Published , by Bill Lavoy
Published , by Bill Lavoy
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is in the wild and all indications are that people love their CoD. If there was going to be an exception, it would be me, as I’ve largely fallen off the perennial first person shooter over the past decade. Unfortunately for the grumpy gamer in me, this year’s offering from Treyarch is quite good, although I long for the days that campaigns didn’t remind me of the randomness of a 10-year old’s birthday party.
When it works, the Black Ops 6 campaign is hit or miss for me. On the one hand it can feel like you’ve stepped into a 90s spy movie, with Adler reminding me a lot of Robert Redford’s character from Spy Game. You’ll assassinate high value targets, attend a political event before infiltrating a CIA black site to rescue a potential ally, and drive a tank through an airport terminal. There are twists and turns and questions about who is good or bad and where everyone’s loyalties lie. There's also a 100 percent chance that it will crash my game every time I try to load the campaign or, you know, when I try to swap weapons or slide down a ladder.
Crashes aside, there are a couple of missions that, while cool, just don’t fit the vibe and sour the immersion. One such mission turns the campaign into a miniature Far Cry game where you’re in an open environment checking waypoints off your map. Later, you’ll be thrown into what is essentially just a zombies knockoff under the guise of being under the influence of a hallucinogen. Both are kind of neat, and the latter does give some character backstory, but neither of them feels like they fit. I still recall the original Modern Warfare campaign. Whatever faults it had, it knew what it was, and it never strayed off that path. Every moment of that campaign felt connected, and the tone remained consistent. Black Ops 6 manages to recapture that feeling at times but shoots itself in the foot once or twice along the way.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the campaign is that it ends with multiple cliffhangers. The fates of main characters are left in limbo, a new character appears that is supposed to be shocking but just creates more confusion, and it all feels like the ending to a mid-season episode of 24, except that it’s the end of a campaign in a video game. Sure, we may get clarity from Warzone over the next weeks or months, but since I don’t dabble in that mode it’s just a loose end that I’m never going to see tied up. Perhaps most telling is that I don’t care. I checked out from my campaign investment as soon as I realized Treyarch had lost focus from the killer 90s spy theme that kicked things off.
Thankfully, the Black Ops 6 campaign is not the reason the vast majority of people are playing CoD. Nope, folks are here for the multiplayer, and boy howdy is the multiplayer good. Some of those good parts I can’t stand, but that’s more about me being an old man yelling at clouds than there being an actual problem. I’m the dude who gets irritated not just because I was killed by some jumping, diving kid, but because they are decked out in a zombie skin with a fancy blue pattern on their gun. Hey, stop expressing yourself in this serious video game and play right, hooligan!
Anyway, multiplayer is a robust experience, as you’d expect. You can play numerous modes on a whole bunch of maps, isolating your favorite game mode if you choose. You can create custom loadouts with tailored score streaks and visit the gunsmith to fine tune your favorite weapons. You like perks? Well, BO6 has perks in three categories to help you be annoying in your own personalized way.
Front and center in this year’s Call of Duty is Omnimovement, which is really cool and also something that causes me great pain, both in-game and in the realization I'm getting older. Omnimovement allows players to slide and dive in all directions, creating some bonkers kills that usually feature yours truly as the killed. You know that second story window on Nuketown? You can dive out of that window, turn your body while falling, and kill the person walking in the front door. It’s the pinnacle of sliding and diving. I hate it, but I’m mature enough to admit that’s because I’m 43 and not capable of pulling off the moves of these young whipper snappers playing CoD in 2024. It’s crazy cool and I’m jealous of the folks that master this movement system.
Omnimovement aside, there’s so much good happening in BO6 multiplayer. Grenades, which are my favorite way to doom foes, feel amazing. You know how in a lot of games you throw a grenade, it lands in your enemy’s pocket, and they lose like half health? Yeah, grenades actually kill in BO6, and it's oh so satisfying. You don’t get the six grenades that SOCOM II U.S. Navy SEALs gave you back in 2003, but that was also a problem for its own reasons.
The gunplay in BO6 is on point, as it normally is in most CoD games. I haven’t found a weapon that didn’t feel good to shoot. And I’m predictably addicted to the progression system. Just a few more games so that I can unlock this new score streak, or a few more kills with this weapon so that I can get that game-breaking attachment. That’ll be the thing that helps me keep up with these young folk! It never is, but I love chasing new gear and the gameplay feels satisfying even if I’m only holding a 1:1 kill-to-death ratio (KDR). As a side note, if you’re in your 20s and can’t keep a 1:1 KDR… sucker! You’re losing to an old, Protanopia color blind guy with carpal tunnel syndrome. Which reminds me, the color-blind accessibility options are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Fully customizable, as all games should be. But wait, there's more. There are even accessibility settings for folks with tinnitus, which I also happen to have.
If there’s one legitimate downer with multiplayer, it’s that there were times when, even in my old age, I’m pretty sure I should have scored the kill, or at least traded. Usually this involved getting the jump on my opponent, landing all my shots, and then wondering what else I could have done as the kill cam initiates. As my good pal and former SOCOM buddy, Viper, used to say, “I can only shoot them. I can’t make them die.”
I’m going to be straight with you. I don’t know what’s going on with the Zombies mode. It seems like it works, it’s just firmly behind the multiplayer and the campaign on the list of things I find interesting in BO6. I hopped in and was seamlessly matchmade with some randoms. I immediately turned off voice communications when I was reminded that the Call of Duty community is toxic beyond the point of saving. I’m not even going to entertain comments that argue otherwise.
The gameplay itself was fine. I was shooting zombies, buying guns, refilling ammo, shooting more zombies, running around, and that basically sums up what was happening. It was certainly fun as far as horde modes go. I did make progress towards my character’s overall progression, so that was nice. But once I died at about wave 18, I was good and opted to leave that mode behind. I’m certain that if I played with friends, it would have been much more engaging, as are all games and modes with your pals, but nothing stood out to me as more interesting than what I was finding in multiplayer. Did I mention how good the grenades were in multiplayer?
I’ve avoided the Call of Duty franchise for years. Long before the gameplay outgrew me, I outgrew the gameplay. I came into BO6 with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. Despite some faults, the campaign has more good than bad. Zombies is a fun mode, even if there’s nothing there for me personally. Multiplayer, however, is where the magic happens. The fact that I’m enjoying playing against people half my age who can kill me before I can squint to see them is testament to that. Okay, so I’m clearly exaggerating, but even when I’m getting rocked, there are always tools at my disposal that ensure I’m having a blast. Grenade away!
This review is based on a Steam key provided by the publisher. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.