Call of Duty: Black Ops 6came out on October 25, exactly thirteen years afterBattlefield 3hit the shelves.
In those years leading up to this recent release,little thatCall of Dutyhas produced as a series has been unique or exciting, aside from perhapsBlack Ops 2(2012).
Yes, theModern Warfareremake was a sign of better things to come, but that matters very little when the entire story serves to set up future titles that do not go anywhere.
Despite widespread skepticism in the run-up to the release, it was a joy to discover thatCall of Duty: Black Ops 6is different.
This game is far from perfect, but it dares to rock the boat, which is exactly what the series has needed for so long.
So, before getting into the details, a big thank you to everyone involved in making this game. As someone who grew up on the firstCall of Dutytitles,this is the first time in twenty years that a game in this series gave that familiar warmthagain.
Now, let’s talk aboutCall of Duty: Black Ops 6.
New Old Movement
The big ticket item on theCall of Duty: Black Ops 6bill is the new Omnimovement. Despite the fancy name and Activision’s insistence on bragging about it during virtually every press release,Omnimovement is nice but not revolutionary.
As the name suggests, Omnimovement allows you to perform most actions in any direction. The addition is certainly welcome as a whole, but its gameplay implications can sometimes make you hate it.
In single-player combat, this gives you smooth crawling animations, and the ability to quickly duck behind cover when moving under fire.
Ominmovement here adds fluidityto a gameplay loop that is often stiff and uninspired in otherCall of Dutytitles. In multiplayer, it’s another story, but that’s best saved for my upcoming multiplayer review.
Besides the new fancy toy, the regular movement mechanics are solid. Treyarch added just the right amount of granularity to make analog stick deflection smooth and efficient.
During more quiet parts of the campaign, I was regularly going around at a walking pace because it felt more fitting than the standard jog.
Once the bullets start flying, though, the full deflection pace is a nice middle between walking and the sprint modes.
A Nice Weight To It
On PlayStation 5, the gunnery mechanics are naturally held back by the inherent disadvantages of a controller versus mouse, butthe controls are good enoughwithin the constraints.
The aim-assist is well executed, striking a nice compromise between functionality and subtlety. I had to check the settings to see if it was on at all, which is what you want froman assist that can ruin a gameif done poorly.
Like most recentCall of Dutytitles,Black Ops 6uses hit-reg instead of hit-scan. While this is a favorable option for more realistic gameplay,the execution makes you wish for hit-scan again.
The bullet drop is negligible. This takes a good while to get used to if you are coming from any other modern shooter series, especially when taking long shots (a common theme in many campaign missions).
As forthe weaponsthemselves,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6hit it out of the park with both variety and execution.
True to any good special forces title, the game includesa mix of standard-issue weapons and rare prototypesthat were only issued to secret squirrel types.
The attachment options are pretty good overall, andenemies in the campaign drop guns with diverse setups.
Some of the coolest items are the Tsarkov 7.62 (Dragunov SVU) marksman rifle, the PU-21 light machine gun, and the Goblin, modeled after an Australian bullpup conversion of the SLR.
There are minor gripes, such as unarmored enemies occasionally remaining combat-capable despite being hit with a hefty 9x39mm bullet on the head, but all in all, it feels good.
Gritty Warfare Never Looked So Good
The graphics fidelity and art direction inCall of Duty: Black Ops 6are some of the game’s strongest points, andTreyarch earns extra points for the smooth frameson the PlayStation 5.
The character models do not lose much noticeable detail between cutscenes and gameplay sequences, which is always helpful for Immersion, and they look the part to boot.
Enemy models and textures also look staggeringly good as well, with detailed loadouts and uniforms, as well as settings that feel so authentically built down to the finest detail.
EA’s New Battlefield Aims To Revive the Glory Days with a Modern Setting
EA has finally unveiled their plans for the next Battlefield title, which will stick to the fundamentals of the series.
Then, from an auditory standpoint, enemy audio callouts inBlack Ops 6are leagues ahead of its predecessors, with actual intelligible dialogue in different languages, voiced by native speakers who are not just yelling random phrases into the microphone.
Plus, the soundtrack hits the spot, adding to each section’s overall ambiance and tone. Although certain sequences are decidedly uninspired (looking at you, StereotypicalDesertMusic.Wav).
However, if we’re nitpicking, and I am, some of the weapons sound too ‘soft’ when firing, making it less fun to blast around with them.
Bucking The Trend
Let’s get something out of the way: in an ideal world, the only reason someone should buy aCall of Dutytitle is the new campaign. But obviously, that’s a very high-mind opinion, and not everyone will agree.
The campaign allows the developers to demonstrate that they did their homework and convince the players that this is a game worth remembering.
But due to the stream of underwhelming outings that have come before, and the games where they just flat-out didn’t bother with a campaign at all,Call of Dutyveterans werenaturally apprehensiveaboutBlack Ops 6.
The developers dropped hints during the lead-up phase that this campaign would be longer thanBlack Ops: Cold War, but that says nothing, given how short that was.
As much as the worries were justified,it is finally time to admit it: we were very wrong.
TheCall of Duty: Black Ops 6campaign may not be a storytelling masterpiece, butit is the greatest thing to come out of the franchise since Modern Warfare 2in 2009.
A Campaign We Can Get Behind
Treyarch picked a beautiful and unexplored period to serve as the setting forthe story. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War triggered the most significant paradigm shift in the post-war world.
The perceived lack of a near-peer adversary caused many world powers to become complacent in matters of defense and intelligence.
All the certainties of the bipolar world had suddenly gone out of the window, and until countries found their bearings again,it was a free game for opportuniststo make their play.
You play the role of CIA agent William “Case” Calderon, a quiet, faceless guy happy to lend an ear to your teammates.
Your team, consisting of agents Troy Marshall, Jane Harrow, and recurring hero Frank Woods, is on the hook for a bungled VIP extraction mission in Iraq during the Gulf War of 1991. Harrow keeps her position, but the rest of the team is suspended.
Suspecting a deeper conspiracy, the three agents move to investigate a tip left by rogue agent Russell Adler (ofBlack Ops: Cold Warfame) but find themselves in a lot more trouble than they bargained for.
Call of Dutyhas done conspiracy plots to death, butthere is a certain elegance and restraint in howBlack Ops 6handles it that makes it stand out.
Dynamic Characters Galore
The main ensemble ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 6stands out by being primarily all-original, with old faces adapted nicely to the game’s overall tone.
The gang you roll with talks like normal people, skirting the forced “hard guy tone"that makes manyCODcampaigns difficult to endure.
The more nuanced approach makes the situations where someone raises their voice much more impactful, and it helps you see these characters as humans.
Occasionally, the cutscenes rely on implicit relationships between characters that aren’t all that well developed, but any confusion is easily cleared up by moving to the next mission.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Install Size Breakdown
Start freeing up space for campaign packs, multiplayer, and launcher installs.
The mix of skills and personalities inyourBlack Ops 6crew makes you feel like you’re part of a cooler version of The A-Team.
Treyarch managed to tap into that to make your tasking a little more varied, allowing your teammates to shine rather than the “one-man army” approach introduced with the very firstCall of Dutycampaign.
Most campaign missions have “mini-bosses” in the format of elite soldiers.These are bullet sponges with weird gimmicks that could have been done without.
Of course, you still are a proper Billy Badass, but it makes you appreciate the backup in tough sections.
The Safe House
The safe house is a great addition to the campaign and its character-building, but it is also a missed opportunity.
Between story missions, your team hangs out in a remote house away from Langley’s prying eyes.
This gives you the chance to talk to eachcrew memberand learn more about them or your mission.
Treyarch tried to implement a hideout management system there, andwhile the visuals are great, the result is deeply unsatisfying.
Take the weapons station, for example. This was the perfect chance to let you tweak gun presets for the next mission.
Build-a-gun has kept a messy game likeEscape From Tarkovin business despite its many flaws, andCall of Dutydoes have such mechanics for multiplayer, but it did not go anywhere with it in the campaign.
Beautifully Chaotic Execution
This is what setsCall of Duty: Black Ops 6apart from every single title in the series. For the first time,they let the level designers go all out, and the results are a wonderful mess.
The first two campaign missions are deceptively familiar, involving linearly gunning your way past enemies to reach an objective before triggering a cutscene.
Once you’re past the “not this again” stage, what comes next is the stuff of legends… almost.
Black Ops 6takesa novel approachto mission building whereno two levels are even vaguely similar.
Yes, all of them involve shooting, but how that combat comes about and what you do between them is completely different from any olderCall of Duty.
While the missions are all connected, each feels like it belongs in a different game, but in the best way possible.
One mission feels like rocking with Captain Price and Private MacGregor of the Desert Rats inCall of Duty 2. Another could be straight out of theOcean’sfilm trilogy. There is even a horror level that could pass forResident Evil 4!
The thing is,Call of Dutystealth is not good, and the horror is pretty awkward too.This game lacks the subtlety in mechanics to execute most of those concepts well, but because they are done so earnestly, and are so varied, it does not matter.
I found myself marveling out loud about how I was rolling down an open-world desert in a modernCall of Duty. I tookthe time to complete every secondary objective just to make the experience last a little longer.
The map is small, and some of the objectives are poorly balanced. But even still, I was willing to overlook minor issues purely because they tried something new, and it paid off.
That unpredictability makesBlack Ops 6beautiful, even if deeply flawed. For the first time in over a decade, the player can sit there and say, “I wonder what’s next.”
Unless you are the speedrunner type, this is one of the longest campaigns inCall of Dutyhistory. Take your time, andenjoy it because there might be nothing like it again.
Closing Comments:
Black Ops 6 is to Call of Duty what Battlefield 3 was to its series, something new that finally offered an alternative to a repetitive formula. Now, it is up for Activision and Treyarch to build on it. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is not the best Call of Duty release. Depending on who you ask, it may not even be the best Black Ops game. That said, in a world where the series has become synonymous with overpriced, cheap multiplayer combat and vapid campaigns, Black Ops 6 is a breath of fresh air. This game will go down in history one way or another. It is either the last good Call of Duty made, or the first of a new era with good titles again. Treyarch has a long way to go if a sequel is to be called great, but for the first time in a decade, Call of Duty may have a future again.
10 Best Call Of Duty Campaigns, Ranked
The rankings, Mason, what do they mean?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
reviewed on PS5
