Platform(s) PlayStation 5 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox Series X ,
Xbox Series S , Xbox One , PC
Released October 25, 2024
Developer Treyarch , Raven Software
Publisher Activision
Well, it’s that time of year again the time of year where the brand-new Call of Duty comes out and we get to sit down and dive into this year’s offering and this is brand new Call of Duty comes from Treyarch makers of fan favourite’s such as world at war, Black Ops 1 and 2 and Cold War. But how does this year’s offering Black Ops 6 stand up to the great Treyarch cods that have come before.
Now we’ve noticed that a lot of reviews have been breaking up there Call of Duty reviews into sections multiplayer, zombies, campaign we’re going to do that but we’re going to do it in one package and just give an overall score instead of giving each individual aspect of the game a score.
So the first thing we’re diving into is the campaign now before we dive into the campaign I feel like it’s important for me to explain to you how I feel about Call of Duty campaigns. I’m the sort of person that looks at Call of Duty like a meal and to me Call of Duty is like a steak dinner back in the day the meal would consist of steak fries and veg the campaign would be the Steak the most appealing part of the meal and the one thing that I could not wait to see my teeth into the fries would be the multiplayer something that I would always be there and I would sink hours into and get tons of enjoyment out of and lastly the veg would be the third offering we’ve seen many different versions of this over the years but I would say zombies is probably the most famous and well regarded of the vegetables. Now we’ve seen this steak dinner evolve over time sometimes we get prime ribs sometimes we get microwaved TV dinner meat and sometimes we do not get any protein at all I’m looking at you Black Ops 4 big old plate of just fries and veg.
So That being said and I hope I don’t sound like a crazy person I would say that Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 are prime rib some of the best campaigns we’ve ever gotten from the Black Ops series and Call of Duty in general. I would say Black Ops 3 campaign feels a lot like a microwave dinner meal that you would grab off the shelf at your local supermarket Chuck in for 10 minutes and chow down you might think you enjoy it but you always wondered what if you just got prime rib and then there’s stuff like Black Ops 4 where all you got was the fries and the veg you know it filled you up it was good but you sort of felt like there was a little bit missing. So with that being said I hope a lot of you are going to be excited when I tell you that Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is a prime rib 10 out of 10 serving of Call of Duty Campaign.
OK so let’s set the scene for the story the game the game starts in 1991 and it’s the start of Operation Desert Storm you are playing CIA operatives Troy Marshall and William “case” Cauldron on mission along with CIA handler Jane Harrow they’re deployed to the Iraqi Kuwait border to extract the Iraqi minister of defence Saeed Alawi after taking down an enemy convoy they take Alawi into custody but are then forced to go off mission when Alawi claims to be targeted by a rogue paramilitary force called Pantheon after surviving an encounter with the pantheon forces the team prepares to extract Alawi but he is executed by Russell Adler a rogue agent who fled from the CIA after he was framed as a mole for the Nicaraguan drug Lord Raul Menendez.
Having completed his personal mission Adler allows himself to be captured telling Marshall to relay a message to fellow operative and fan favourite Frank Woods “Bishop takes Rook”. Afterwards CIA deputy chief Daniel Livingston reprimands the team for Alawi’s death ignores their warnings about Pantheon and suspends Woods, Marshall and Case from active duty while putting Harrow on very thin ice. From there our Black Ops team decides the only thing they can do to uncover the mystery of pantheon and find out the true enemy growing from within is to cut all ties put together a team and go rogue.
This campaign actually does quite a lot right from varied mission structure to a hub house called the Rook that allows you to upgrade your player a character with various perks and abilities as well as weapons before heading out into these missions. The game is doing its best to set itself apart from previous campaigns while also trying to improve upon promises we were given in previous campaigns that were never fully realized.
For example if you’ve watched my review for the campaign of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 you know one of the great disappointments I found in the campaign was its open combat missions. There was a lot of build-up and hype before the Games release that open combat missions were going to give you the opportunity to decide what you wanted to do and in what order in a big open sprawling map. Unfortunately when the campaign dropped it turned into nothing more than a small section from a warzone map which basically had everything laid out for you in such a way that you had to do it in a specific order anyway.
Whereas here in Black Ops 6 the mission hunting season you aid the SAS in the sprawling deserts of Iraq feels like it takes that idea of open combat missions and dials up what we got in Modern Warfare 3 to 11. Hunting season is the proof of the ambition of Treyarch and its game design when it comes to creating this campaign this features probably the largest campaign map I’ve ever seen and could arguably be the size of one of the small rebirth maps from warzone. The map is large but it’s clearly not empty you team up with Adler park and Marshall and you as the player must roam the desert and aid the SAS in their mission of clearing it before they will help you infiltrate Saddam Hussein’s bunker.
There’s a lot to do in this mission whether it be saving a team of soldiers from enemy fire infiltrating Iraqi bases or taking out ground to air missiles every little thing you do will help you in the coming fight against the enemy forces nothing here is a waste of time everything feels important nothing he feels like you’re ticking things off a checklist you feel like you’re preparing yourself for the coming fight and you’ll be happy you did taking down the same sites leads to you getting an air strike that you can use anywhere on the map at any point and in the next mission a reward for all of your hard work hunting season truly is a mission that does a great job of testing and laying the foundation for what the future of Call of Duty campaigns can be and why it’s probably one of my personal favourites.
But it’s not the only one for missions like blood feud that can be completed entirely in stealth making it feel very much like a classic hitman mission where the only bullet you can fire in the entire mission is to kill the one target or take it upon yourself to take out every single person before taking out your prey it’s entirely up to your choice.
Choice is a big thing in this Call of Duty campaign most wanted is a great example of that most wanted brings players to Washington DC where they’ll need to infiltrate a fundraiser event for Bill Clinton further reinforcing that Black Ops has entwined his narrative with American politics. Bill Clinton doesn’t really play much of a part in the mission he is there in all of his 3D modelled glory and you can stare at him for as long as you want.
This is another mission that really does showcase choice for the player your tasks with getting a retinal scan from one of the fundraisers attendees a congressman you’re given three options on how to do it. I’ve played through this mission twice the first time I took the route of interacting with the congressman’s wife blackmail breaking into cars dodging CIA operatives the ultimate espionage mission when I replayed it the second time it led to me fighting of the congressman and his thugs myself in the back of a fast food restaurant this game does a great job of making you feel like a Black Ops operative.
There are some other really cool missions that I’m not going to go into for obvious reasons being story spoilers and there are some here that I feel really just need to be experienced first hand to enjoy them to their fullest but in my opinion I think it’s safe to say that this is probably the best Call of Duty campaign we’ve had in the last 10 years and if you’re normally somebody that skips the campaigns and jumps straight into multiplayer I beg you please give this campaign a try even if you don’t enjoy it I feel like you’d lose nothing giving it a go and who knows it might do for you what it did for me and remind me of some of the best times I had playing some of call of duty’s classic campaigns.
OK now it’s time to talk about what a lot of people are super excited for the return of and that is Treyarch zombies at the time of recording this review myself and my team have completed the terminus Easter egg and we are yet to attempt the Liberty Falls Easter egg but we feel the hours we put into completing the terminus Easter egg is more than enough to talk about this game and how freaking awesome it is. This truly is a return to form for zombies bringing back some of the classic look and feel while also keeping some of the new and fresh ideas found in Cold War and thankfully ditching a lot that we saw in Modern Warfare 3
One thing that’s been ditched is the massive large warzone type map that’s right we’re back to tight corridors locked doors and the feeling of claustrophobia as you and your friends try to fight off hordes and hordes of zombies. The first we’re going to talk about is definitely the map that I’ve spent the most time on and that’s terminus this map takes place in an undisclosed black site on terminus island located in the Philippine Sea where the former operatives of requiem are being held captive after Maya Aguinaldo and William Peck break Gregory Weaver Mackenzie Carver Elizabeth Gray Oscar Strauss and Stoney Maddox out of their cells after the breakout an incursion occurs at the black site leading team requiem to pick up a weapon and get to work.
Round based zombies is back ladies and gentlemen. Throughout several Call of Duty games at this point, Zombies has had several different gameplay formats: In the original format, known most commonly as “Round-Based Zombies”, up to four players, must survive endless waves of the attacking undead, earning points from killing or damaging zombies and repairing barriers. Now there are no barriers to repair this time round but there are other ways of earning currency so Let’s talk to currencies of the game just like the zombie’s maps of old they often involve inaccessible blocked areas which you will need to pass through by unlocking doors or removing the obstacles how do we do this well that’s where Essence come in.
In Black Ops 6 zombies essence takes the form of points you rapidly acquire by slaying zombies they can also occasionally appear as vials of dark ether essence that are sometimes dropped from tougher enemies you can use essence in the following ways you can use them to access objective relevant devices for example in terminus they’re used to turn on the power to further your progress you can use them to unlock doors, summon a tactical raft for aquatic expeditions, use it to purchase perk-a-colas from perk machines, use the pack a punch, wall buys and many other different ways so with so much to spend your essence on it’s going to take time skill and understanding of what is the best way to spend your points.
That’s not your only currency there’s another form of currency called salvage these are small piles of junk with a little green outline found randomly from fallen enemies on the map inequality of life improvement players now only need to manage one type of salvage as opposed to collecting both normal and high grade types of salvage in Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War salvage drops in our players specific as well so you won’t have to worry about your teammates picking up your hard earned salvage before you can you can use salvage in a wide variety of ways as well from upgrading your weapon rarity to building specific tactical and lethal gear to crafting table all of this and understanding it will be super important on your way to becoming a Black Ops zombies master
GobbleGums are also back for the first time since Black Ops 3 now with the ability to store up to three unique gobble gums when you need them most and they’re only consumed when activated the GobbleGums you can choose are now based up to a collection you have in your inventory one of the ways to continuously keep GobbleGum collections filled is by earning them in game.
We also have the return of one of the most arguably important machines on a round based zombies map the packet punch it’s used to upgrade your weapons into more powerful variants using the essence gained from sending zombies back to the grave one of the best changes coming to the Packer punch is now you will be able to automatically upgrade with a single button press no more menu to slow you down nothing to keep you away from the action your primary and melee weapons can also be upgraded up to three times at the packet punch per scene as well as any wonder weapon that you may have on hand. Speaking of wonder weapons are back baby incredibly rare and exponentially powerful occasionally you may uncover highly secretive plans to construct these awesome prototype armaments the only one I’ve been able to play with at the time of recording is the Beamsmasher
the Beamsmasher is an assault rifle looking powerhouse that has 2 firing modes a primary mode that fires a solid beam of etheric energy causing organic matter to breakdown at the molecular level this occurs almost instantly and enemies appear to explode in a cloud of vaporized innards it’s a very cool sight the secondary fire mode focuses sound waves causing the molecules of multiple enemies targeted to vibrate in an alarmingly fast rate targets are racked with pulsing head trauma and incapacitates by slowing the target rather than damaging them a way to slow the hordes down So you can use the primary firing mode to melt them into nothing.
The other map on offer is liberty falls a small town in West Virginia that’s caught in the grip of an outbreak I won’t go into depth on liberty falls as I feel like I haven’t given enough time to it but to me it offers up very much the same sort of feel as terminus just with a very different look and maybe just a little bit more open space than the other map. I’ll wrap up the zombies talk here but I feel like I could go on and on about it forever honestly it’s a really good return to form for zombies and Treyarch should be really happy with what they’ve been able to accomplish here bringing back a lot of the old zombie tropes that we love but also managing to keep some of the new mechanics and make them feel right at home with the old formula. I think whether you’re a new or old zombies fan there’s something here for you they’ve done a really great job.
Now we come to it at last multiplayer probably the one thing that people look forward to most from every year’s Call of Duty as it is the thing that a lot of people are going to be playing for the next year well I’m happy to report it’s pretty good. Call of Duty basically keeps the same formula going forward we get some new weapons new maps and a new year worth of battle passes to complete but Black Ops 6 does bring something quite new and innovative to the table and it’s called Omnimovement. Now Omnimovement doesn’t just change up the face of how you play Call of Duty multiplayer it changes up how you play Call of Duty across the board warzone, zombies, campaign Omnimovement has affected how Call of Duty plays across everything now you’re probably wondering why I’ve neglected to bring it until now and I think that’s because Omnimovement really changes up multiplayer the most in my opinion but first let’s talk about what Omnimovement is.
Omnimovement is a new gameplay mechanic introduced in Black Ops 6 it features more versatile movement for the player allowing players to seamlessly change combat manoeuvres in any direction this includes sprinting, diving, sliding you can do them in any direction and at any speed whenever you want you can also use Omnimovement while under the water for example to allow yourself to dive out of the water onto the land it really shakes up the stale formula that Call of Duty has gotten into in these past few years and adds a new layer on top of what is already a very skill intensive game Omnimovement sort of feels like it levels the playing field and brings the skill gap down to a level where everybody is getting in for the first time making Call of Duty more fun again for first timers and people returning but it will also lend itself to more interesting and imaginative map design.
But unfortunately so far with the maps that we do have in the game I don’t think all of them are really there with this brand new way of moving there and some of them that do incorporate them are just to the core not great feeling maps for example red card does introduce a form of verticality being able to run up to higher balconies a staircase in the middle of the map bleaches but the map just doesn’t feel good to play on the map just doesn’t feel fun every time I play on red card it feels like an absolute drag. Whereas in a Map like derelict which is set in like an abandoned train yard full of rusted out trains and a small control room building is small enough and has enough verticality in it where it feels fast-paced fun and not a chore to get around or get into fights you never feel far away from the action and you always feel like you’re in the middle of it really allowing you to use Omnimovement to its fullest.
I do think there are more better maps than bad here and the early reinclusion of Nuketown is always a plus for camo grinders and people just love that fast-paced gameplay alike but I am hoping in the seasons to come that Treyarch take a look at the new movement system they’ve introduced and try to build more maps around the movement I know Call of Duty is looked at as a competitive game and that is a lot of where the design of the maps come from but at the end of the day the thing that will keep the majority of people coming back is fun well so I think that just need to remember that when designing the maps in the future.
Black Ops six also sees the return of some fan favourite modes like team Deathmatch, Domination, Search and Destroy, Hardpoint it even sees the return of of a mode I wish would go away and never come back kill confirmed if you’re a kill confirmed fan that’s fine I’m not calling you out I’m just saying every time I see kill confirmed I will pick the other option every single time I just can’t stand it anymore we also see the introduction of two new modes in kill order and ransack.
Now kill order is basically if you’ve ever played VIP in Halo you should totally understand what this mode is it’s a 6V6 mode where a player on each team is designated the HVT the high value target they get armor they get a mocker above their head and it’s time for them to run killing the enemy HVT offers bonus points for your team and each time an HVT is killed a new player will take up the mantle the first team to reach 125 points will win the game we also have ransack.
Ransack is also a 6V6 mode where you loot gold boss from crates all around the mat after bringing them back to your stash you’ll have to employ some proper teamwork in order to win here reaching into the score limit or the time limit will secure you your victory in this game mode.
We also have the return of my personal favourite mode that’s been introducing Call of Duty in a long time gunfight the two V2 mode both teams same loadout going in best team wins no questions asked no complaining best of five winner takes all please Call of Duty please ranked gunfight needs to be a thing or at least bring back gunfight tournaments they were some of the most fun back in the day. There’s also some great modes to look forward to in season 1 with the return of ranked and long-awaited return of fan favourite mode prop hunt this next year of Call of Duty is looking to be a real fun packed ride.
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is truly the full package from a new movement system to a exciting innovative campaign, classic zombies’ mayhem and a multiplayer that feels like it has delivered where the last few could not Call of Duty feels like it may be on a U turn to greatness once again. Black Ops 6 has shown that the next year of Call of Duty could be one of the best yet But only if they keep their current trajectory But as of right now Black Ops 6 is not a game to be missed and I cannot recommend it enough if you’re sitting on the fence with this one I wouldn’t and even if you’re not sure after everything I’ve said there’s always game pass available for you to give it a go and I think you should that’s why on the 1-Up scale
I’m giving Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and 8 out of 10
1-Up Games 
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