Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review

Another year, another Call of Duty, and that’s still not a bad thing. Activision has been generous enough to provide a sort of shared experience between games, permitting select DLC and weapons to carry over between titles, typically into the Warzone mode. As the first Black Ops title in four years, Activision and Treyarch have gone to show whether that wait has been worth it in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

The setting this time takes a few steps in the timeline from the end of the Cold War leading up to the early 90’s and some of the Operations that defined American childhood. If not for the vignettes between campaign missions or the constant referencing of military conflicts in the background, the mood and setting of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 could easily fall anywhere between the Apollo moon missions and the turn of the millennium. One of the spy-centric missions has players infiltrate the inauguration of the 42nd U.S. President, Bill Clinton.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 treats espionage with all of the finesse of a sledgehammer. With one notable example where breaking incognito will actively end the mission, going loud or doing an offensive job at trying to maintain stealth doesn’t really have any real negative impacts on the mission. In proper Call of Duty fashion, nearly any scene can turn into a proper gunfight if the player doesn’t want to slink around with intent. There are a few moments when the game attempts to reign in the gungho nature of the military shooter by forcing the player to investigate an enemy base and approach the mission goal in a number of ways.

There are only a few moments where players won’t assume the role of Case and instead take control of one of the other antiheroes and Sev’s mission is one of the most notable for how simple it is: breaking into a military base controlled by one Pantheon, the big bad that makes up Black Ops 6’s boogeymen. Her mission objective is to disable three key military installations, but the player is given a number of ways to approach it (with the old failsafe of just bringing them all down with some explosive charges). The enemy AI is relatively dull, and only the most overt actions will alert them, giving the player some leeway into trying to sweet-talk a guard into letting them pass or knocking out a guard and stuffing them into a conveniently placed locker. Call of Duty Black Ops 6 ebbs and flows the narrative by inserting these spy missions in between the series’ signature combat corridors, and the pacing works all the better for it.

The nameless, faceless protagonist Case is probably one of the worst playable gunslingers in the Call of Duty universe and merely exists as a punching bag through so many missions in the eight-hour campaign. To permit Sev, Adler, and the other crew members to complete their tasks, they routinely sacrifice Case to get captured, choked, and nearly killed on more instances than I can count. The narrative opens with newcomer Marshall assuming they would be the protagonist of the campaign, only for the mute Case to go front and center (sure, there are dialogue trees to chat with your party members between missions, but you never get to hear Case utter a single word or combat bark). Sadly, the campaign ends on a rather abrupt note with the all-too-familiar tease for a sequel (or most likely a seasonal event in Warzone).

One story moment that I need to give Treyarch kudos to is in the few puzzles scattered around the campaign. Inside The Rook (the main hub and base of command between story missions) lie some KGB artifacts that require the player to go through some in-depth puzzle-solving to accomplish. By the time I jumped into the campaign at launch, players had already figured out the solutions to the rewards hidden in The Rook but jumping into the scavenger hunt blind is the best way to experience it. Grabbing a blacklight and venturing into the basement is only the start of this fantastic treasure hunt.

Differentiating Black Ops 6 from prior Call of Duty titles comes in the adjusted movement and traversal abilities in something Treyarch has dubbed Omnimovement. While jumping forward and diving is nothing new for the series, dolphin diving only really worked to evade forwards. What Omnimovement brings to the table is the same expanded movement, but in any direction, like playing out the good bits of a John Woo action scene. In proper multiplayer, expect to deal with many folks diving sideways through doors or sliding right into your shins when you least expect.

In proper Treyarch fashion, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 has three signature pillars: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. While MWZ was an enjoyable way to introduce zombies and persistent missions into the open-world Warzone, players have been calling for round-based zombies for years now. Treyarch have outdone themselves here with two zombies campaigns that continue the ongoing narrative of Richtofen and Dark Aether experiments. Whether you’re in the mood for bowling and comic book collecting in Liberty Falls Americana or breaking out of a Pacific military camp, both experiences provide different takes on the zombies formula. By the time you’re reading this review, Treyarch will have already released the Guided Modes, giving players an easier time figuring out how to accomplish the easter eggs in each map while restricting the round cap, preventing zombies from overpowering players who don’t farm up enough currency to hit up the local Pack-a-Paunch machines.

Multiplayer really brings no surprises to the table, as players already know what Call of Duty’s multiplayer is all about. Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Headquarters, Hardpoint, Search and Destroy and many more make up the bulk of Black Ops 6’s core multiplayer offerings. New to the rotation is Kill Order, another 6v6 team deathmatch mode that sticks one player on each team as the MVP as each side rushes to reach 125 points. Killing the MVP awards two points and forces another player to spawn in and take the mantle while achieving kills as the MVP awards five points. At its core, the mode is Team Deathmatch, but the added point bonuses incentivize players to take a slightly different approach to the frontlines.

It took Treyarch and Activision a few weeks to roll out the DLC campaign for Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and the offerings here are all too familiar for the other titles ever since Activision launched the Call of Duty HQ. Premium character skins, emotes, weapon packs, and the like are around as always with purchases made carrying over into the cross-title Warzone. The typical Battle Pass also returns with players progressing through set pages in order (unless they purchase a skip to let them jump ahead to a different page). It’s simpler than the map layout in Modern Warfare III, but all roads lead to the same outcome of a plethora of sprays and stickers most players won’t use and only a handful of worthwhile weapons and character skins.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 represents a proper return to form, with Treyarch taking the helm in development once more. This is probably as definitive a Call of Duty title has been in years, with a package that executes well across all three pillars of Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. While the narrative doesn’t hold up to the spy thriller premise in the lead-up to launch, the online package rounds out the experience well.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Treyarch has arrived guns blazing with this year’s Call of Duty entry. All three pillars of Campaign, Multiplayer, Zombies are among the best they’ve been in years. While some players might lament the addition of Omnimovement to the gunfights, there’s a dynamic feel to the new mechanics that make Call of Duty feel more like a personal action movie.

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