Everything You Need to Know About the Black Ops Universe

Black Ops 6 is expected to be the savior for the Call of Duty video game series after Modern Warfare 3, which was more or less a disaster. The Black Ops subseries is associated with dark, gritty operators and the entire timeline spans seven titles.

However, if you are looking forward to playing Black Ops 6, especially the campaign, you need to be up to speed with all that’s happened. So, here is everything one would be expected to know before booting up the Black Ops 6 campaign.

Throwing It Way Back: Call of Duty World at War

The tale began in 1942 when World War 2 was in full flow. In Call of Duty World At War, there is a section where you play as Private Dimitri Petrenko of the USSR Armed Forces. Here you also rendezvous with Sergeant Viktor Reznov, a name you should remember for future reference.

You ask your CO, General Dragovich, for support after being cornered by German forces in Stalingrad but to no avail. Unsupervised, Reznov takes the lead and somehow manages to escape Stalingrad. Afterward, he and his men took Berlin from the Axis forces and ended the war in Europe.

Even after the war, Reznov and his men were under the command of Dragovich and his yes-man, Kravchenko. As expected, tension starts bubbling between Reznov and Dragovich’s sides. In 1945, Dragovich is ordered to capture Friedrich Steiner, a German Scientist behind Project Nova.

Reznov accompanies Dragovich and Kravchecnko. However, to witness Nova’s capabilities, Dragovich tested the Nova gas on his men. Here, we see Pvt. Petrenko succumbs to the chemical weapon.

British commandos spare Reznove after an assault. Amid this Reznov destroys the ship containing the Nova gass. Seeing this as an act of defiance, he is detained by the military for disobeying a direct order.

The Tale of a Determined Few: Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops began in 1961, roughly 15 years after Call of Duty World at War. At the beginning, you play Alex Mason, a CIA operative. The beginning shows Mason being interrogated in the present day.

There is a flashback to Operation 40 in Cuba he is joined by Sergeant Frank Woods and Joseph Bowman, an off-the-books mission in which you are supposed to assassinate Fidel Castro. The team accomplishes this but things go south during exfil and Mason is captured.

As Mason regains consciousness, it is revealed that Castro survived, and the latter gifts the former as a POW to Dragovich. After that, Mason spends a year in the Russian Gulag, Vorkuta, and meets Reznov.

Mason is subjected to psychological experiments like relaying numbers to brainwash him. Mason and Reznov escape the prison but are separated. Mason reaches the US and meets John F. Kennedy who orders his team to assassinate Dragovich.

Mason’s mind compels him to assassinate Kennedy as a result of the psychological experiments and brainwashing but he somehow resists. Now, in a mission to kill Dragovich, Mason and the team destroy a Soviet rocket, and Dragovich is assumed KIA.

Later JFK is assassinated and Mason appears in the crowd as the shooting occurred. In 1968, during the Vietnam War, Mason and his CIA Handler Jason Hudson were sent to a US Marine base to source some intel from a defector.

It is revealed that the defector is Viktor Reznov. Reznov reveals that Dragovich survived, too and he has been planning an attack on the West. Mason, Bowman, and Woods find more evidence in a Viet-Kong checkpost only to be captured by Dragovich where Bowman is killed.

Hudson and Weaver search for more intel in a Russian base. Back in Vietnam, Mason and Woods escape, go to Krevchenko’s base, and rescue some POWs including Reznov. Krevchenko is about to kill Mason only to be stabbed from the back by Woods.

Krev unleashes a Kamikaze attack pulling a pin from one of the grenades in his and Woods grabs him and jumps through a window. With both Woods and Krevchenko presumed dead and Dragovich MIA, Mason and Reznov are alone in Vietnam. They head to a Soviet Base where Steiner is assumed to be hiding.

Hudson and Weaver move to intercept them and take Steiner alive after gaining intel from the Russian base. When Hudson reaches Steiner, he doesn’t see Reznov but Mason who is acting like Reznov due to being brainwashed.

Then we jump back to the present where Mason is being interrogated, the interrogators turn out to be Hudson and Weaver. In reality, Reznov died in Vorkuta and Mason was only imagining him due to Dragovich’s psychological experiments.

Kennedy was Dragovich’s target but Reznov overturned Mason’s psyche to put Dragovich, Steiner, and Kravchenko on Mason’s Radar. Just like Mason, there are more sleeper agents in the country. And very soon they will all be triggered by broadcasting numbers.

After breaking Mason’s programming, he acts a central piece in the puzzle as he now remembers the broadcast facility in Cuba. Mason leads them to the facility. Mason then confronts Dragovich, strangles and drowns him to death. This marks the end of Black Ops.

The Adler Story: Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War

In future games, it was revealed that both Woods and Krevchenko survived the Vietnam incident. Woods then became a POW for a while only to rejoin the CIA in 1968. Then in 1978, the CIA launched Operation Charybdis and labeled Mason, Hudson, and Weaver as threats to national security.

In 1981, during the events of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, we are introduced to Russel Adler, one of the key characters in Black Ops 6‘s campaign. We then go on a mission with Woods, Adler, and Mason to kill a man named Arash Kadir.

The mission goes south and the operators come to know about Perseus, a faceless entity pulling the strings in the shadows since the end of World War 2. He is suspected to be planning to attack the West.

POTUS then greenlights a mission to take down Perseus. A team is assembled including an unnamed protagonist and it is discovered that Perseus has hijacked Operation Greenlight by the US.

As per the operation, the USA placed bombs in major European Countries. This was a fallback option if the Soviets were to ever take control.

They go after Perseus in Cuba, only for him to escape and steal the detonation codes for every Operation Greenlight Bomb. This will allow him to execute a false flag operation by detonating the bombs and then blaming the US.

In a Hail Mary pass, Adler drugs the unnamed protagonist and the player discovers that Adler brainwashed the protagonist and that the latter initially worked for Arash. Here the player can either stay true to Adler or lie to him.

Lying leads to the demise of everyone in Adler’s team and since Adler is alive in Black Ops 6, it is clear that telling the truth is the canon choice. Then, through Adler, the team heads to Perseus’ headquarters and destroys the transmitters that would have relayed the detonation signal.

Perseus escapes and goes into hiding. Adler swears to continue hunting him, takes the protagonist for a walk, and reveals that the protagonist must be eliminated as he is a loose end. With the protagonist assumed KIA, a post-launch cinematic reveals that a new Perseus cell has popped up.

‘Stitch’, a Perseus operative, is on the hunt for Adler because he was tortured by the latter. After luring Adler to a mall in New Jersey, he captures and starts running experiments on his mind. Meanwhile, other Perseus agents wreak havoc, hijack orbital satellites, and deliberately make them crash to cause chaos.

Woods is called up to rescue Adler who is being held in Verdansk. Post his rescue, Adler is sent to investigate a crashed satellite in Nigeria where it is confirmed that he is under the influence of Stitch’s programming.

Hudson grows suspicious over Adler’s behavior he interrogates Adler along with Mason to remove the brainwashing. As Stitch tries to wake up the sleeper agents, he discovers that Adler has planted explosives throughout the city and before he can react the entire city is turned to rubble.

Adler then confronts Stitch and asks about Perseus and Stich reveals that the original Perseus died in 1983 and says that he wasn’t the first Perseus. After that, we go to the events of Call of Duty Black Ops 2.

The Final Stand Leading to Call of Duty Black Ops 6

Woods is sent to investigate a weapons smuggling ring in South Africa where he is captured and tortured by Raul Menendez. Alex Mason is busy raising his son, David Mason, in Alaska after the former’s wife dies of unknown causes. Hudson comes to him and tells him that Woods has been captured.

Hudson and Mason rescue Woods in Angola. During the mission, Mason comes across Raul Menendez but is unable to kill him as the latter overpowers him.

After a few months, Woods wants revenge on Menendez and he goes to Afghanistan with Mason. The two stumble into Krevchenko and capture him for interrogation. The numbers come back and either Mason kills Krevchenko as he is unable to resist the numbers or Woods kills Krevchenko after he realizes that there is a mole in the CIA.

The CIA goes after Menendez in his home in Nicaragua so Woods, Hudson, and Mason head there. During the operation, Woods becomes enraged at Menendez and attempts to kill him with a grenade.

The blast instead kills Josefina, Menendez’s sister. They are declared dead by the CIA but Woods and Mason are not convinced. Fast forward to 1989, during America’s invasion of Panama, Mason and Woods are deployed to track down an unknown VIP.

Mason and Woods are separated and Hudson comes over comms and tells Woods that they have captured the VIP and reveals him to be Menendez. Woods doesn’t give visual confirmation as the VIP’s face is covered and Hudson tells him to take the shot.

Woods takes a shot at the VIP through a Sniper, but to his surprise, the VIP is Mason, not Menendez. As a result, Mason is either dead or badly wounded and Menendez then comes out in front of Woods and captures him, Hudson, and David Mason.

Menendez asks Hudson if the he should kill the latter or Woods. Hudson sacrifices himself. This is where Black Ops 6 will continue from. Call of Duty Black Ops 6 takes place in 1991 and it will have Woods looking for a mole in the CIA. Adler is the suspected mole and this is all that we know about the upcoming game.

Now you are fully equipped to take the story of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 head-on and enjoy it to the fullest. What are you expecting from the Treyarch game, as there is no competition for the video game series? We would love to know your thoughts in the comments below!