Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review

They say change is inevitable, but it is not always easy to spot in the Call of Duty franchise. Modern Warfare II kept the series humming in 2022, while last year’s Modern Warfare III was not the best example of change—more like a fun trip down memory lane with remade maps and returning weapons. This year, Black Ops 6 is a breath of fresh air and one of the best games in the franchise, with notable features that separate it from the pack. From the blindingly frenetic competitive multiplayer, to the robust Zombies maps, and the insanely varied single player campaign, it is a high quality, big budget production.

The single player story takes place in 1991 during the Gulf War, ten years after the events in Cold War, and follows a new covert team acting on a global threat. Their objective is to stop a paramilitary group called Pantheon from deploying a super weapon, but the weapon and its target are a mystery. Due to the lack of evidence and trust issues, the team is forced to go off the grid. The six-person group consists of a few CIA operatives, including the returning Russell Adler and Frank Woods, plus some new faces. While you play as several characters, you predominantly become William ‘Case’ Calderon, who does most of the heavy lifting. Following Pantheon’s clues will take players through bunkers, blacksites, prisons, and palaces in USA, Russia, and Iraq.

Between missions, you can explore a mansion that becomes the base of operations. You can chat to the team, although there is not much to hear and they rarely disclose personal information. The mansion has optional puzzles that require a black light torch and a small amount of brain power to solve. This is the perfect complement to the clandestine experience and brings in some of that fun secret hunting from the Zombies mode. Also inside the mansion are gear stations that provide character upgrades, like extra health or faster reloading. These can be unlocked with money found during missions, which encourages players to explore while in the field.

There is huge variety in the campaign, ranging from the fun set pieces to cool and quiet incursions. More missions than you might expect forgo shooting and focus on deception. Pleasingly the stealth works well enough here, with the ability to tag threats, move bodies, and distract, although the AI detection still needs some work. One subdued scenario has the team infiltrating a gala, with multiple unique solutions, giving the campaign more replay value than most in the series. Another features a gang-affiliated casino where disguises help to access secure areas, with the perspective switching several times before Case gets unleashed.

Tight scripted action sequences are awesome, including brief car chases, a rooftop extraction, a chopper gunner assault, and driving a tank through an airport. In addition to a large number of useful gadgets, the regular shooting is spiced up with special Pantheon enemy types that absorb more damage and hit differently, like one that throws toxic gas and another that fires a mini-gun. While the intense gunplay is good, it is typically cut short to prevent fatigue.

Players can set their own pace in one big open-world mission that offers the most freedom the franchise has ever provided. In a large desert region in Iraq, players are given a map, a vehicle, several allies, and set free to tackle optional points-of-interest as desired, somewhat like in the Far Cry series. It is possible to clear bases with stealth, snipe guards near SAM installations, or find supply caches that grant handy scorestreaks, like a stealth bomber that rains death. Your allies rarely help in firefights, making a strong case for Case to have done all of this solo, but at least they stay away while sneaking. Unlike the clunky Warzone-influenced missions from last year or the crafting nonsense in Modern Warfare II, this seems like something worth pursuing further, perhaps with mid-sized levels that provide both freedom and focus.

The most memorable and creative story moments involve psychoactive drugs that alter perception. The best of these takes place in a decades-old bunker that may remind some players of Rapture from BioShock. Inside this subterranean base is something crazy different, but certainly on-brand for the developers. With all of this variety, the campaign takes around nine hours to complete, eclipsing the previous record holder in the franchise, Infinite Warfare, although it depends on play style. What’s most telling is how much desire there is for more. If you have not played the series in ages or usually skip the campaign, this year’s diverse offering provides a good reason to try solo.

Those looking for cooperative action can play the 1-4 player Zombies mode, in one of the most robust round-based offerings in years. Available at launch are two large and distinct maps that craft different moods. Liberty Falls is situated in a small town on a warm sunny day, allowing players to enter a bank or an electronic store while taking down the decaying locals. The Terminus map features a prison island during a stormy night, with an underground research facility that is essentially a huge version of Cold War’s Die Maschine. Both maps offer story, but Terminus features the most direct narrative because characters have randomized chats while you toil away. Like other round-based situations, routes are opened by spending Essence. There are also cool traps to utilize, like a superhero statue with laser eyes. Both levels have their share of secrets to uncover and typically offer no guidance beyond the initial objectives and a few glowing arrows.

Round for round, the mode is tougher than the equivalent in Cold War. The undead are more numerous, quicker, have bigger reach, and block paths efficiently. Plus there are more specials, including jumping spiders, parasitic wasps, and fleshy abominations that are straight out of The Thing. To offset this challenge, enemies drop keys that lead to random goodies and you can craft powerful tools with salvage. One useful craftable item is a mutant injection that briefly transforms you into a Mangler special that can tear through standard zombies. Another is the classic chopper gunner, which is useful just before an extraction.

It is easy to spend hours playing Zombies. Time flies as you complete rounds, purchase weapons, upgrade them, craft tools, apply mods, consume perks, and complete random challenges hosted by a funny AI personality. One nice feature is the chance to save a session when playing alone, allowing people with limited free time to enjoy more difficult rounds. And since there are many upgrades to unlock, via augments and abilities, there is almost always something to do. The offering this year is something fans can sink their teeth into, and like recent years, leveled weapons carry across into the competitive multiplayer.

The frantic 6v6 competitive action offers a fresh start for the series. All operators, weapons and most maps are brand new, so that means there are thankfully no silly cross-promotional characters (yet). Weapon attachments often have no negatives, so there is no reason not to fully kit-out every weapon via the extensive gunsmith system. This year all players can equip a melee weapon alongside their primary and secondary. Swapping to a knife becomes handy in close quarters when both other weapons are running on empty. You can also grab people and hold them hostage for a short while, and although this is humiliating for the victim, it leaves the hostage-taker vulnerable from the rear.

Most perks and field upgrades are familiar, but there are small changes. There is now a specialty buff for equipping three perks in the same group, which encourages players to adopt a distinct role: strategist, recon, or enforcer. One role gives a score bonus and another briefly lets you see enemies through walls after you respawn, which seems powerful in the tiny maps. While there are many returning field upgrades, like the trophy system and signal jammer, a new one lets you pretend to be a hostile. Scorestreaks are rarely devastating, partly because it is harder to get on a run and also because of their fragility. The RC-XD, for example, is easily shot and forces players to drive the little car more sneakily. With high player speed and many grenades, the action is frantic, and part of that comes down to the new movement system.

Omnimovement is the biggest notable change to how players transition through the environment in a Call of Duty game. In simple terms, it allows operatives to dive and slide in all directions, and also fire at any angle while lying down. There are viable reasons to slide around corners or dive off stairs, plus it adds a cinematic flair and hilarious moments when opponents superman to their death. However, diving excessively is also a good way to get killed frequently, so it is best reserved for edge cases.

Most regular 6v6 modes return, including Domination, TDM, FFA, Kill Confirmed, Search & Destroy, Hardpoint, Control, and Headquarters. Kill Order is new this year and it makes one player on each team a HVT that should be eliminated for extra points. The designated HVT gets more armor, to withstand the attention, and trying to kill them is annoying since they enter a downed state. The new mode unfortunately seems too clumsy compared to the others.

All 12 core launch maps offer adequate variety, albeit with a few quality lapses. The small map Babylon is disappointing in certain modes, because you turn a corner and see the whole team emerge from a tiny ruin. But the compact Subsonic map plays better due to extra cover and hangar doors that close intermittently. There are decently sized maps, like Scud, a clear homage to Dome (from MW3) but at twice the size. Another mid-sized map is Vault, which has a classic three-lane structure with sniper nests. Given the fast movement, even the bigger arenas can feel congested. The spawning system exacerbates the craziness because there is a non-zero chance of rejoining under crosshairs and the spawn flips put enemies on your six.

Far more intensity can be found in the Face Off Moshpit that comprises of four tiny Strike maps. Although these are built for the 2v2 Gunfight mode, the Moshpit cranks that up to an insane 6v6. In some ways this replicates the absurd Blitz pacing from Vanguard, but it may have been more agreeable with fewer players. The good news is that scorestreaks are disabled which makes the gunplay more consistent, at least compared to the ridiculousness in Modern Warfare's Shipment. This year’s rendition of Nuketown copies the visuals from the original, which may give players some warm fuzzy memories or bad PTSD tremors.

Franchise veterans may notice there are no large modes with vehicular combat this year. Despite Combined Arms (12v12) or Ground War (32v32) appearing in the last 4 out of 5 releases, these larger offerings missed the cut. But truthfully they have rarely been that well supported (with just a few maps) and often fail to reach their potential. However, if you loved these larger battlefields then you may not find as much joy online.

It is pleasing that Black Ops 6 is in a fairly healthy state on PC at launch. Online matches run smoothly, with short load times and quick matchmaking, although it does have a packet burst issue that causes lag spikes. Occasionally there are disconnections, and the Zombies mode has extra network instability. Visually the game looks decent with fairly detailed levels and great atmosphere, but textures can take seconds to fully load and some in-game character models are low-poly, despite the excellent cutscenes. One visual quirk is the overwhelming darkness in campaign missions, which required adjusting the brightness on a per-level basis, but that is not required for multiplayer.

The sixth Black Ops game is one of the best in the series. Its competitive multiplayer is fresh and frantic, offering some great fun thanks to movement changes. Fans of the cooperative Zombies get two big levels that set different tones and have oodles of tasks to keep players busy. And the long campaign offers some of the most varied and creative missions to date. It is remarkable that, after 21 years of yearly releases, Treyarch can release a game of similar high quality to the original Black Ops by making nearly all the right moves.