Each year, the excitement for the new Call of Duty installment repeats itself, and this time, for Black Ops 6, the buzz was absolutely out of this world. With the storyline of the new game taking place in the early 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Treyarch assured a completely different experience to go back in time with their new release, and they surpassed their record of having a Game Pass first-day release. However, now that the game is available, the question everyone is asking is whether Black Ops 6 to be a significant change or a letdown for the fans, as it is just another same-old rehash?
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Its most ambitious moves, quite fortunately, take place in multiplayer. Treyarch returns to its usual heavily tactical style of play, but with a somewhat insane, mad twist in the form of omni-movement. Players are able to run in any direction, change their body orientation in the air, and generally pull off that kind of move, which is a direct import from the action movie scene. It is very fast, quite smooth, and surprisingly, it is very easy to learn—hence, after you have played a few rounds with it, going back to a more traditional shooter simply feels like you are not proficient. However, the acrobatics sometimes reach the limit of being a bit too exaggerated. For instance, one could imagine the players forcibly entering the room through the window of the enemy while at the same time they are spinning in the air and shooting the magazine to the left and right without even glancing. Even though it is fun, it tends to make the fights more random than tactical ones.
The map design is a bit of a mixed bag. The average six 6v6 maps feature the old three-lane format returning most of the games, which gives the games a consistent rhythm and prevents campers. Lowtown is a place that really shines with its sunlit beachside village vibe and the vertical layers that add visual depth. However, not every map is positive. For example, Babylon is harmed by the long sightlines and the spawn points that are heavily populated with clutter, thus it is bringing back the issues that the players were complaining about in Modern Warfare (2019). The frustration can rise to the maximum level when the netcode is weak or the spawn logic is not working.
Customization is still a bit of a balancing game. With the Gunsmith system, you have the freedom to change almost everything on your weapon, which is great – until you realize that there is an overpowered build in every match you come across. Although the time-to-kill is a bit longer than the latest installments, it is still quick enough for twitch reflexes to win most of the time. Players get an upgrade in their loadouts with a third perk bonus, thus appealing to those who stack perks of the same kind. Moreover, Wild Cards are back to give players the liberty to come up with such creative ideas as dual primaries or one more extra attachment. There are lots of skins and unlockables that come with the game, but the concern is whether balancing will be kept as new content is rolled out, something that Call of Duty has not been able to do in the past.
Zombies, on the other hand, is broadly a return to the classic format. The experimental DMZ-style mode has been removed. Now, players can access two maps straight from the box: Liberty Falls and Terminus. Liberty Falls is a large, nicely detailed, and a bit eerie West Virginia town at night kind of place, but due to its open nature, it plays a little too generously. Terminus, set on a haunted island blacksite, is a little better at bringing back the classic Zombies feeling of being in a small area with scary things and the creepy atmosphere. Both maps feature a story and some nice cutscenes, but they are not quite as legendary as the Treyarch classic Zombies maps.
Visually and technically, Black Ops 6 is a stunner. The engine produces solid graphics, silky-smooth gameplay, and a copious array of accessibility features. Crossplay is seamless, and overall refinement is first-class. However, many of the same old problems persist. Janky netcode, obtuse UI, and cheating still plague the series. The new launcher is a minor step forward, but the series is starting to feel its age internally.
Meanwhile, the fan reaction has been tepid. On Steam, the title reached a high of about 300,000 players but fell to 100,000 shortly thereafter—a sharper drop-off than Modern Warfare 3. Some dedicated fans are questioning whether Activision and Treyarch can mend what’s broken or if the series is simply petering out. Even the possibility has been floated that the series will abandon its annual schedule or move further in the direction of Warzone in the future, particularly if current trends continue.
In every sense, Black Ops 6 is the multiplayer at its finest in years, perhaps even since before Modern Warfare (2019). It gets the fundamentals correct, takes gameplay in exciting new directions, and is stunning. However, it pulls along some of the same baggage that’s weighed down the series for some time now. And with existing players already falling off, the question is whether this is the next big step for Call of Duty—or the end times for its previous formula.