The last year or so wasn’t the kindest to Call of Duty, after reports that Activision decided to ship planned DLC as an entirely new game, and reused maps from decades ago. Despite me enjoying the new Modern Warfare 3 — at least outside of its boring, open environment campaign missions — a lot of people didn’t, or at least enjoyed being vocal about disliking it online.
Now, for the holiday season of 2024, Treyarch are back with a new entry in their venerable series, that being Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Having always seemed to be a real fan favourite, it’s calmed a lot of the online critics that seemed to be everywhere before. At least, that’s seemed to be the case, for the most part. There will always be those who take any opportunity to crap on this annual franchise, but I personally enjoy it, and have been playing it a lot more than usual. After some franchise fatigue, which crept back in after 20 hours on Modern Warfare 3’s nostalgic maps, I’m hooked again and keep wanting to play more.
Over the course of the last month or so, I’ve been playing multiplayer off and on, on both Xbox Series S (through GamePass) and PlayStation 5 (via a provided code). Since I’ve been spending a lot of time upstairs with my elderly cat, out of fear that he will have an accident, I’ve primarily played on the Series S so far. I’ve played past the point of my first ever prestige on that console, and approximately three hours on the PS5 and my better TV. I’ve also played the campaign upstairs, and plan to go through it again downstairs, with a headset, when I get the time.
Although this is admittedly late due to different reasons, I wanted to share my thoughts about this year’s instalment of Call of Duty, because I’m quite enjoying it. We were also provided a code, as mentioned above. Please forgive the delay, but I’ve put it to good use.
No matter whether you liked last year’s entry or not, it could be said that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a true return to form for the first-person shooter franchise. It’s a quality package with three good parts, and none of them feel rushed or phoned in. Although I truly enjoyed revisiting maps from one of my favourite times in life, it’s nice to have some new ones to fill with bullet holes.
Let’s start with the campaign, which has always been something I’ve vocally looked forward to.
Black Ops 6 continues its overarching narrative. This time around, the action is set in 1991, amidst the start of Operation Desert Storm.
As William ‘Case’ Calderon, players will find themselves embattled in a plot that centres upon mole(s) in the CIA and a psycho-chemical weapon that was developed in an abandoned bio lab. You’ll have to deal with bad actors, as well as go up against a rogue paramilitary force called Pantheon.
The campaign will take you across the planet, including to a Bill Clinton rally in Washington DC, Saddam Hussein’s swanky palace in the Iraqi desert, a casino and more. With fun and engaging missions, well thought out gameplay and a good length, it’s a nice return to form for Call of Duty campaigns after some mediocrity last time around. There is one open map level, but it’s better and more enjoyable than what came before it.
Sometimes you’ll be presented with different options as to how to tackle an objective, which also adds a nice element of variety to the experience.
It’s also important to note that there is a safehouse in the campaign, which becomes available early on. Although this instalment doesn’t have any intel to find like the old ones, it does have money to pick up, and you can use that to upgrade your base stats and weapons in the safehouse. First, you must actually buy and build the weapons desk, the target range, and other things within the compound.
This safehouse also presents you with puzzles, some of which can be found using a black light. Completing the house’s major puzzles will lead you into hidden areas, its dark/disturbing depths and eventually to the combination for a safe containing goodies.
Next, let’s take some time to discuss Zombies, which I’ve admittedly never liked all that much. I’ve had a hard time figuring out exactly why, but from the start I’ve found myself getting bored by it despite liking zombie movies/games and Call of Duty. It’s something I’ve always tried then never touched again, unless friends made me play it, and I know that I’m in the minority there. My opinion seems to be rare amongst fans of these games, but that’s ok. To each their own.
It admittedly took me a while to get to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode, but I surprised myself by actually enjoying it when I played solo. I wasn’t great at it, but survived for about ten rounds on one map and a bit less on the other.
Yes, there are two different Zombies maps herein.
The first one I played was Liberty Falls, which turns small town America into the spawning ground of the undead. Therein, one must unlock new parts of the town, complete potential objectives and kill zombies that take humanoid and spider-like forms. This is definitely the best of the two.
The other map focuses more on the Dark Aether storyline, which I won’t even pretend to know anything about. It begins with a prison rescue in a remote location on the Philippine Sea. Then, the shit hits the fan and various types of undead come after you.
This map is actually also pretty good, although it’s not as easy to navigate or as interesting as the one located in small town West Virginia. Each one has its pros and cons, though, and they both feel different. Not just because of the characters, but because of the lighting, environment types, enemy types and more.
While I haven’t had much of an urge to return to the Zombies mode, it was definitely more enjoyable than ever before, and a little bit addictive at the time. The hit detection is good now, but ammo is shockingly limited. The core gameplay is also better than it’s ever been before. This is in stark contrast to Modern Warfare 3’s kind of open Zombies map, which I didn’t enjoy at all.
Now, on to what most people buy these games for: the competitive multiplayer.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 presents sixteen new maps, twelve of which are designed for the core 6v6 gameplay while the remaining four are strike maps that also allow 2v2 action. These maps include a soccer stadium, the swanky penthouse suite atop an expensive building (and its exterior), an old train graveyard, Saddam’s palace and vault, an old safehouse, the ruins of Babylon, a former black site surrounded by water and a 90s strip mall complete with a video store. There’s also one set in wintry Russia, another that is set at a radar and munitions location that’s seen better days, a sub and aircraft silo and a town surrounded by water and fishing boats. Needless to say, there’s a good amount of variety, and I’ve honestly truly enjoyed my time with these maps. I do tend to vote against Red Card, though, because I find that it’s the one poorly designed map. Although it’s nice to listen to Faith No More, the map is a bit too big and most of the action ends up occurring in the front entranceway of the soccer stadium.
I also really enjoyed hearing music from one of my favourite bands — Nine Inch Nails — during the second campaign mission, which emphasized stealth.
Since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is in its first season of added content, I should also note that Nuketown has been added, and has gone festive. There’s also another new map featuring a massive home and its surroundings/outbuildings. I’m still on the fence with that one.
With this game, Treyarch has brought the prestige system back, and has modelled it after classic series entries. They also have a lot of operators to choose from, including some badass zombies. That, as well as a good gun editing system, although it wouldn’t let me equip a design for some reason. That, as well as the return of Theatre.
The developers have refined and improved many favourite modes, like Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination, Hardpoint and Search & Destroy. They’ve also introduced a new one called Kill Order, which tasks you with trying to eliminate the enemy team’s high-value target while attempting to protect your own. It’s fun.
Although I’ve dabbled in other modes, I must admit that I still generally only play Free-For-All as per always. I’ve probably spent upwards of thirty hours playing multiplayer, and it’s almost all been in that great mode. It’s fast, frenetic and challenging, and it’s like the Goldeneye and Perfect Dark matches I grew up with. Outside of Battlefield 1943, I’ve never cared too much for objective based modes, unless I’m in the mood. I have always really liked Kill Confirmed, and enjoyed Team Deathmatch, but haven’t felt like playing them much lately.
I’ve gotten pretty good at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, too, and am playing the best I have since the original Modern Warfare 2 and my other favourite, Black Ops 3. Things started a bit rough, but I’ve had some incredible match results, and my KDR is well above 1.00. When I hopped back in on PlayStation 5 yesterday evening, I somehow won something like five straight matches and six out of eight. Then, I took a break to play through another game, before returning. At that point, I wasn’t as good, but came close to winning one or two. I had a couple of my patented duds after good rounds. Anyways, I was quite proud of that.
What stands out most about Black Ops 6 is how fast it is. Treyarch has been very vocal about its team’s efforts to revolutionize movement in these games, with omnidirectional movement. It’s a game changer too.
Thanks to this new system, it’s possible to move a lot more freely. Players can run forwards, to the side and backwards, and can move their bodies and guns around while prone. You also have more control while sliding. It’s fast, it’s fluid and it’ll make it hard to go back to the old style.
Reading the above might make you worry that there’s a lot of people dining, sliding and doing tricks to avoid being shot. Perhaps that really annoyed you in other recent games. Thankfully, I haven’t come across too many frustrating shenanigans. Some people abuse the system, but its pros greatly outweigh its limited cons.
I did have the odd connection issue, got kicked from one game and had some other hiccups. However, I haven’t had much of that since I changed my modem, which may have been defective. It wasn’t allowing me to do anything while downloading, despite having upgraded my plan over a year ago. The servers aren’t perfect, but things seem to mostly be stable and polished.
In years passed, Activision would sell map packs for their Call of Duty games. I remember buying at least a few of them. These days, those are free. Instead, the monetization comes by way of operators, skins, Gobblegums for Zombies and some other things. You get some currency with the game, but can buy a lot more using a lot of real world money. This is not something I’ve ever done or had much interest in, and I feel that it can be dangerously and predatory. Be careful, and remember that it’s just a game.
For the most part, the current operators are nice and not too lavish. However, there is one anime character which is odd to see.
Last year, they kind of lost me when they introduced rappers, which felt odd. Everyone seemed to be running around as Nicki Minaj, with guns that would shoot colourful lasers and turn me into goo. I didn’t really like that, and it took me out of the experience. There’s already some of that with weapons this time around, but I hope that they’ll stay more bland with Black Ops 6’s future offerings.
Presentation-wise, Call of Duty is the best it’s ever been outside of said anime character and colourful laser guns. The game looks great — especially on PS5 — and is very fast and smooth. It looks quite good, and runs well, on Series S too. I’ve enjoyed playing it on both consoles, and appreciate that my stats and loadout carry over between them.
Unlike some previous instalments, the multiplayer isn’t a notable step down, visually, from the campaign. I found that was most noticeable with World War 2. Both modes look great, and sound excellent, and Zombies is polished too. Of course, your experience can be affected by other players, if they misbehave or are jerks over the mic. In my experience thus far, I’ve only encountered one lobby with rude arguers, and the odd childish username. Few people have been talking, and I haven’t bothered to. It just doesn’t interest me.
Overall, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a really good return to form for the long running first-person shooter series, which began over two decades ago. Although I liked last year’s effort, for the most part, this feels like a much more crafted, polished and well made release. It’s also a big step up from Cold War, which was good but not great by any means.
It also helps that Black Ops 6 is the first one to be released on Xbox Game Pass, day one, allowing folks to play it for ‘free’ so long as they have an active subscription. That’s huge.
This review is based on the Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5 versions of the game, which we were provided with.