The black and orange of Black Ops has returned, and it’s as slick and swift as ever, to be one of the best entries in the past several years. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 continues off what worked so well in Black Ops Cold War, while also adding the impressively satisfying new omnimovement system that’s sure to be a fan favorite going forward, giving the series flexibility in its movement systems that it hasn’t had before. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has a Tom Clancy-esque psyop thriller of a campaign, a terrifyingly good Zombies mode, and an addictive multiplayer suite that will get its hooks in you – it’s good to be back in black…ops.
Campaign
The Cold War is over, but tensions are heating up in the Middle East. Continuing on from the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, we go from 1984 to 1991. Black Ops 6 throws you back into the world of covert operations with a brand new campaign. This time, you join Troy Marshall and Frank Woods in psyops where they’re playing checkers, and you’re playing chess. The campaign kicks off by having everyone together in present day and using flashbacks to tell how things got to be where they are. The narrative focuses heavily on espionage and political intrigue. You’ll be tasked with infiltrating enemy facilities, gathering intel, and eliminating high-value targets. The story itself is decent, with some interesting twists and turns that anyone who grew up in or around the 90s will find utterly fascinating throughout.
There’s a safe house in Bulgaria where you’ll be able to explore and uncover secrets, engage in dialogue with multiple options, and strategize before embarking on new missions. There’s eleven missions in total, but expect to spend eight to ten hours in the campaign, depending on the chosen difficulty. It’s a thrill-a-minute as missions are varied and packed with action set pieces, from close-quarters combat in claustrophobic warehouses to large-scale assaults on sprawling military bases. Treyarch has crafted some truly memorable moments, especially a high-speed chase through the streets of Washington D.C. while on motorcycles or even earlier in the same mission where you’re performing espionage.
Zombies
Treyarch are the inventors and masters of the zombies mode for Call of Duty, and while it is my least favorite mode, it feels like “back to basics” and found it to be enjoyable. You start off by picking an operator, four of which are heavily recommended to better fit the storytelling, but there’s a dozen others to choose from as well. Then from there you select one of the two currently available missions: Liberty Falls or Terminus.
Before embarking on the mission, you’ll need to select a loadout which is similar to your multiplayer loadout of weapon selections with a dedicated melee weapon. But what’s different is that you’ll have a Zombies-specific Field Upgrade in contrast to the regular Field Upgrade you’d pick in multiplayer. You have your choice with one of five: an energy mine that explodes in waves, frenzied guard, a dark flare that generates an energy beam, healing aura which does what you’d expect, and aether shroud providing a shield – the last two are locked until you make more progression. Lastly there’s the awfully named “GobbleGums”, a pack of consumables that will cater to your playstyle, and you can even create custom mini-loadouts to use here.
Once you’re in the selected map, you’ll fight zombies off to accumulate a currency that can be used to buy weapons, ammo, upgrades, and unlock gates to move to new areas. All the while, zombies will drop collectibles of salvage and essence that can be used for future unlocks. Killing zombies with critical headshots will be a boon to your currency allocation, and make things much easier for you. When playing solo, if your health goes to zero, you’ll be put in a down-but-not-out state and can self-revive once. On the ground you’ll have a pistol to clear the area around you to pick yourself back up to try to finish things up.
Zombies (cont’d)
What I not only appreciate but applaud about this Zombies mode, is the fact you can save and load it up any time while playing solo. Meaning if you’re doing really well, but don’t want to lose your XP or progress, you can just save your game from the menu. This menu also lets you switch to a third-person perspective if you wish. The game will auto-save if you’re in the pause menu for more than 15 minutes, with a helpful countdown as well.
Another big thing to call out with Treyarch’s Zombies mode is that it is back to being round-based. No longer is it a pseudo-Warzone style game mode. However, there will come a point in the game when you can extract. It’s at this time you will be calling an extraction helicopter, and you’ll have only a few minutes to clear the landing zone of zombies so it can land and take you out. Fail to do so, and the extraction helicopter will be destroyed and you’ll be eliminated.
Multiplayer
There’s a healthy amount of modes in Black Ops 6, with favorites like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Search & Destroy, and Confirmed. There’s the new Kill Order mode where a high-value target is given a specific loadout and there’s points doled out for them surviving as long as possible. There’s eleven game modes in total, and I was surprised to see Gunfight in here, as it has been predominately been a Modern Warfare mode, which I do like, though I’d much prefer to see Gun Game back in its place instead.
Multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 feels like a natural evolution of the previous entries. The core gameplay remains the same: fast-paced, twitch-based action with a focus on quick reflexes and map knowledge. However, Treyarch has made some subtle tweaks that improve the overall experience. The gunplay feels fantastic. Treyarch has implemented a new weapon handling system that adds a satisfying weight to each weapon. Every bullet feels impactful, and the sound design is top-notch, making each gunfight a visceral experience. The game offers a wide variety of weapons to choose from, ranging from classic Call of Duty staples like the M4 XM4 and AK-47 VK-47 with a wide range of unlocks and customization to suit any playstyle and preference.
Multiplayer (cont’d)
The maps in Black Ops 6 are a mixed bag. For instance, Gala is just a bad map where too many empty areas, it’s a bloodbath. Derelict has great lanes, Pit is small but fast fun, Red Card offers lots a lot of indoor areas with tight ares mixed with some distance, Rewind is just plain fun where you fight in a video rental store. Skyline is a beta map that I don’t get tired of playing. Subsonic is a windy map that has a blistering sun causing some harshness in seeing what’s going on. There are 11 core maps for 6v6 battles, five strike maps for 2v2 battles, makes for 16 maps in total to start with, and you’ll be far from bored of them. Since you can vote on maps before a match starts, will get opportunities to avoid the ones you don’t like in favor of the ones you do.
The perk system has also been reworked. Instead of the classic pick-three system, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as “pick five” alongside wildcards and even gaining additional perks by choosing cards of the same color. It’s a neat system that incentivizes experimentation, and those who like to minmax will get the most out of this. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Prestige system is fully back. That means when you reach the end of the treadmill, you’ll have to the option to reset everything to zero to gain some bonuses and showcase how good you are and can work through the works.
Black Ops 6 is a visually stunning game. The environments are detailed and immersive, with impressive lighting effects and destructible objects. The character models continue operating in the uncanny valley, as people like Lou Diamond Phillips are immediately recognizable despite the character they’re playing as. With a good percentage of this game being a competitive offering, not only does it need to look good, but it has to perform well, too. The game has upscaling and sharpening that uses nearly every technology: AMD FSR 1, AMD FSR 3, AMD FidelityFX CAS, NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA DLAA, NVIDIA Image Scaling, and Intel XeSS. It also supports Frame Generation, and Variable Rate Shading (VRS) to name a few. There’s tons of options to tweak and benchmark against to dial in the settings the way you want to.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is an absolute thriller with plenty of bombast to spare The campaign offers a decent story with some memorable set pieces, zombies is back to being round-based, and the multiplayer is refined and engaging for the grind. Black Ops 6 a worthy entry in the series that continues from where Cold War ended and doesn’t let go, and it’s been many years since Call of Duty has been this good – and as George H.W. Bush put it: “The world could wait no longer.” Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is an evolution in player movement thanks to the stellar omnimovement system, and the game is a shining gem affixed onto a polished crown – because the king is back.
A Steam code for the Vault Edition was provided by the publisher for review purposes
