Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review: a much-needed rank up

After Modern Warfare III‘s poor showing last November, I was feeling convinced that Call of Duty had finally hit rock-bottom with no hope of digging its way out.

And yet, here we are a year later with the fairly solid Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 proving me wrong. This newest entry in the long-running series serves up a campaign that taps into the spectacle and intrigue that once defined the franchise, as well as a multiplayer experience that — while still a deeply flawed affair — takes a few steps forward to make it worth spending some time with. 

We’re so back

I can’t say Black Ops 6 is the best Call of Duty campaign of all time — that’s an honor I feel either World War II or Vanguard is most deserving of — but it’s a fun and varied ride from start to finish. That’s not just because it hits similar high notes as some of the series’ best missions. No, its real strength is that it understands pacing better than any Call of Duty entry in the past decade.

There’s no shortage of bombastic shootouts in the game’s surprisingly lengthy campaign, with missions that frequently send you into well-designed shooting galleries with all the explosive fun you’d expect from Call of Duty. But for all its thrilling gunfights, Black Ops 6 is really a spy thriller at heart, and it loves to keep you on your toes by occasionally unleashing tense espionage sequences that reward player agency. It’s these calmer moments between the explosions and flying bullets that help sell this outing as something far more unique and captivating than what we’ve become used to in recent releases.

One standout mission sent me undercover as a photojournalist to a political gala (featuring Bill Clinton) to rescue one of the game’s main characters. Here, I spent time mingling with attendees and delicately keeping up my disguise as I chose between three different paths for manipulating my way into a photoshoot with a corrupt senator. I opted to eavesdrop on some would-be blackmailers and then steal sex tapes out from under them, which eventually led to the senator’s emotionally distant wife talking her scummy husband into letting me snap a quick shot. While neither of the other two paths would’ve changed the narrative in any way beyond that mission, it’s a great example of how even a taste of flexibility can make you feel like you’re playing a meaningful part in the story.

Later missions toy with player freedom again in a more action-oriented way. One dropped me into an open world wherein I aided British forces by destroying some objectives around the Iraq desert. Optional objectives littered the tac-map, and how many of them I engaged with was entirely up to me. I felt compelled to see it all, and I was rewarded with useful score streaks, such as airstrikes and helicopters, that I could use in my large-scale raid on a palace in the following mission. Choosing not to grab these extra tools wouldn’t have made the raid impossible, but having them against the soldiers defending the palace made me glad I checked off all those icons.

As exciting as it is that Black Ops 6 constantly changes things up in structure, your mileage may vary when it comes to its comparatively bland story. I’ve never been attached to Black Ops’ recurring characters Woods and Adler, and Black Ops 6‘s by-the-books tale didn’t change much in that regard. The duo returns here alongside some new faces to make quips and help push the game’s narrative forward, and the whole crew is likable enough to warrant tuning into their heartfelt personal conversations. However, the premission exposition dumps that are used to fill me in on various secret organizations and the dozen throwaway characters within them just left me zoned out until I forgot who was who or why I should care. Granted, it’s all incredibly well-directed and wonderfully acted across the board.

If you are invested in the larger Black Ops canon, you can dig deeper into the characters and lore by exploring your massive mansion-turned-safe house throughout the campaign. You’ll return here after most missions to chat with your crew, plan your next move, and purchase upgrades for your character using any money you’ve found. You can also take time to read scattered documents or chat with characters between events for further insight into their thoughts on everything. You can even solve clever puzzles around the home that may or may not ultimately lead to a cool reward. I’ll never tell.

By the end of the eight or so hours it took me to beat the campaign, I walked away feeling optimistic about the series’ single-player future. Whether it was the time I spent quietly searching for puzzle clues in the beautiful remote mansion, shooting my way through a hallucinogenic-fueled nightmare, or clearing icons off a tac-map as I drove my way around a pseudo-open world desert, Black Ops 6 kept me feeling like I didn’t know what was coming next. I can’t remember the last time I could say that about a Call of Duty game.

I (kind of) like to move it, move it

By most accounts, Black Ops 6‘s multiplayer is also decidedly more exciting than last year’s iterative Modern Warfare III, which basically felt like DLC for Modern Warfare II. In the series’ first significant gameplay overhaul since Advanced Warfare introduced a brief three-game obsession with jetpacks, Black Ops 6‘s new omnimovement feature seeks to redefine the series as a true movement-focused shooter. Whether this extra bit of pizzazz makes the game better is arguable, but there’s no denying that it changes the moment-to-moment gameplay far more than anything else has in quite some time.

Omnimovement lets you sprint and dive in any direction, which opens up a world of possibilities for getting the upper hand in shootouts. At times, it can feel you’re living in a John Woo movie, diving backward through second-story windows, landing on your back below, and then mowing down unsuspecting foes. Narrowly escaping death by diving Max Payne-style behind a piece of cover before wrapping around and surprising your foe from behind is admittedly a nice momentary thrill.

But the inherent speed coupled with this omnidirectional movement can cause things to get a bit silly and irritating at times, too. I’ve encountered a lot of folks in multiplayer who erratically slide in all four directions at close range while spraying bullets, or who dive back and forth between various covers looking like they’re part of some kind of Scooby Doo chase sequence. 

Sure, it takes skill to master this type of movement while retaining reasonable accuracy at the same time — all due respect to anyone making excellent use of mechanics the game has provided — but it looks hilariously absurd. It’s like jump spamming on steroids, and I’d much rather just engage in more traditional shootouts that might occasionally warrant the use of a cool dive or something. Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of engagements I’ve seen so far don’t devolve into such cartoonish mayhem. Besides, Black Ops 6 has tight, responsive gunplay that feels as great as ever and should help keep the fun going even when omnimovement tests your patience from time to time.

Movement aside, you can jump  into all of the modes that typically show up in Call of Duty, including a much-appreciated hardcore playlist that ups the ante even further. But this year also includes the new Kill Order mode, a 6v6 mode that rewards team strategy as you work together to protect your HVT (high-value target) while tracking down and eliminating the opposing team’s. If you’re the HVT at any point in time, your best move is to stick with your team and hope they protect you, as you’re worth two points to the enemy team if you die. It all makes for a good time, but it’s best played with a premade group, as playing with a team of random players makes success feel like luck of the draw.

I’ve been vocal about my distaste for the casualization of Call of Duty for years, finding myself annoyed with maps that have too many sightlines, punishing even the best players with cheap deaths while rewarding low-skill players for stumbling into the right area at the right time. This type of “no child left behind” gameplay philosophy returns in Black Ops 6 alongside all the usual frustrations like spawning into gunfire or grenades multiple times per match, poor visibility (enemies that blend into environments), misleading audio cues, and maps overflowing with cover to cater to passive players.

A handful of Black Ops 6‘s maps buck the trend of overcomplicated and cluttered interiors that have plagued the series for years. In doing so, they fully embrace the chaos of nonstop, chaotic gunfights that the developers seem to want to prioritize, for better or worse. The ruins-based map Babylon is a near-perfect square with an altar in the middle, which gives it an almost arena shooter vibe with four lanes making up the outer perimeter, each providing access to the central platform. Meanwhile, the tiny map Subsonic takes place in and around a hangar, with two open lanes on the outside with straightforward sightlines and a small, easy-to-navigate interior with limited cover. 

Unfortunately, the small size of maps like Babylon and Subsconic also exacerbates spawn point issues and don’t do much to alleviate the baked-in speed and pacing issues I have with Call of Duty’s multiplayer these days. But when I’ve had a chance to fight my way through these types of maps in Black Ops 6, I’ve at least enjoyed how they do away with most of the visibility-hampering nonsense and sightline issues in favor of an unembellished structure, taking me back to a simpler time when Call of Duty was about aiming faster and more accurately than someone else down clearly defined lanes. It’s perfectly fine that the franchise has evolved, but that will forever be the Call of Duty I love and miss. 

Of course, Zombies is back as well, with a story that directly follows up the one told in 2020’s Black Ops: Cold War. If blasting the undead is your thing, there’s a lot to love in the mode’s return to wave-based gameplay, which takes place across two new maps with a staggering amount of optional content to complete and mechanics to master. Even if you’re not a huge fan like me, there’s no denying that spending a few hours mowing through the hordes with friends is sure to put a smile on the face of anyone who has watched Zombies evolve from an extra mode into a full-fledged part of the Call of Duty trinity.

Perk up, buttercup

I’m happy to report that Black Ops 6‘s UI is a step in the right direction compared to the past few iterations. While it looks and feels like the previous games when navigating between tabs in the main menu, the game mode selection, loadout, and gunsmith sections have been streamlined to make them considerably more user-friendly. By eschewing the previous games’ flashy, but complicated UI in favor of simple, text-focused menus, I no longer feel exhausted just trying to set up my guns and perks.

Speaking of perks, I’m a huge fan of Black Ops 6‘s introduction of Combat Specialities. There are three color-coded perk types — Strategist (Green), Recon (Blue), and Enforcer (Red) — and you’re granted an additional boon by slotting perks of a specific color in all three perk slots. For instance, I’ve gone all in on Recon for things like quieter footsteps and better minimap indicators, and I’ve been rewarded with a Combat Specialty that briefly reveals enemy locations through walls when I respawn and no longer leaves behind a skull marker when I kill someone.

You can also equip a Wild Card to each loadout, which effectively functions as another perk, letting you do things like carry two primary weapons, equip up to eight attachments on a gun, or even open up a fourth real perk slot so that you can use one of the perks you may have otherwise passed up when aiming for your preferred Combat Specialty. None of this is particularly deep, of course, but I love needing to consider the risk and rewards of choosing or abandoning perks I’ve typically rolled with in previous games. 

Skin there, done that

In my Modern Warfare III review last year, I half-jokingly quipped that Activision should just “rebrand the series as what it really is at its core now: a storefront with a multiplayer mode attached.” And look, Black Ops 6‘s incredible campaign and flawed, but palatable multiplayer is an overall improvement over the mediocrity given to us in 2023, but the greed I was referencing seems to only be getting worse. 

It’s already bad enough that a $70 game shoves microtransactions in your face when you boot it up; it’s more sickening that Activision has morphed the franchise into a long-term live service-like experience. It’s overloaded with features like a centralized login hub and expensive seasonal battle passes and operator skins, yet it’s designed so that each subseries completely disregards all of the purchases you made for the last one. 

The team’s weak justification for skins not carrying over is that this game takes place in a different time period with unique gear and operators that align with its setting. The way they apparently see it is that it makes sense that Snoop Dogg can face off against characters from The Walking Dead in Modern Warfare III, but a piece of gear from another era in Black Ops 6 would just be too wacky. Give me a break.

Perhaps you could argue that there’s also a logistical issue due to the games being developed by separate teams each year, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a publisher worth $69 billion can make it work, especially since all of the skins carry over into Warzone just fine. I’m really not buying any of Activision’s flimsy excuses, just like I’m not buying any of Activision’s season passes or exorbitant skins.

Despite these ever-growing microtransaction woes, Black Ops 6 is a step forward in other ways for a franchise that has felt half-dead for a while now. By combining an unexpectedly inventive campaign with some worthwhile changes and improvements to its multiplayer, there’s a lot here for longtime fans to feel optimistic about, even if many of Call of Duty’s most significant problems still loom large with no signs of changing anytime soon.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was tested on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by the publisher.