Call of Duty Black Ops 6: Gameplay Review for Multiplayer, Campaign and Zombies

Activision

Call of Duty needs a win coming out of last year’s universally panned Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, which earned a 56 on Metacritic.

The task falls upon this year’s Call of Duty Black Ops 6 from developers Treyarch and Raven Software and on paper, it certainly seems up to the task.

Black Ops 6 has one of the longest developmental cycles of recent COD games going for it. That allows the game to obviously explore some major upgrades to the tried-and-true experience.

But at the same time, Black Ops 6 has decided to embrace the successes of the past in interesting ways that could really benefit the overall package.

If the marriage of new and old sticks well, Black Ops 6 will easily go down as a return to form for the embattled series.

Graphics and Gameplay

Nobody needs to spend much in the way of time here—COD never has problems sitting as the best on the market with visuals, given the budget, talent involved and any number of other factors.

Black Ops 6 is simply a stunner when it comes to realistic character models, engrossing details on weapons and within environments and best-in-class lighting and shadow work. It should go without saying, but the sound design, from voice acting to ambient noise to the punchy-sounding guns, are all superb, too.

Where this entry in the series really impresses, though, is in the variety and memorability of its locales. The campaign takes players all over the place, be it the cold of Russia, the much hotter Middle East, and the U.S. itself, to name a few of the globetrotting locales. Some of those aren’t present day, either, and the locales are never not immersive.

Where Black Ops 6 really takes some risks is with retooling movement. The game calls the upgrade to the system “Omnimovement,” which, frankly, might remind one of the silly names sports games slap on annual, small upgrades to physics and such.

But the upgrade is anything but small. It’s a universal overhaul to player control, including 360-degree movement while prone. This is a huge deal, as going prone in the past in FPS games would mean essentially becoming a sitting duck with limited ability to defend oneself. Now, players can scope around as necessary and stay in the fight.

The newfound freedom really opens a lot of new doors in terms of strategic approach from a player, especially in the campaign and Zombie modes. That said, it does feel specifically tailored to controller players, considering players on mouse and keys on PC can do many of these things already.

Alas, while the game suggests this is in the name of “tactical flexibility,” that definition only goes so far. It’s easy to envision that, before long, these random dives in all directions with super accurate shots and herky-jerky movement could become annoying in multiplayer. Some say skill gap, others will say no thanks and neither party is 100 percent correct.

Beyond that major innovation, this is the same crisp gunplay that only really the Destiny series has been able to match over the last decade. Every weapon feels distinct and impactful, melee combat is good, exploring environments or going stealth is fun and new wrinkles like peeking around a corner are welcome.

Overall, when out in the thick of things, it’s the best-feeling Call of Duty to date.

Story, Multiplayer and More

A chunk of the Black Ops 6 story takes place in the 90s and loops in Frank Woods and other notables for another ride. But it’s not long before the mind-bending little things that made original Black Ops tales so popular emerge and send players all over the place and in different decades.

Along the way, missions run the gamut of expected variety in a great way, be it stealthy infiltrations or zoomed out, widescale battles. In some instances, there are multiple ways to actually approach certain missions, making it fun to go back and experiment.

The story also veers away from the standard COD gameplay expectations too, oftentimes asking players to improvise on the fly in combat situations in ways that would make Jason Bourne proud.

A new campaign safehouse lets players explore a hub, converse with characters and generally unwind between missions, even taking on things like puzzles.

Taking a break and spending some time at the hub is a nice little touch of realism. But the real star of the show are the scenarios and setpieces, even if the overall tale told isn’t that engrossing, risk-taking or offering serious commentary on something.

Over in multiplayer, the game boasts 16 new maps, 12 of which are of the 6v6 variety, while the others host smaller counts and otherwise.

Many series staple game modes return, whether it’s bigger battles, deathmatches, or the more intimate gun game and 2v2 variants. Systems like wildcards return, too.

One of the big new features is a combat specialty system, which is a fancy way of naming a general reshuffling of how player perks work. There are three combat classes, and stacking perks within the same color rewards players with what is essentially a fourth bonus perk. This is a good way to incentivize playstyles, though it will be interesting to see if say, Recon’s bonus perk granting wallhacks after respawn becomes too OP.

Most important of all, Black Ops 6 thankfully brings back the prestige system. Players can once again prestige their ranks and keep finding ways to progress in that old-school feeling fashion.

Multiplayer also sees the return of theatre mode to view replays and, of course, droves of new weapons, tactical and other gameplay elements to keep things feeling fresh.

Elsewhere on the topic of progression, the gunsmith system is much easier to use than in recent efforts. And unlocking camo skins for guns has been super simplified in a good way, too.

Zombies might just be the highlight of the entire package this time out.

This year’s game returns things to a round-based Zombies that takes the mode back to its roots and its most basic form—which is a welcome refresh.

In doing so, Zombies presents players with two new maps at launch and the mode weaves its own ongoing tale linked back to prior games along the way, with some interesting context hinted at by the squad members as they chat.

Four-player squads confront waves of the undead once again, though it’s not always as simple as hunkering down in one spot. New wrinkles ask players to keep moving, too, which is a nice way to keep them guessing.

Zombie has its own weapon customization and augments upgrade system, which players will want to lean into early and often—there are minibosses and a rather surprisingly large variety of enemy types that push players to upgrade specific builds quickly in a good way.

This also happens to be the first time players can zoom back and play Zombies from a third-person perspective. This feels like it will end up as a niche thing, but it’s not bad to have the option.

Speaking of options and accessibility, the game arrives with some unique, new-feeling settings such as a toggle to reduce the actual number of button presses needed to traverse environments.

Elsewhere on the ease-of-use front, this year’s game introduced global weapon builds, letting players save a specific loadout for use in any of the game modes.

Performance is also pretty good, though any game boasting an “always-online” component to its singleplayer campaign is a major whiff, as players attempting to experience it shouldn’t be at the mercy of the online servers’ stability. And installing the game from the COD launcher is still a controversial slog.

Conclusion

In many ways, Black Ops 6 harkens back to the golden age of Call of Duty.

Black Ops 6 features the best campaign in years. The multiplayer restores staples like the prestige system while evolving movement. And Zombies is simpler and not bogged down, managing to walk that pick-up-and-play vs. impressive depth tightrope well.

Given that, this is by far the best entry in years for the series. It’s got the power to draw back even lapsed fans for any multitude of reasons, plus impress even skeptics who don’t usually check out the series.

It is also, interestingly, proof of concept to the ideas that longer development time can be beneficial—and that some of those old-school details have stood the test of time and didn’t necessarily need upgraded upon or replaced just for the sake of doing so.

If Black Ops 6 is the new foundation for future Call of Duty games, the series might just be able to start flirting with a new golden era.