The Spetsnaz Urban Camo Gorka
In paying homage to the game, we went all-out to recreate our Strelka K2 Gorka mountain suit to match the ones worn by Russian invaders.
Please note: we are not affiliated with Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Activision, Microsoft, or any other studios & companies that work on the Call of Duty franchise. These products and this article are fan-works. The newly produced pattern used in the making of our Strelka K2 Gorka's camouflage fabric was created by our team. The following article is a cultural retrospective and analysis.
Photosensitivity & Epilepsy warning: this article features footage with fast movements & bright lights - proceed with caution if you are prone to seizures from visual stimulii.
November 9th, 2009 23:59
Reeling from one of the largest financial disasters in recent history, kids growing up at the time (like us) experienced family life where "making ends meet" was just about all you could do. Luckily, the video games of the time were legendary, and popularity of online matchmaking in games was snowballing.
Then the holiday season of '09 rolled around, and the video game release hype train for the Call of Duty series roared to life once again. Even with 5 titles already behind them, something was different this time.
Everyone from Gamespot & IGN to G4 to your local news stations were staged in front of video game stores nation-wide reporting on the midnight release...
The "console wars" were at their peak, & flame wars online about COD vs Halo vs Battlefield raged on forums and chatrooms. We had it so good it was hard to pick who to side with.
You thought World at War's runaway success "Zombies" mode would be hard to beat, but all your friends were buying wired headsets & subscribing to Xbox LIVE Gold so they could play multiplayer and share clips online. Then your phone started blowing up with so many texts you thought you might need the unlimited plan.
"u gotta get mw2 bro, join our clan [1337] and we can go pwn sum n00bs"
Maybe you finally managed to get a copy for Christmas, successfully convinced your parents to buy you a 'Rated M' game for the first time, or piled up your library at GameStop hoping you had enough. But everyone did whatever they could to see what all the fuss was about.
After popping the disc in, controller in hand, and headset adorned, the rest was history.
More Than A Game.
Modern Warfare 2's Release and subsequent massive success wasn't just a new title drop - it was a cultural event that completely redefined gaming for an entire generation.
It took what Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare birthed and turned it into something louder, bigger, and Impossible to ignore.
Earned Addictiveness
Even in a stacked era full of legendary titles, MW2 became the one everyone talked about at school & work the next day.
The gunplay was satisfyingly snappy. The progression and "prestige" system was addictive and perfectly paced. And as you went on, you'd spend longer and longer in the menus customizing your class with camos you earned by actually being good at the game instead of paying for a gutless season pass.
An Adrenaline Junkie's Wet Dream
Killstreaks made every match spiral out of control. If you were good enough for a 25-kill nuke, your first one is definitely a core gaming memory now.
No one playstyle felt lackluster, and there was a distinct lack of ways to play that didn't have their own cult. N00b Tuber? "Akimbo" M93s/1887s? Intervention FMJ Quickscoper? Silenced UMP? Or were you just a "Pu**y that uses a riot shield"?
Each lobby had it's own story. Was it a heroic save at the end of a hardcore Search & Destroy match? a surprise Ninja-cap in capture the flag? or maybe a 360 Y-Y throwing knife glitch quickscope to end the match with a bang...
The Major Leagues
Of course, an enormous part of what made online gaming in the late 2000s and early 2010s indescribably magical was the energy from it's community.
Every lobby would be stacked with downright toxic and hilarious trash-talking.
who could forget the infamous "riot shield arguement" above?
You'd form clans with your friends, rivalries would form, and sooner or later your gamertag was interchangeable with your name IRL.
On sites like YouTube, and with the help of cheaply available capture cards (or just pointing your readicam at your TV), clips displaying feats of unbelievable trickshots, satisfying streaks, and endless lobby-trolling thrived in the "Lets Play" era of content creation. It was that competitiveness that wrote the book on e-sports as we know them today.
Machinima was a driving force with top 10s, guides, and skits all powered by gamers who wanted to make videos for fun.
And who could forget a good ol fashion trickshot montage?
The phrase "Mom get the camera" alone permanently cemented this audio in gaming history...
The last step was the Prestige.
The perfect answer to "I wish I could play this game for the first time again", you could reset all of your progress just for an emblem. And hey, if you did that 10 times, you'd get an animated one.
There was, unfortunately, one thing that you really couldn't experience for the first time again. And it was arguably even more memorable than the multiplayer...
The Campaign.
For some games, the campaign is an afterthought, and more of an intro to the mechanics you'll be playing with in multiplayer. Not in Modern Warfare 2.
Overview: A Masterpiece
Swipe to read. Obvious Spoiler warning.
S.S.D.D.
A Dual-Pronged Action Epic
Two high stakes, intertwined storylines play out at the same time. On one hand, a botched CIA deep cover operation turns into a false-flag terrorist attack, leading to a Russian invasion of the USA.
On the other side, a special forces group, "Task Force 141", sees who's really pulling the strings and goes rogue...
Team Player
Memorable Characters
Everyone remembers Foley, Ramirez, Price, Ghost, and of course General Shepherd. The cast felt uniquely human for a shooter game's "story mode" and just about every mission is full of memorable quotes.
As the player, your character felt like a good balance between "john soldier" and "the hero". And as the blockbuster-tier action played out, you couldn't help but bond with the NPCs.
The Hornet's Nest
Out Of the Frying Pan...
The campaign definitely wasn't a cakewalk if you didn't know what you were doing. In the cramped favelas of "Takedown" you could be easily overwhelmed by insurgents with RPGs on every roof and shotguns behind every door.
But in between, you'd mow down enemies with a mini-gun or rain down terror with the predator drone. The perfect balance of powerful and powerless.
Wolverines!
An All-Timer
In one of the most memorable sequences in the game, you rush around a suburban area, digging in and defending buildings while the Russian invasion rages on.
While not everyone's absolute favorite, we don't think we could ever forget the countless "RAMIREZ!" callouts or defending Burger Town & Nate's from BTRs, Hinds, and waves of Spetsnaz/VDV troops.
Whiskey Hotel
DC on Fire
Stealthy task force 141 missions break up the saga, but just when you think the game has climaxed, you're dragged into even more chaos at the US Capitol & White House with your fellow rangers.
The nighttime, flare-lit fighting results in a truly cinematic crescendo as the A-Plot comes to a close.
Endgame
Loose Ends & Putting a Bow on It
The stealthy TF141 missions as a contrast to the bombastic Army Ranger missions have their own satisfying conclusion in one of the most brutal endings in any Call of Duty game, which left everyone wanting more.
We all stood up out of our chairs at the loss of Ghost & Roach, and wanted revenge against Makarov. Two years later, we did finally get it in MW3 (2011).
Finding A Way to Pay Tribute
Video games & movies are ingrained into what we do, whether they're sources of direct inspiration for products or just the reason we got into gear and started our business in the first place.
Modern Warfare 2, For us and for many, stands out as the very best that video games have offered.
Having our favorite objects from the digital worlds we love is truly special, when they actually exist, that is. But besides a few box-set specials, the merch was slim.
Making It Real
We decided to roll up our sleeves and make a proper fan-made homage.
There was a big missing piece out of most people's colleciton. Or maybe they just half-a**ed it. The urban camo Gorka suits featured on the Invading Russian troops in the Army Rangers' misisons.
We looked around... and we found crappy red "urban" camos that were too bright, too large, came in the wrong garments, and certainly didn't come in something Russian styled.
We had a quite celebrated pattern of Gorka, our K2, which took old post-soviet patterns and modified them to fit & feel far better than anything else on the market. And most importantly, we didn't just end up making them in China.
That only left the other part of the equation.
The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday
Cloning the camo from 2009's MW2, the hard way.
Development Blog: The camo, The Gorkas, & More
In reverse-chronological order: Our close look at the game files, and making our camo behave like Russia really deployed their troops with "urban" reds and greys in our backyards.
The Stimulus Package: Opening Pre-Orders & Lessons From Launch
Answering everyone's FAQs after an unexpectedly fast sell-out of our first run of suits. What happened, what we're doing to make it right, and how you can secure a suit.
Read moreabout The Stimulus Package: Opening Pre-Orders & Lessons From Launch
Contingency: A New Launch Target
The Only Easy Day, Was Yesterday: Production Begins!
Read moreabout The Only Easy Day, Was Yesterday: Production Begins!
Snatch The Pattern, Grab the Scale: Fabric Finished
Our fabric is now officially entering production, and with that, we can move onto the next steps. We are gathering and color matching trims (buttons, velcro, zippers) and our current reserved production schedule for the suits begins this September.
Read moreabout Snatch The Pattern, Grab the Scale: Fabric Finished
How We Cloned The Camo & A Cliffhanger
Like many of you, we grew up in the late 2000s early 2010s. MW2 was core recession era nostalgia and was one of many things that got us into guns and gear. We know how to make a K2 Gorka, but how do you make a camo that has only ever existed digitally...?
A Special Thanks
We're thrilled to have been able to do this project and show everyone how we did it every step of the way. We could not have done it without the involvement and support of not only our community, but all the people who joined it in the process, too. Thank you.
If you couldn't tell, Modern Warfare 2 has kept a very special place in our hearts, and we don't think we're the only ones. You don't go as far as making a fictional camo real without liking the source material a lot.
Even after the lobbies have quieted down and the game industry has largely moved on, it remains one of the crowning achievements in gaming. We all stepped into the digital battlefields together and made some of our fondest gaming memories & best friends.
Until the next crazy idea, game on.
- Ivan & The Kommando Crew
