Image: Activision
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's excellent story campaign is a return to form for this franchise.
This year's annual Call of Duty game is a meatier offering than last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by every metric. Its campaign feels like a breath of fresh air after years of remixed Modern Warfare stories, finally bringing something new to the table while building on the bones of Black Ops Cold War. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 thankfully boasts a less wordy title, but its campaign is nonetheless elaborate, taking players on a colourful and action-packed series of James Bond-like spy capers that hit more than they miss.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 realises a longstanding expectation of the franchise when it comes to its story campaigns: big-budget spectacle attached to top-of-the-shelf shooter gameplay.
A refreshing change of pace after Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set 15 years or so after Black Ops Cold War, picking things up in the midst of the Gulf War. The Black Ops series is known for weaving twisty narratives that involve covert spycraft into its globetrotting story campaigns, leading to stories that feel more akin to Mission Impossible-like capers, rather than the oorah-oorah-filled skirmishes of Modern Warfare’s suicide squad. Black Ops 6 is an extremely faithful sequel in that regard, packed with surprises and relentless action spread across a satisfyingly lengthy campaign.
The campaign sees Troy Marshall and Frank Woods - two rogue operatives who take on their enemies without much government oversight - recruit a team of operatives to hunt down and terminate the schemes of a rising paramilitary group called Pantheon. Pantheon is this game’s faceless big bad, somehow capable of amassing a vast army of agents, behemothian tanks, and innumerable weapons to aid their ambitious cause: using a false flag attack to infiltrate the United States government. Try not to think too hard about that, because it’s not going to make a whole lot of sense.
Thankfully, this campaign doesn’t have to make that much sense to begin with. That’s the beauty of the Black Ops series as a whole - its political edginess is dulled by routinely farcical action setpieces, taking players from meet-and-greets with Bill Clinton to horror shows filled with actual monsters in the blink of an eye. Tonal imbalance actually works in this campaign’s favour; its total refusal to take itself seriously ironically allows players to emotionally invest in its more cartoonish characters and events more deeply. The Black Ops 6 squad is filled with colourful characters, many of whom have interesting backstories to uncover - so long as you exhaust all of their dialogue options. They behave lackadaiscally in extremely dangerous situations, committing grand larceny and acts of war with an endearing level of airy confidence. It's difficult to avoid getting attached to them.
What helps to flesh this team out is the Rook, a cosy player hub area where the entire squad takes a breather in between missions. Here, players can explore and uncover easter eggs, or wander around talking to the team before taking on the next mission. It’s all completely optional, but this helps bond players to these new characters by learning more about them. This is one of the most memorable casts of characters Call of Duty has assembled to date, and one that I hope sticks around for a few more entries too. The campaign’s ending, at least, hints that they might have more missions to tackle in the future.
While this is set in the same continuity as previous games in the series, only a few characters from previous campaigns return, so players shouldn't be too lost if this is the first Black Ops game they've played in a while. That being said, I would at least play Black Ops Cold War to understand the stakes at hand for this team.
Big, bombastic shooting (and smaller, less-bombastic exploration)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's story campaign isn't so much a collection of new ideas, as it is an excellent execution of familiar thrills. Where Modern Warfare 3’s campaign felt like a slapped-together sandwich of shooting galleries and open-world environments lifted from Warzone, Black Ops 6 sees developers Treyarch and Raven Software firing on all cylinders. Big, ambitious levels filled with multiple objectives and points of entry are matched with smaller, more intimate levels that put an emphasis on spycraft and saving the world under the cover of darkness.
Black Ops Cold War took steps to give players more agency in how they go about completing their missions. Different dialogue options and pathways allowed the game to feel like it was something more than just another eight-hour shooting gallery. More importantly, they gave Treyarch a solid foundation to build upon for the future. For a start, exploration-focused missions like Black Ops Cold War’s Desperate Measures, which had players sneak around the Lubyanka Building, are back and bigger than ever in Black Ops 6.
Smaller espionage-themed missions will have players explore their environments to find clues while remaining stealthy. A mission called Hunting Season plays with this idea in a larger scope, giving players a Halo-like sandbox, a vehicle and multiple points of interest to explore. In the context of the story, it feels like a natural inclusion: players have to help the SAS collect intelligence and destroy surface-to-air missiles before infiltrating an enemy compound. In gameplay however, it feels like a complete breath of fresh air - giving players a large open space to explore and multiple objectives to tackle in any order they choose. That includes optional ones, which bear consequences on the next mission.
Players can also access weapon and gear upgrade stations in the Rook in between missions, allowing them to earn skills like faster reload times and more armour by forking over cash. That alone is enough incentive to explore some of the game’s more sprawling levels, even if it’s just to find $50 for that long-awaited +1 magazine upgrade. Stealth is optional for a few of these missions, allowing you to move around and investigate your surroundings unseen, and thanks to Treyarch and Raven Software’s impeccable level design, it actually feels fun to try pulling off challenging objectives while feeling like the invisible menace you’re meant to be.
Granted, some of these missions can also employ annoyingly repetitive objectives to pad things out. One mission had me collect four different access cards from different areas in a large environment, which meant that I had to go solve a puzzle, beat a miniboss, get an access card and then do it all over again three more times. Multiple missions have players embark on similar collectathons, making them feel uncharacteristically sterile compared to the rest of the game. However, the weakest link in this campaign's chain is Case, the game's unseen playable protagonist. While he takes the spotlight in one of the game's most interesting missions (Emergence), he otherwise lacks any agency or importance in his team's personal dynamics - something I can't say for everyone else in the squad.
That being said, this is a Call of Duty game through and through. Even these exploration-focused missions tend to culminate in epic shootouts as the Black Ops team tries to commit casino heists, escape from enemies via motorbike chases, or take down baddies while under the influence of hallucinatory agents. Each level presents a different kind of adrenaline-pumping action sequence, building up to an organic, if slightly unhinged, final showdown.
Performance on the PlayStation 5 was also a little spotty at times - with framerates tanking in busy environments, like a war-torn airport in the back half of the game. PC players are reporting worse problems with performance, so buyer beware.
Verdict
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s campaign is a return to form for this franchise, delivering action-packed missions with plenty of twists and turns to sate the appetites of longtime Black Ops fans. Blockbuster action setpieces, breathtakingly detailed environments and shockingly great characters work in tandem to make this a stellar eight-hour shooter with enough gameplay variety to keep its action flowing at a breezy pace.
Whatever formula developers Treyarch and Raven Software settled on to bring this campaign to fruition, one hopes that they stick to it for a few more sequels at least.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
