Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III stumbled so Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 could soar. Triumphantly so.

Black Ops 6 possesses a kind of opulence I haven’t seen in a Call of Duty game since perhaps Infinite Warfare, Black Ops 3, and Advanced Warfare–the first fruit borne from Activision’s mandate that Call of Duty‘s key three developers would be gifted with 3-year development cycles. Whatever your feeling may be about those titles, it’s impossible to deny

The sentiment was crystallized for me in a level about three-fourths of the way through the campaign as my team was undergoing a clandestine mission to retrieve documents from a safety deposit box in the lower levels of a glitzy foreign casino. Perspective switched from one character to the group’s leader Troy Marshall who needed to win his way into the high roller section to initiate a new leg of the heist.

With full control handed over to me, I could walk Marshall around the towering ceilings of the casino’s lobby constructed out of luminous stone. Marshall continued into the full casino, packed with slot machines, craps tables, wait staff, patrons engaged in their own conversations, a full bar, and a vintage car that looked like it cost about a tenth of this game’s budget. While the scene would later become the stage for a brief shootout, I was aghast at the level of detail, detail of an almost unnecessary degree.

Across the fabric of Black Ops 6‘s campaign is a decadence, a desire to encapsulate the reality and the scope of a playable space. It is a vast departure from Modern Warfare III. That campaign deeply suffered from being a pastiche of story beats smeared across chopped up pieces of the game’s Warzone map; its multiplayer maps culled from past entries. Certainly there was an excitement about a Call of Duty campaign where players were removed from the rails and freely able to tackle missions as they saw fit. But it was haphazardly realized and rushed in execution. It was as if developer Sledgehammer Games had their backs against the wall.

Though it may be tacky to remark on a game’s budget, such affairs quite meaningfully can dictate the extensiveness of a game’s presentation, its feeling of cohesion, and general quality of content. Strip Black Ops 6 of its multiplayer and Zombies mode and the campaign is proof positive that Raven Software–who led its development rather than Treyarch–had the time and the opportunity to deliver something special.

Outside of Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare, the Black Ops series has been the only wing of Call of Duty allowed to break out of the mold of grounded, realistic warfare. Since the first entry, Treyarch’s work has teased at the fringes of post-World War II combat. It’s touched on Vietnam, the Cold War, and even a semi-distant future of augmented human soldiers. But even at its most realistic, the Black Ops entries have toyed with the psychological impact of combat and the kind of wars that are fought in the shadows, often conducted by the shadiest sectors of the government.

Taking place in 1991 during Desert Storm and the twilight of George H. Bush’s presidency, Black Ops 6 continues the ever-spiraling narrative that began with Black Ops 1‘s release in 2010, picking up from 2020’s Black Ops Cold War.

Much like a large portion of Call of Duty‘s campaigns, the crux of Black Ops 6 is relatively uneventful. A few brief missions indicate a larger-than-life threat that the player’s squad must work to eliminate. Globe-trotting ensues, often buttressed by several explosive events meant to provide bursts of adrenaline.

Though this year’s campaign at its foundation isn’t much different, the magic with Raven’s efforts is that it takes “the familiar” and contorts and expands upon it in thrilling ways. One of my favorite aspects of the campaign is that it establishes the primary player character–William “Case” Calderon–as both a vehicle for exciting story beats and as an actual person with some interest in the nature and outcome of his mission.

Over the course of the game, players will have the opportunity to not only select dialog options but walk up to teammates and ask them questions, often about their background. A lot of this interaction is done at a safehouse called The Rook, an abandoned KGB mansion. At The Rook, players can explore a bit to find a few text and audio entries provide flavor to the narrative, plus discover a few key Easter eggs. While narratively The Rook represents a pillar of the team’s fight against the paramilitary force called Pantheon, it also acts as a North Star for Raven’s work on Black Ops 6.

I look back to Black Ops 2 and its dual narratives that took place in the past and present. In this entry, players could make decisions and take actions that would slightly alter the narrative, perhaps resulting in specific characters living or dying. That kind of agency does not exist here. However, Raven wants to show Case not just as a husk but a character actually responding and speaking to the other characters, a novelty for Call of Duty.

It may not be revolutionary in what the medium has accomplished but for this franchise, it is greatly impactful. Much like any other Call of Duty protagonist, Case is put through several harrowing situations and usually survives by the skin of his teeth. But here the stakes feel somewhat more personal because the player has the option to inquire about a teammate’s trauma or check on Woods’ emotional state prior to a mission. Additionally, scattered throughout the campaign are cash drops that the player can use to “upgrade” Case. This includes bumping up maximum health, reducing weapon reload speed and sway, improving equipment capabilities, and generally making Case a more deadlier soldier.

These touches add much needed flair to a franchise that has usually been rife with spectacle but increasingly reliant on big explosions or on-rails blockbuster setpieces. Shockingly, Black Ops 6 is relatively tame when seen in the larger scope of Call of Duty. In fact, a large portion of the campaign can be tackled in a method that supports subterfuge of the “black ops” moniker. Should a player choose, they can go in guns blazing or work to silently dispatch the opposition. The aforementioned casino mission can start as such, with players taking out security as Case. Perspective then switches to three other members of the team performing different tasks before things coalesce into a shootout.

To make up for the sins of Modern Warfare III‘s veiled attempt at “open” encounters, Raven intentionally crafted a handful of missions that feature multiple main and side objectives. One is a simple encounter at a campaign rally for Bill Clinton that tasks players with acquiring a scan of someone’s eye to break into an underground facility. To accomplish this, the player is given three separate opportunities, with any of them being viable and requiring a handful of steps. This idea is further blown out when the player travels to Iraq and must enlist the help of SAS forces to raid one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Before the raid can happen, Case and crew must help the SAS disable three missile sites. This mission takes places on a large map, allowing players to hop into a vehicle and drive around to objectives. At any point when not in combat, players can fast travel back to their vehicle or the central base. Otherwise, the map is theirs to explore.

Certainly an expedient player can tackle the three missile sites and move on. However, assisting a wrecked Delta Force helicopter fend off soldiers rewards the player with a literal scorestreak that drops a powerful missile on cooldown. Clearing out SAM sites lets players get a separate cooldown ability. Or they can learn more about the plot by taking out Pantheon bases. The whole time, any of these “scorestreaks” or equipment acquired along the way can be used to make easy work of the missile sites and even be brought along for the raid on Saddam’s palace.

But the true victory of Black Ops 6 is not that its campaign is one of the longest in Call of Duty‘s history. It isn’t that it is visually stunning and features incredible sound design, voice acting, and motion capture. What elevates Black Ops 6 to being one of the best campaigns in the series’ history is the risks Raven took to not remain beholden to the established formula.

Not to spoil some of the genuinely surprising moments that made me laugh out loud with glee but Black Ops 6 is more than just an action game. It incorporates horror and introspective subtext that make the player question the narrative and what they are playing. To be fair, there’s been a few times when playing Call of Duty that I didn’t follow what was going on outside of trying to stop a bad guy from destroying the world. Though it could be a backhanded compliment, I followed nearly everything going on in Black Ops 6. Narrative beats crafted to be intentionally obtuse were done well until a later revelation. Ridiculous super-soldier action was less gratuitous than ever.

However, two missions about halfway through and near the end of the game defied almost everything set forth by all other Call of Duty games not made by Treyarch. Raven was able to pick up the mantle, echoing the more surreal elements that took place during Black Ops 3‘s mind-melting final moments. It was here the narrative successfully gamified trauma, psychosis, and a genuine sense of unease.

What does this signal for Call of Duty in the future? Honestly, it’s hard to say. Personally I think there is still power in “modern” settings for the franchise but it needs to have the same spark of variety that existed in 2019 without continuing to retread it. In fact, I was disappointed to learn that Sledgehammer’s concept for a follow-up to Advanced Warfare is potentially on ice. If Black Ops 6 is any indication, Raven is a promising voice for the franchise and it is my sincere hope that further entries in the franchise continue to experiment, twisting the familiar into something phenomenal.

While Black Ops 6‘s multiplayer features one dazzling new addition, it more or less maintains Call of Duty‘s status quo of masterfully honed, twitch-based shooting.

Omni-directional movement, or omnimovement as it’s been branded here, is the major upgrade Call of Duty multiplayer has received this year. Denser than the name implies, omnimovement allows players to sprint forwards, backwards, to the left and right, and diagonally. Additionally, players can slide and dive in any direction or go prone and move their character freely in any direction.

This new movement framing makes Black Ops 6 feel like the fastest and most agile Call of Duty game since Infinite Warfare. Gone are the days of wall running and boost jumping but Black Ops 6 maintains this notion that players, if they so choose, can always be charging forward with momentum into the thick of combat.

In reality, this means players end up going to absurd lengths to slide and dive around obstacles in hopes of getting the jump on an opponent or slipping away from a kill shot. In the past two weeks I have watched countless players ridiculously dive out of windows thinking they would pull a fancy trick shot off. And often they did. Other times they landed like an egg and opened themselves up to a hail of gunfire.

Multiplayer combat has an intense feel to it, bolstered by a relatively quick time-to-kill and a near-instantaneous respawn rate that has both teams constantly at odds. However, with modes focusing on 6v6 matches, I must admit that even after becoming acclimated to all the maps, I often felt they were a bit too large. Despite the fast movement, there are large pockets of empty space where players may spend a great deal of time trying to find engagements to only be met with an unceremonious end by a camper or sniper.

This issue is certainly exacerbated in a few maps. Red Card felt particularly vacant as small skirmishes would break out in an underground parking lot or the lobby of a stadium but rarely on the outskirts. Lowtown and Protocol have great central zones that get a lot of action but their edges really only shine in Hardpoint or Control. Clever players may find avenues to sneak around and get the jump when the opposite team is holed up in buildings but I do think some of the fat could be shaved off a few of these maps.

A best-in-class movement system is coupled with Call of Duty‘s annual barrage of weapons. This year I got the impression that players seemingly hadn’t found a true meta at the moment. That or a vast number of players merely got comfortable with a variety of weapons. Of course most players familiar with the pacing of Call of Duty shouldn’t be surprised that getting into a rhythm with one weapon is easy and shifting away from that comfort zone may take a few matches to get comfortable and unlock a few attachments.

Perks aren’t a drastic departure this year but I must applaud the incorporation of specialization perks that are granted when you equip three perks from one category. While these specializations won’t absolutely overpower players, the Recon perk which shows enemies through walls on respawn, leaves no enemies skulls on kills, and flashes the screen when targeted is certainly extremely strong and as of the time of this review, is getting nerfed. And perhaps that’s the one “big” thing with Black Ops 6 in its current state. With such a massive install base, Treyarch is going to have to go in and fine-tune for balance. Heck, the night Nuketown debuted, I played it for a couple hours and then noticed later on in the evening that control points had been expanded to make them significantly less chaotic. For veterans, this is simply how any game of this scope will be in perpetuity.

Over the years the camo grind has become one of the more exhausting aspects of the franchise. Before I fall off a new Call of Duty around Season 2, I’ve usually unlocked a couple gold camos but become bored of the process. Black Ops 6 somewhat simplifies the process with the first stage of camos unlocked through headshots. It’s bland but practical. The more specialty camos require different objectives and are a bit more diverse. Do I find myself getting lost in the grind? In another world where I have time, sure.

I’m more appreciative of the Prestige system finally returning to something a bit simpler. After players reach level 55, they can Prestige, earning an unlock token for any gun, perk, or piece of equipment. From there, the leveling process starts over again with some unique challenges and rewards as players progress through a prestige level. And, of course, for those who wish, there’s about a thousand level’s worth.

Rounding out this year’s package is the mode Treyarch made famous: Zombies. This year two maps are available. The smaller Americana town of Liberty Falls and sprawling Terminus map echo with familiarity and comfort for what players should expect for Zombies at this point.

Unless you’ve voraciously consumed the long-running narrative that has seemingly been weaved through most of these entries, the background chatter will be just that while you’re running from hordes of the undead with friends. There are no fortifying windows and doors here as the zombies flow freely from every nook and cranny available. Kills reward points that can be used to purchase weapons and unlock barriers that open up new parts of the map.

Let’s be honest, I enjoy the hell out of Zombies mode. Very rarely am I able to connect with a group of random people that are able to make meaningful progression through the various secrets that “complete” the particular narrative of whatever aspect of the mode I try to tackle. Regardless, I find that Zombies is always a great extension of the franchise’s incredible gun feel and Black Ops 6 is the same.

What’s important about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is that if you go into it expecting that yearly rush of adrenaline, you’re going to get it. Treyarch has consistently proved themselves to be wizards at channeling the vibes that energize the fans at large. Both its Multiplayer and Zombies modes prove that they are able to tweak the formula they know so well and deliver on it. But there’s a bigger piece of the picture here and that’s Black Ops 6‘s campaign. It is truly one of the best pieces of content that has come from Call of Duty in years. The way a new narrative has been delivered through an extremely tried and true vehicle constantly shines through in the diverse methods Raven Software focused on, amplifying fun and story.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the best Call of Duty in years. It doesn’t feel particularly brave or shocking to admit that fact. Each year the franchise excels in masterful gunplay and it is up to the individual developer to present something new for players to gobble up. Expect omnimovement to be incorporated into future installments to come, spread across all modes. But if Black Ops 6 is any indication of the heights Call of Duty can achieve when true work and creativity are injected into the campaign, then this is a bright future for the long-running behemoth.