“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” is the 24th game in the “Call of Duty” franchise, which is a ridiculous statement in and of itself. I’ve been playing these games since 2010 — I distinctly remember getting mauled by zombies on the “Nacht Der Untoten” map for the first time on Christmas morning. I’ve been a regular customer ever since. Flash forward to today, and “Call of Duty: Blacks Ops 6” sets itself up as a criminally fun return to form.
The greatest innovation featured in “Black Ops 6” is its omni-movement system, which allows players to slide and dive in any direction. This revitalized gameplay loop in “Call of Duty” campaigns since players are no longer restricted to anterior movements. The omni-movement system contributes to a more dynamic gameplay, putting players on the caliber of the action heroes that “Call of Duty” always apes in its story modes.
For the diehard Zombies fans, the mode is back in a major way. The mode includes more GobbleGums, removes Perk-a-Cola limits and adds maps with more verticality than ever before, amounting to a great time. If you’re looking for a traditional “Call of Duty” experience, the game’s armor and weapon upgrade system might send you into shock, but I’ve never minded it. It gives you more ways to improve your arsenal and survive the higher rounds, which at the very least keeps things fresher than the original Zombie modes while allowing for steeper difficulty spikes.
Only a few weeks after its release, the “Black Ops 6” multiplayer meta already exploded. It’s been more than a day, so obviously the focus has shifted from fun to professional advantage as more players seek to grind new gun camos and badges to show off. The right guns, perks and equipment were scouted and chosen by the court of streamers and public opinion. The gold, diamond and dark matter camos have all been earned by the sweats and try-hards, so expect to deal with blinged-out guns diving and spinning in circles all over the place like Emperor Palpatine.
But the monumental success of the multiplayer and Zombies modes only makes the lackluster campaign seem even more disappointing. The plot revolves around uncovering the activities of a rogue element of the CIA known as Pantheon, while you also go rogue from the CIA as agent Case to investigate and put a stop to Pantheon’s plans to subvert the U.S. government.
All the best elements of a “Black Ops” campaign are here: Scenic battles in tactically important locations, first-person quick time events throughout, some characters undergoing some form of brainwashing, historically famous political figures and so on. However, the politically important faces of the early ’90s — like Saddam Hussein, Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush Sr. and even Bill Clinton — wind up doing nothing in the story, despite their appearances in the game’s advertisements. Only first and last names are directly included in the campaign, one of them in the form of a palace you need to capture during Operation Desert Storm, and the other as a serviceably rendered 3D model of Clinton on a stage while you’re on a mission to collect blackmail material from an irrelevant politician.
The cast is interesting enough to interact with between missions, but their real value is screaming instructions at you during combat. Story-oriented “Call of Duty” players won’t find many interesting character moments outside of a mysterious backstory for Case which involves mental manipulation. This is common in the franchise and does amount to an awesome final sequence reminiscent of the original “Black Ops,” but it doesn’t make up for a flashy, fun but ultimately shallow story — a far cry from earlier “Black Ops” games.
While the “Modern Warfare” installments used modern geopolitical settings to expand on its plots, “Black Ops” campaigns are firmly rooted in history. So, where are the cutscenes featuring Fidel Castro selling you to Soviet military official Nikita Dragovich after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion? For a game about the CIA immediately following the Cold War, it would’ve been interesting to question the actual history of destabilizing much of the world in the promotion of American global supremacy, but the focus wasn’t on making a poignant statement about, well, anything.
Despite all of this, any shortcomings created by the weakness of the story or the gaps in design are made up for in sheer gameplay value. A stronger narrative and character arcs would’ve provided more satisfying context to the action, but fighting those battles is no less enjoyable.
In some ways, “Black Ops 6” is the most fantastical of the “Call of Duty” games. Its campaign features hallucinatory zombie battles and boss fights, grappling hook usage, mindscape-based missions a la “Black Ops III” and more. So while the story elements may be more detached from reality and suffer as a result, the fantastical approach was very entertaining from a gameplay perspective. “Black Ops 6” pulls from a lot of the influences in its DNA and takes them to the next level, which is a great decision for a franchise that’s dominated the public’s attention span for nearly 15 years. While the usual semi-professional rot is here to annoy you on a late Saturday game night, the game itself is absolutely fun enough to make the sweaty palms worth it.
Contact Noah Zaldivar at [email protected].
