Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review: espionage action brought me back to COD

Introduction

If Call of Duty games were blockbuster movies, Black Ops 6 would be more Mission Impossible than Black Hawk Down. And not one of the new ones, where Tom Cruise seems to be flicking the Vs at death with every insane stunt. This 90s-set spy thriller goes places no series entry has gone before – and is just one third of a total package that’s arguably the biggest reason to sign up to Microsoft’s all-you-can-eat gaming service ever.

The Xbox Game Pass star attraction also shakes things up on the multiplayer side, with new movement mechanics that fully embrace Call of Duty’s reputation as one of the twitchiest of twitch shooters, and returns the Zombies mode to its traditional wave-based survival roots. Just with a whole bunch of modern progression mechanics on top.

That all sounds rosy, but Activision’s cash cow has long been too big for its own good. While Treyarch was the lead development studio, it now takes the combined might of (deep breath) Raven Software, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, Beenox, High Moon Studios, Demonware and Activision Shanghai to turn around a game of Black Ops 6‘s scale. Have too many cooks spoiled the broth – or perfected the recipe?

Magical mystery tour

Play

Boots on the ground warfare has never been Black Ops’ style; the sixth game instead goes further down the rabbit hole of shady government projects and covert military missions. The timeline has now reached the 1990s and the first Gulf War, with your once state-sponsored squad disavowed by the CIA. There’s a mole to track down, missing weapons of mass destruction to recover, and an international terrorist organisation to take down.

There’s no shortage of epic set pieces and frantic shooting galleries, as is the Call of Duty norm. Taking cover still restores your health, but now scavenged armour plates (borrowed from Warzone) help you survive return fire for longer. The moment-to-moment gunplay is also spiced up by elite enemies.

These armoured foes have their own spy gadgets to rival yours, and don’t go down nearly as easily. You’ve also got to hunt down money caches, which are usually hidden off the main path, to buy perks like faster reloads and more sprint stamina – upgrades that are unheard of for a COD campaign. It’s oh so satisfying when you stumble on a safe stuffed with cash and have remembered to jot down the radio broadcast that revealed its combination earlier in the level.

Back to base

What’s revolutionary here – at least for the Call of Duty series, anyway – is the sheer variety of gameplay. An early stealth level could’ve come straight from Splinter Cell, while the next brings a Far Cry-style semi-open world with vehicles and optional objectives. Completing them earns abilities pinched straight from the multiplayer mode, which help you out during a hectic final stand. One drug-induced survival section is straight up horror, and there’s an Oceans Eleven-esque casino heist.

Missions are split up by welcome downtime at an abandoned KGB safe house ripped straight from Scooby Doo, with puzzles to solve and lore drops to find as you chat with your teammates to fill in the backstory. The facial animations during these occasionally emotional scenes are really quite impressive, and one of the early mysteries will keep you guessing – or reaching for a notebook to keep track of every clue.

Every level is stuffed with incidental detail and the character models are a real standout. The Call of Duty games don’t push PC or game console graphics in quite the way they used to, but it’s still a visually stunning campaign – especially when the action properly kicks off. It’s a roller coaster ride, as ever, but one that’s a lot less one-note than previous games in the series. Even gamers that would normally skip straight to the multiplayer mode owe it to themselves to compete a playthrough.

Made to move

After the series’ multiple diversions into historical and sci-fi settings, Black Ops 6’s more grounded multiplayer feels like a welcome return to normality. Legally distinct M4s, AK74s and MP5s are the order of the day, as you sprint through maps that mix tight close quarters corridors with long sight lines perfect for sniping.

The big change is Omnimovement, a new system that lets you sprint and dive in any direction, then pull yourself off the ground just as quickly. Whether or not it was a reaction to battle royale hits like Fortnite and Apex Legends that prioritise fast movement, the addition has made for as hectic a Call of Duty as I can remember since Infinite Warfare’s jetpacks. Players don’t just run round corners now – they fling themselves off balconies, slide from behind wrecked cars, and dive between cover. You’ve got to learn to do the same if you want to compete.

There’s naturally more than a militia’s stockpile of weapons and attachments to unlock, with only the truly committed getting to see the 40+ tiers of upgrades per weapon. At least the perk system has been simplified, making it clearer which ones will benefit a certain play style. Using three complimentary perks then activates a further specialist ability, encouraging stealth or aggression even further.

Players who remember the glory days of the original Modern Warfare 2 will say things are still too hectic, the time-to-kill still too fast. I don’t disagree; higher tier score streaks seem particularly hard to come by, as no-one seems to survive long enough to unlock them. Questionable spawn points were partly to blame at launch, with at least one patch released to fix it at the time of writing. The maps are also rather small, even if you avoid the Strike maps meant mainly for 2v2 skirmishes, and there are no larger Ground War battles.

That might change later, of course. Naturally new seasons of content will add extra maps, maps, weapons, perks and score streaks to keep players coming back – and that’s before Black Ops 6 gets integrated into the behemoth that is Call of Duty Warzone, or Activision starts properly pushing those money-making battle passes.

Scarier with friends

Omnimovement also livens up this year’s Zombies mode, which returns to wave-based survival instead of open world like Modern Warfare III’s derided effort. You get two large maps here, stuffed full of gobblegum and pack-a-punch machines to help keep the undead at bay in the later rounds. Each level has its own set of easter eggs and lore dumps to uncover, and is effectively a continuation of the last Black Ops’ Zombies story – though it doesn’t try very hard to fill newcomers in on what happened previously.

Some concessions have been made for those with less time on their hands these days, including the option to exfiltrate and bank your progress rather than playing until an inevitable demise. That it’s taken this long for save and quit to be an option for single player gamers, with you returning to the start of the last round when you next load the game, is mind-boggling.

My main sticking point was that there are so many weapon, ability and perk upgrade mechanics to get up to speed with. Anyone that doesn’t know their Juggernog from their Deadshot Daiquiri will quickly feel in over their heads. Given how much of a grind the multiplayer mode can be to level up multiple loadouts, it feels like the game hasn’t truly learned to respect your time – just suck it up in a slightly different way than before.

It’s still satisfying to mow down wave after wave of monsters, though, and occasional boss enemies mix things up a bit.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 verdict

This year’s Call of Duty both plays it safe, and does things to make the series feel fresher than it has in a long while. The globe-trotting campaign is masterfully crafted, with the sort of gameplay variety that’ll blow the minds of those expecting just another spin on the series’ shooting galleries. It’s been given all the development time needed, unlike last year’s rushed Modern Warfare III, and while the plot ‘gotcha’ moments don’t hit nearly as hard as the original Black Ops’ hallucination twist, the more personal conflict is just as engaging.

It’s great to see the co-op mode return to its original form, and while I’m not convinced it needed all the upgrade systems and unlocks dumped on top, long-time fans will appreciate having so much content to keep them busy once they’ve uncovered every story easter egg. Competitive multiplayer isn’t just more of the same, either. The enhanced movement is a natural pairing to the twitch gunplay, and the moment-to-moment action is as gratifying as ever – even if death comes all too quickly, and the maps are just a little too cramped for comfort.

All told Black Ops 6 is a heck of a package deal, made all the more sweet if you’re a Game Pass subscriber.