Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review

call of Duty It’s stuck in the strange position of achieving industry-shaking success year after year, yet failing to fully please its core player base time and time again. This year, Treyarch and Raven appear to have come as close as possible to recapturing the “lost magic” of the PS3/360 era, while also improving upon the Unbroken Law across Black Ops 6’s three modes in meaningful ways.

After suffering an identity crisis with the eighth generation of consoles, 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot seemed like CoD’s ticket to a new golden age. Looking at the sales numbers and post-Warzone madness led by endless seasons and ridiculously overpriced skin packs, certainly COD has never been bigger. But what about its lasting cultural impact beyond the Twitch crowd?

Overall, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (actually the fourth installment in its messy, semi-reboot timeline) feels like both Treyarch and Raven are taking a good, objective look at what they’ve done since Call of Duty: Black Ops What has been done to the core formula and loop since Operation 6. In 2019, we stripped it back to its modern foundations and added a few things on top, without losing a clear look at what makes CoD so big and engaging. This installment is a brilliant exercise in “less is more” that somehow manages to wow at every turn through clever experimentation, especially its memorable campaign, without being bloated with trend-chasing and unnecessarily complex grinding that dilutes the core experience.

The story/background takes us back to 1991, where Frank Woods is somehow still active after nearly having his legs blown off in Panama (yes, the 1980s events in Black Ops 2 are classic), And Russell Adler continues to have great hair while being too unpredictable and committed to causes that are bigger even for the CIA. There are two or three cameos from 2020’s Cold War, but for the most part, the first clear strength of Black Ops 6’s story is the substantial update of its main cast of rogue agents. They’re a shady yet youthful bunch who are fleshed out almost effortlessly over the course of a lively campaign, with plenty of well-placed character beats, unique personalities and storylines, and a much-needed break between missions in a rural safehouse At that time, the safe house housed many people. Secrets for the curious.

With Black Ops: Cold War, Raven Software has considered relaxing the tried-and-true “mega-blockbuster” formula a bit, offering some open-ended missions and even secondary missions and a surprising number of missions. decision making. In Black Ops 6, the RPG elements present in the previous game are dialed back a bit, but on the other hand, everything else feels bolder.

Over the course of the eight-hour campaign, few missions feel alike, and the overall design veers from an immersive simulation sandbox with guardrails, to a more linear spectacle, to a genre-bending romp that feels like a beta test of a potential spin-off game. . All in all, this feels more like a really good ’90s spy movie than a military story campaign, and I bet people who haven’t been following CoD lately will respond well to this approach.

There’s reason to expect big things from Bo6’s campaign after the developers took the extra time to make it really good, but this could very well be one of the biggest single-player surprises of the year, despite some Die-hard fans may find some of this a little quirky, but I’m more than happy to be blown away by a Call of Duty campaign again so late in the multi-billion dollar series’ lifespan. In fact, I have no doubt we’ll be returning to two or three missions in this pack for future reference, as they easily set a new standard for what these over-the-top interactive blockbusters can do. Needless to say, Jack Wall’s (as always) stellar scoring also helped.

Of course, you wouldn’t grab the latest Call of Duty for in-depth political commentary or to do justice to countries other than the US or UK. The surprising part of aliens being reduced to cannon fodder is still a thing, especially when they’re being followed by mindless zombie hordes (yes, really), but you know it now.

Even though Modern Warfare 2019 isn’t perfect, it strives to be just that something Viewed from a different perspective, even the bad guys are ridiculously cartoonish and American politics permeates everything. Five years later, the series has never tried anything like it again, and BO6’s most pointed comments are directed at the CIA, as this flawed, faceless behemoth kinda sucks, but it’s “necessary” and not Really point the finger at anyone tangible. Then again, bad apples don’t spoil the barrel, because otherwise they would make this triple-A behemoth unpublishable.

Zombies mode also returns and returns to the classic turn-based mode, making it once again the highlight of the pack. After trying a few twists and turns over the past few years, Treyarch is just focusing on making “good zombies” this time around, but all the tech and action improvements are also part of the deal here, making escaping from hungry hordes even more frantic yet enjoyable. Yes, you can “Max Payne” your way out of a potentially fatal situation, or if you miscalculate, you can foolishly throw yourself into a Chewer’s Cage.

While the new “omni-movement” system is tailor-made for the core multiplayer experience, I’d say Zombies benefits greatly from it. As someone who’s never been a huge fan of the mode, my only complaint in this regard is that having two (admittedly large) levels at launch isn’t enough, but this should be addressed sooner rather than later via the usual seasonal drops, Rather than solving it later.

Perhaps what kept me in this mode longer was that it finally felt less “aimless” thanks to easy-to-follow mission objectives and a better-defined map layout. Of course, secrets and Easter eggs still abound, and all the systems and mechanics (perks, weapon upgrades, hunks…) are designed to replay missions over and over again, but they have a clearer structure that many players will Appreciative.

Last but not least, the central multiplayer experience has all the basic modes you’d expect at launch (minus the gunplay, perhaps), and Treyarch is clearly saving some great content for later. In fact, this week we’re working on Infection and this year’s Nuclear Town map. Of course, the playlist selection is pretty sparse now, but that’s how it was in the first few weeks. Personally, I dig the “purity” of Call of Duty’s first few weeks, before seasons start to roll in and the zany collaborations gradually make Fortnite a game for adults.

Regardless, Black Ops 6’s multiplayer is an absolute blast and the tightest and most polished the series has seen in over a decade. While Cold War has the right idea, its underlying technology is more rusty than Modern Warfare’s 2019 update, undercutting its potential. This time around, Treyarch’s work is both modern and traditional in the places that matter. The gunplay is nice and crunchy, the sound has been vastly improved, and movement in all directions is a joy, as opposed to complex controls. Of course, experimenters will make the most of it, but even players who choose a more straightforward play style will benefit from how the body now moves and reacts to every window, wall, and obstacle.

In fact, another notable improvement comes from rolling back pointless changes to the progression and perk systems. MW3’s armory was one of the most vexing aspects of last year’s troubled entry; an extra layer of grinding would just make acquiring weapons, parts, items, and kills/scores unnecessarily slow and exhausting. Likewise, Foley once again falls into “what the hell are we doing here” territory, with little pointless divisions and class archetypes that feel uncomfortable when CoD’s founding class system has always firmly encouraged flexibility in everything. In Black Ops 6, you can earn items simply by playing the game and leveling up, just like in the old games. That’s it. When it comes to perks, they work as before, with additional perks if you choose to specialize in a certain type of loadout build. Rather than being restrictive, it all feels valuable. What’s more, much less time is spent navigating menus and submenus.

This no-nonsense approach also applies to camos, masteries, and reputation. A quick glance at these will give you all the information you need about the jobs and rewards. There’s a lot to work with, but it’s not troublesome to navigate and understand. It’s a multiplayer experience that you just pick up and play, with clear objectives and a range of mode choices, forgoing massive experimentation that never quite comes together. Because of the style of the sub-series itself, I fully expect a hypothetical Modern Warfare 4 to try again, and that’s okay, but Black Ops 6 is doing it “leaner, leaner,” and better.

Unsurprisingly, there has been heated debate over the game’s map choices at launch and whether the maps were too big or too scary. This specific discussion is part of a cycle that happens every year. Sure, some CoD games have better maps than others, but the game hasn’t even been out for a week yet, so it’s hard to tell how players will adapt to each battlefield’s layout and camping/movement possibilities. Personally, I think the Shipment 24/7 playlist has rotten a lot of brains and dug the variety on display this time around. None of these maps turned me off, which is more than I can say about other recent launch day options (MW3 2023 cheated most of the time with remastered OG MW2 maps).

No matter which current platform you’re on, the extra time in the oven also translates into a strong show of technology, with the PS5 adding extra DualSense haptics and fancy triggers and system-level 3D audio to complement Treyarch’s effects. Recommended mix by default. Both Raven and Treyarch have made good use of the latest IW 9.0 engine; BO6 not only looks gorgeous (even when switched to 120Hz mode on consoles), but the overall feel is much smoother than its predecessor. Say what you want from Call of Duty, it’s a game series that’s always made the most of console hardware and performed well… as long as you ditched the previous generation as soon as possible. Special thanks here to the level designers and artists who provided many highly detailed and intricate locations in the story campaign that go far beyond just gorgeous sets.

All in all, Black Ops 6 is more than just a strong new entry in a massive series that feels like going to Burger King and getting what you ordered. This is the most confident Call of Duty in years, with both Raven and Treyarch taking some well-calculated chances at what they can afford and cutting the burden on the core “Twitch FPS” experience for legacy customers year after year. . The immediate result is that the entire package is very easy to recommend to anyone interested in military-themed competitive shooters. Respawn issues and glitches are an issue, but there’s a rock-solid variety of FPS thrills on offer here, and it’s well-executed throughout. As the kids say: We’re back.

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“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” launched October 25 Available for Xbox One and Series X/S, PS4/5 and PC. This review was written based on PS5 code provided by the publisher.