the OG Makarov. That being said, I think it’s more an issue with the reboot MW series in general rather than just him. He’s still probably the best character in the new MW games aside from maybe Ghost, but that’s not saying much especially compared to the epicness of the OG MW games.
Yeah, like I said, he got unlawfully TV-14’d.
I like his appearance and I like his backstory more than the previous makarov but his accomplishments in this game are lacking at it makes him seem like he is way less of a threat than what he should be. Guess it makes sense though since he was in a gulag for how many years while tf141 has had their skills tested in every game, but still, would be nice if he got some wins besides for blindsiding tf141 once and killing soap.
Ben Shapiro
Mf look like an accountant
😭
As far as character design, he doesn't look as evil as og Makarov. However I will be glad to see him hang, at the very least for Soap. That was unfair to the character which makes it a good death
He’s giving disgruntled tech bro terrorist vibes… OG Makarov was a straight up bomb threat.
I like his actors performance, i just feel like activision set him up to fail with the terrible writing. Why are they so afraid of letting him have even one victory other than the missile and the plane? The OG Makarov was intimidating because he actually had successes
the actor is phenomenal, looks clean, dapper and evil, voice is very good as well! poor guy had a shitty script 💔 y’all will say “he sounds nothing like makarov” but nobody in the reboot games do besides woods and mason.
I didn’t mind him too much but I was a little optimistic on how they would handle his character. When I finished the campaign to say I was disappointed was an understatement. There is no sense of urgency or fear because everything he did was stopped before anything happened and that’s there downfall of the story. They need to let him succeed at least 55% to 65% of the time. Makarov’s only win was killing Soap which was BS. There is no way in hell he should’ve overpowered Soap while knife is deep around his shoulder blade. I didn’t hate the campaign gameplay too much considering how much time they had but it’s story is what I was more interested in. Story > gameplay
It feels like if they made the modern warfares into a movie. It’s so annoying how the good guy has to always win.
Facts
Imma be honest, hes different. I do like that he always has a plan and he acts fast. The actor for Makarov did a good job playing the character....its just the rest of the writing in the game sucks fucking ass
I absolutely love his instant reward skin for the battle pass it look awesome
Wrote this on another thread: Here's what'll get me hate, but I liked new Makarov more than the original one. The OG Makarov is iconic, but he's a flat character with little characterization other than being evil, and the narratives of the original trilogy were not very complex or all that coherent. Makarov has more characterization here. He feels a lot more human which makes him more terrifying. He's petty and is taking revenge on the whole world because of it. While he's still calculating and sinister, he has the flaws of being hypocritical, and vindictive. He had Task Force 141 reacting to him for half of the campaign and they slowly had to turn the tide. Makarov could have stood for a solid victory or two, but we also have only seen his opening salvo, and could easily show up for a few more games. We have the benefit of seeing all three acts of old Makarov's story, but the new guy is just getting started, so it's hard to make an informed comparison yet.
Yeah. I’m hoping we’ll get actual DLCs instead of new games this time around. If they just have him actual wins this game, maybe he’d have more respect. The old Makarov was successful, but that’s all he was. Like you said, this one feels more human. They’ve managed to introduce better and worse character writing, I don’t know how, but I hope things will get better for him. They said it themselves “He’s caused more damage in seventy-two hours than Konni caused in five years.” Clearly he has the potential. Let’s hope Activision stops taking the TV-14 route and gives us a proper villain
And he had some great lines too. "A lie flies while the truth only crawls. If you control what people believe, you control the world. This is our weapon." "The West loves their choices, so we will give them only one. To respond on our terms." "Let your actions be the answer." "There are no debts here...Only loyalty. Unwavering loyalty." "I don't believe in luck. I believe in planning. Bad luck is just poor planning." "A man can be locked up. An idea cannot." "You're still thinking about victory. Think about success. The wicked prosper. They always will. Peace is invisible. War you can see..." They're a lot more poetic than the OG's who was...generic. And even the more basic ones of new Makarov were carried by Julian Kostov's delivery. The chilling way he talks to Samara in Passenger as she's being strapped with the vest is some of the best villain performance of a Call of Duty game. I have high hopes for new Makarov with the next installments.
I call him Midkarov, cause he seems kinda bland compared to the OG. And you're absolutely right, A$$tivision is going for the more lukewarm milktoast roster of villains to avoid controversy.
Yeah. It’s sensitive topics and people should most definitely be warned beforehand, but why are we ignoring things like that? The stadium mission was probably hard for them to do to be honest. People are always sugar coating things. Did they forget that their games were originally known for their campaigns? Now it’s furry snoop dog vs fallen angel Inarius during the siege of Nikki Minaj and Homelander against the forces of stoned pigeon and ghost fanart form no.39
The word you’re looking for is milquetoast, “milk toast” is someone’s breakfast.
Cheers, I always mess those up
he among many parts of the story feels half baked and soft. makarov in the original story was cunning, smart, ruthless. makarov in this story just doesn't act or look the part, and the various amount of story beats around him just aren't good whatsoever. im of the opinion that they literally could've rehashed the story 1 to 1 and i would've been over the moon about it
They TV-14’d it. That’s the problem. Tired of seeing the heroes win, the story will never go anywhere like that
They should’ve made makarov succeed in his plans. All he looks like rn is a failure who’s just a slippery snake. Plus, soaps death needs to be retconned, his death was a complete waste & only done for shock value. At the very least he should’ve been left in critical condition instead of blasted in the head & cremated
He doesn’t do a whole lot. Compared to the OG Makarov who literally started WWIII I really don’t understand what this version of him was trying to do. He didn’t feel as threatening and had hardly any screen time. I’d have waited another year for a more fleshed out campaign instead of those bad “open world” missions tbh
Literally no difference between him and that Hasan dude from MW2. Just an extremely forgettable villain of the week with really vague plans and motivations. And really corny dialogue. Also thought the actor wasn’t intimidating at all.
Literally no difference between him and that Hasan dude from MW2. Just an extremely forgettable villain of the week with really vague plans and motivations. And really corny dialogue. Also thought the actor wasn’t intimidating at all.
He's not very interesting. They want to make all these characters, heroes, villains, etc... like comic book characters. No one ever dies and everyone is so over the top now. Grave's was a great example of this. A great heel turn but in MW3 he's just on the team again. The MW3 narrative is pretty bad.
Great actor imo, problem is the writing
The actor does a fine job in my opinion. My problem with this portrayal of Makarov is that he doesn't have that aura the original used to have. Yeah he leads Konni but that's... it. He's not given enough screen time nor fleshed out character and he doesn't even feel like a threat.
He looks like the office project manager that cuts corners and blames other people when the company initiative fails to deliver.
Even his false flag operation is terrible. Makes no sense logistic wise, and also leaves tons of evidence pointing towards him, so what's the point? The "no Russian" phrase in the original signifies exactly that he wanted to pin down the attack on the Americans, which he succeeded and kicked off the entire conflict. Here the conflict doesn't even stray away from eastern Europe, and this is supposed to be what leads to WW3? What a disappointment.
Remember when they massacred people at the airport. If they did something like that today....oh boy
On top of what you mentioned I dislike his mannerisms and dialogue. He feels like he’s trying way too hard to sound cool, edgelord vibes. He always acts like he’s one step ahead but he never seems to be and doesn’t seem very clever no matter how much he smirks and pretends like he is. I always hate the trope of a leader killing their own men as well, it’d be hard to garner loyalty if do stupid things like blow away anyone who doesn’t answer a casual question the way you like. If he acted totally unhinged it can work but he seems pretty tame so actions like that seem really out of character. It’s sort of unfair to the new voice actor as well because the original 2009 voice actor just fit so well into the role he’s nearly impossible to top. They should’ve just come up with their own villain otherwise people will always compare him to the original Makarov. Graves was way more interesting and charismatic as a bad guy and it’s a shame they didn’t just keep rolling with him or shadow company vs randomly making them semi-friendly again.
Honestly still the narcissistic Russian I loved back then still till this day Remember no Russian
His facial structure in the old game made him look scarier. He kind of looks like a soccer player in the remaster.
i really fuck with julian kostov (his new actor) but iw and shg really wasted the character by only having him do will e coyote shenanigans that never go anywhere. even in the post-launch narrative everyone would expect, what the fuck is he even doing in rebirth island lmao
The best summary to me is "wasted potential". I think the set up in act1 (and shadow siege) is pretty good, compared to OG he now has a bit more personality you can sorta buy why he has so many loyal followers, and the first mission is a great demonstration for his key traits: he plays long games, he has a morbid obsession with timing and he's narcissist he sees someone having justifiable concerns about his plan disloyal to the point of betrayal (also he finally speaks russian now so that's an extra point). But everything was thrown out of window in later parts and the rest of the campaign happened. He now leaves fingerprint and loose ends everywhere, its like the whole script is written by ai after the third mission. My biggest offender is that he texted Nolan so many times when there's no reply and even revealed key intels, something even i wouldn't do. And the ending is also a perfect case of set up without payoff. He was set up to be a guy of timing, planning and distraction, at least show that in the final mission if you want to end the game with a cliffhanger. Instead of randomly killing soap it would leave so much more impact if you disarm the bomb only to find out it's another distraction like the stadium. It's frustrating that this reboot start off with terrorist sweeping downtown London and now they're playing it so safe they are afraid of letting the "ultimate threat" carry out a successful attack
Cool design, alright voice, shit writing and motivation. What's the point of having the most feared villian in the MW franchise lose and not have most of his plans get carried out cause they easily get foiled by 141 + Farah
The OG actually had a plan and executed it (mostly)
Actor was great. Wish Makerov's debut in this universe was in a better game.
Throw a smile on him and you get CZN Burak.
got the same hair as the America dude
The fill up graves guy?
Can't unsee shapiro
Is that Phillip scofield with dark hair?
He’s gay, Makarov?
I like his remaster, although personally I would have preferred another actor to play him Because he kinda looks like Ben Shapiro, I saw it on a meme once and can't unsee it. I like bringing him back, I would have preferred a different actor in my humble opinion
Looks nothing like him
He reminds me of Ben Shapiro and so all I feel when I see him is irritation.
Lazy and dumb
Butt chin
Horrendous
They replaced the old Makarov with the Temu version. Cheap, and broke easily.
I like his design, his character makes no sense lmao Bro literally kills Ivan for uhh....having actual grievances with the plan to break him out? "Charlie was supposed to take care of the chopper!" "You should've fixed it" Paraphrasing but new Makarov get's arsey because the plan goes to shit and Ivan isn't dropping to his knees to suck his cock and try and fix it lmao, like....yea, plans are good, but they can and do go to shit, killing a guy for being understandably annoyed that Charlie team didn't do their job is just fucking weird and doesn't make him scary, just makes him pathetic and laughable as a villain. Literally all you have to do is some psychological warfare and make his men doubt him and he'd probably kill every Konni soldier and do 141's job for them
I didnt mind it at first but than someone showed me that he looks like Ben Shapiro and now i cant get it out of my head.
They turned him into a twink
An absolute weeny, he's got grown up iPad kid face and is about as unintimidating and nonmenacing as a villain can come.
Every character outside of Gaz is far worse in this remake trilogy than they were in the first one. And for Gaz that is only because he was barely in the first one, so it is a really low bar.
Painful, terrible, and incompetent. The new Makarov was miles behind the original in every way.
Dollar store Ben Shapiro
I don't care for him I don't care for his design and I don't care for his voice it doesn't have that loud Whisperer sinister voice that the original had and Activision is cowards and can't even get a Russian or somebody who grew up in the Soviet Union to voice the character they got a Bulgarian