Recently while discussing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 with non-COD gamers I was asked a simple question. What makes COD games so special? The answer however is not quite as simple.
At this point, the franchise has been around for over 2 decades, meaning for many gamers COD has been a part of their gaming journey since childhood. Friendships and fond gaming moments have been created in those 2 decades. I’m sure many can recall their first Team Deathmatch win with a group of randoms and exchanging gamertags afterward. With that said, there is excitement about playing a new yearly COD release and having a friend jump into your lobby whom you befriended so many years ago to hit the battlefield again together.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (aka BO6) is a favorite COD series for many and BO: Cold War is my favorite COD game in recent years. The BO6 campaign continues the timeline from BO: Cold War in the early 1990s. You mostly play as William “Case” Calderon, a key member of Frank Woods’ Black Ops team. The overall mission is to take down a paramilitary group called Pantheon.
Unlike the Modern Warfare series and even earlier, Black OPS games Cold War and BO6 take a stealthier approach to their mission structure. Of course, you can go guns blazing if you prefer, but there is always a stealth option that requires some strategic movements and quick enemy takedowns in some missions. If all goes according to plan, this approach can produce a gratifying feeling of accomplishment, especially since many of the missions are on the longer side when compared to previous COD campaigns.
You can expect 8-11 hours playing on normal difficulty and a couple more hours to complete all the side mission objectives. Oh yeah, you read that right. Some missions notably “Hunting Season” will provide you with a laptop showing your main mission targets and a good amount of “?” locations for you to explore. This mission is like a mini open world and at times feels & plays like Warzone.
The main feature I love about Cold War and now BO6 is the safe house. Here you can interact with other team members via dialogue choice conversations. You can also pick and choose which mission to do next. Each mission looks, feels, and plays differently from each other. Some are stealth focused while others may rely on quick action cover-based combat.
Overall, I love this campaign. Is it perfect? Of course not. For one, I wish the Black Ops series brought back campaign co-op. BO3 was the last to have 4 four-player campaign co-op with leveling progression that carried over into MP. If you played this campaign, then you know a 4-person team wouldn’t work for every mission but would be nice for some which does have a full team like the before mentioned “Hunting Season”.
A new feature added to BO6 is omnidirectional movement. The new mobility allows you to sprint, and dive in multiple directions besides the front and back. This also applies to performing turns while in a mid-air jump. It will take a bit of getting used to, especially for returning COD players but it does add to the gameplay and produces flashier kills.
Personally, the only movement I hope not to see, or should I say return, is the wall running. There is something about performing the wall run that just feels out of place in a COD game. Besides that, the gameplay experience is as smooth and fluid as one would expect. The control scheme is the gold standard and why so many other FPS games implement the same layout.
BO6 was in development by Treyarch and Raven Software for 4 years which is the longest development time for any COD and it shows. The lengthy campaign and multiplayer modes prove this fact. We have a whopping 16 all-new maps to run and gun around. They all vary in size and as of this writing, fan-favorite Nuke Town has been added.
There are multiple levels of Prestige to achieve which in turn gives you new camo skins and other perks to show off your accolades. However, I do miss the COD WW2 prestige helmet reward. If I recall, I prestige 3 times, and each time I got a different helmet. The helmets looked great and a quick glance at my teammate or opponents’ helmet could let me know how experienced or invested in this COD game they were.
Now all your favorite match types are back such as Kill Confirmed, Domination, Team Death Match, etc. But what is not back is Ground War Invasion. I loved this game mode and hope it comes later down the COD season so I don’t want to write it off as a mode completely ruled out for BO6. What has been ruled out for sure is 3rd person view in MP. As someone who plays a lot of 3rd person shooters like The Division, I was excited when it was added in Modern Warfare 2 with 3rd person mosh pit, but it was quietly removed, re-added due to complaints, and then removed again. This viewing angle divided the COD community which surprised me since it had its own mosh pit and was not something you can change on the fly in a normal MP match. Right now, the only mode that has 3rd person view and does allow you to switch on the fly is Zombies.
Now to be honest I’ve taken a step back from playing COD Zombies as it has evolved over the years, so much so that there are gamers who only purchase a COD to play the Zombie mode. BO6 has 2 Zombie maps, Liberty Falls and Terminus with a 3rd map launching alongside season 1 on November 14th, 2024. I spent a few hours running and gunning around shooting Zombies while chewing on gobble gum to stay alive. There are kiosk machines to upgrade your weapons which is necessary the longer you play. There is a total of 256 waves which sounds like a lot but for those fans of the mode, this is on the low end with other Zombie modes in previous COD games going in the 500 + range. Hey, I’m not going to knock it. The mode is fun but personally not my go-to mode when booting up BO6.
As I mentioned, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the longest-developed COD game in franchise history and thankfully all the time in development was well spent. The character models are life-like along with movement. The campaign is a top-notch black ops story with insane over-the-top set pieces that will get your heart pumping and your hands gripping tight on the controller for dear life. I’m honestly enjoying my time with BO6 and I’m sure this will go down as one of the best releases in franchise history.
This review was written based on a digital review copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 for Xbox Series X provided by Activision.
