Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review

Our Verdict

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At some point when I wasn’t watching, Call of Duty’s campaign became a bad stealth game. Gone are the perspectives of the faceless and unknown soldiers and the grinding attrition of frontline warfare, replaced with characters who look and feel like they came from a Netflix Original movie chasing guys in polo shirts down European alleyways. When Black Ops 6’s campaign occasionally channels the bombastic scope of its predecessors, it rocks, but all too often it’s bogged down in tedious espionage.

NEED TO KNOWWhat is it?This year’s Call of Duty, set in the 1990s.Expect to pay$70DeveloperTreyarch, Raven SoftwarePublisherActivision BlizzardReviewed onRadeon RX 6600, Ryzen 7 5700G, 32GB DDR4 RAMSteam DeckNot verifiedLinkOfficial site$69.99View at Amazon$69.99View at Walmart$69.99View at Best BuySee all prices (11 found)

NEED TO KNOW

What is it?This year’s Call of Duty, set in the 1990s.Expect to pay$70DeveloperTreyarch, Raven SoftwarePublisherActivision BlizzardReviewed onRadeon RX 6600, Ryzen 7 5700G, 32GB DDR4 RAMSteam DeckNot verifiedLinkOfficial site$69.99View at Amazon$69.99View at Walmart$69.99View at Best BuySee all prices (11 found)

$69.99View at Amazon$69.99View at Walmart$69.99View at Best BuySee all prices (11 found)

$69.99View at Amazon

$69.99View at Walmart

$69.99View at Best Buy

See all prices (11 found)

I’m usually the CoD fan that actually cares a lot about the campaign, but it’s those shortcomings pushing me towards this year’s stellar multiplayer offerings. Black Ops 6 has lightning fast gunfights that leverage a wonderfully weighty new movement system to give old and new modes alike a distinct, John Woo-esque flair, where every match evokes the climactic shootout from Hard-Boiled – and what’s more 90’s than that?

“I was there, and it sucked.”

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

black ops 6

You’ll encounter none of the cinematic expertise that characterized Black Ops 1 or World at War in this campaign.

Unlike Metal Gear, Black Ops 6 tends to keep history at arm’s length. Marketing materials often cited the global conflicts that followed in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, but few of those are represented here in earnest. The Gulf War is almost entirely inconsequential to the narrative, which instead focuses on the dark dealings of fictional private military companies, rogue operatives, and organized crime.

Treyarch’s pedigree for grimdark renderings of historical and modern conflict is wasted, and you’ll encounter none of the cinematic expertise that characterized Black Ops 1 or World at War in this campaign—nothing so inspired as rolling up the Mekong Delta blasting “Sympathy for the Devil”, nothing like the Battle of Berlin, no revelation as effective as your faceless soldier being part of a pivotal moment in history a la World at War’s mind-bendingly good Reichstag raid. At its most inspired, we’re attending a Bill Clinton campaign fundraiser and pulling off Payday 2 casino heists on European mobsters.

For all of Black Ops 6 pomp and circumstance, it’s campaign thatfeelsless evocative of the 1990s than, say, Ace Combat Zero on the PlayStation 2, a game where you’re stuck within an airplane cockpit the whole time.

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

black ops 6

Squandered potential

One late-game mission, a dollar store Bioshock riff, integrates the zombies mode into the campaign in such an egregiously stupid and out-of-place way that I was aghast. Singleplayer zombies has always been an exercise in tedium, and having this extended fan-service level replete with repetitive boss encounters and nonsensical environments in an already mediocre campaign was beyond exhausting. If you’re heavily invested in Call of Duty’s “lore,” (which back in my day we called “history”), this might be an extremely gratifying trip down memory lane, but I was begging for it to be over a quarter of the way through.

As a ’90s industrial fan and noted junglist, I was also hugely disappointed at just how much Black Ops 6 squanders both its setting and licensed soundtrack, never putting it to use in a way that feels inspired, never accenting the period-piece action or providing thematic juxtaposition. While I guess I’m relieved that my prediction that we would be setting the Kuwait Oil Fields aflame to The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” didn’t come true, I’m now kind of wishing it did. Only when the occasional touch of acid synths gave a ’90s EDM flair to the action did my raver heart flutter.

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

black ops 6

I don’t accept that the largest game franchise on the planet, especially with such a rich history of incredible singleplayer campaigns, should be so thoroughly mediocre. Call of Duty used to at least have an engaging perspective, putting you in the hot seat of the turning point battles of the near-modern world, but Black Ops 6 offers nothing in this regard.

Bullet ballets

For all my gripes about the campaign, my annoyance melts away in the face of the multiplayer, where Black Ops 6 seriously delivers. Call of Duty has never felt better in the hands, owing largely to the new omnimovement system, which lets one sprint, slide, and dive in any direction. It’s amajor reason why Black Ops 6 feels so good to play, bringing a satisfying sense of weight and momentum to a series that spent the last decade teeter-tottering between boots-on-the-ground and full-on jetpacks.

Vanquish-style knee slides chain together smoothly, and side diving into a room while mag dumping an SMG a la Max Payne just feels damn good.

I’ve also fallen head-over-heels for Kill Order, a spin on Black Ops - Cold War’s VIP mode which randomly selects high value targets on both teams and grants them armor, Last Stand, and a persistent UAV. The goal is to rack up a higher HVT killcount than the other team, and each match consistently led to some of the most engaging and dynamic firefights I’ve had in multiplayer Call of Duty—constantly trying to get the edge over a better-equipped foe who always knows where you’re coming from. New modes in Call of Duty have a habit of falling into instant obscurity as most players prefer the familiar doldrums of TDM and Domination, but this one is quite good and I don’t see myself removing Kill Order from my rotation anytime soon.

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

black ops 6

I also quickly fell in love with the Tsarkov 762, a wonky close-quarters rifle that evokes the halcyon days of Halo: Reach’s DMR. Taken altogether, though the selection and their attachments don’t really evoke the 1990s, the arsenal provided here is more characterful and fun than any Call of Duty in recent memory.

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

black ops 6

Visual slurry

One of my biggest issues with Black Ops 6 is progression, and how intertwined multiplayer and the zombies mode is. Zombies has never been my first choice for CoD, but I respect just how far Treyarch has pushed it: this is undoubtedly zombies at its peak, with massively expanded mechanics, a new bestiarium of boss monsters, and extraction mechanics that let you bail out on a run early. It’s also an ungodly garish headache—it’s the"clown show of hideous skins"we’ve come to expect from live service games, except now with no countdown. Black Ops 6 hit the ground running with gaudy promotional operators (namely the terrible “Zombie Woods” pre-order bonus) and demonically infused Nerf gun skins. Is it too much to ask that a game launch and stick to a semi-consistent visual style for maybe six weeks?

Brand slurry aside, omnimovement significantly improves the experience of playing keep away with hordes of zombies, especially considering just how much of this mode is based around walking backwards and sprinting.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

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Our Verdict#

“I was there, and it sucked.”#

Squandered potential#

Bullet ballets#

Visual slurry#

Our Verdict

“I was there, and it sucked.”

Squandered potential

Bullet ballets

Visual slurry