Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – spies from the 90s

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 resembles an average spy action movie made by Netflix, with the campaign being just as long, flat, and frankly mediocre. It is ironic that this game is also available by subscription.

In Black Ops 6, Raven Software dared the impossible – the studio decided to rethink the classic Call of Duty formula and even succeeded. Instead of the usual rail shooting range, we now have multi-variant missions, stealth, dialogues, and sometimes even a claim to an open world. I just don’t know if it’s just me, or if the story campaign really turned out to be incredibly boring this time. For example, I was able to complete only two of the eleven missions in the story without interrupting for multiplayer or other things.

Moreover, the developers had every chance to make the game interesting at least in terms of the plot – the events take place in the early nineties, with the collapse of the scoop, Operation Desert Storm, and secret CIA prisons, imagine the scope for alternative history or at least sharp commentary on the real military and political situation of the recent past. But unfortunately, we have a case where “games are out of politics,” so we won’t see anything like that except jokes about Saddam’s golden toilet.

The villains this time are yet another fictional paramilitary group consisting of former special forces from different countries, unaffiliated (we repeat, unaffiliated) with any government, who want to use biological weapons on the territory of the United States for… a certain purpose. The game is so toothless that it’s painful to watch, and in the best traditions of modern Western culture of smoothing out corners, Raven Software’s writers refrain from commenting on topics they themselves touch upon. Here, look, there was a secret KGB torture chamber, and here the CIA conducted experiments on humans; by the way, the biological weapons that the terrorists from the Pantheon are now trying to use were produced by the American government. But it doesn’t matter, let’s not go into it, let’s go after the villains.

Of course, you won’t be able to capture anyone quickly, you’ll first have to wade through the standard set of clichés that spy games or similar B-movies usually have – eliminating a target vacationing on a yacht, a gala with American politicians, rescuing a team member from a secret government prison, a mission in a casino in the style of Ocean’s Friends, an abandoned Russian military base somewhere in Vorkuta (there are no Russian troops here either, of course, only the international Pantheon).

In these missions, the main emphasis is placed on stealth, a pistol with a silencer, studying patrol routes, and social engineering in its infancy. For example, when talking to a fictional military officer at a checkpoint, you can look around in the spirit of Sherlock from the Frogwares games, notice and memorize certain information, and then use it in the dialog to get the desired result. This is interesting, in principle, as is the ability to get a photo of the retina of a senator who flatly refuses to be photographed in three different ways.

But sneaking around with a pistol and eliminating enemies alone is not so good. Firstly, because the enemy AI is as dumb as a post. Secondly, because the style of passing does not affect the outcome of the mission. Once I was warned that the guards on the roof were just policemen, saying that it would be desirable to avoid unnecessary casualties, but at that time I was so bored with the lack of action that I just shot them all. No one made even the slightest comment about it.

From time to time, the good old Call of Duty makes its way to the surface from this swamp of sneaking, with chases, runs across the airport runway stormed by tanks, an attack on Saddam’s estate, or the obligatory Black Ops missions with hallucinations. But Raven Software fell short here, too. The action missions turned out to be somewhat sterile, a corridor with soldiers, a corridor with snipers at the other end, a corridor with an elite armored enemy. That’s it.

Hunting Season, a mission to destroy air defenses in Iraq, looks quite fresh against them, although in fact it is a reimagined Going Dark from Modern Warfare (2019) and Recon By Fire from Modern Warfare 2 (2022). The player finds himself on a relatively large level with several main and side objectives scattered throughout, which can be completed in any order and, again, in different ways. Destroy launchers with explosives or air raids, snipe from a safe distance, use mortar attacks, or break into enemy camps by car, shooting in all directions. It’s a good and necessary change of pace, but it’s a shame it’s not enough.

Speaking of hallucinations… the first of these missions has tangible Control vibes and clearly prepares the player for zombie mode, in which you have to run around the four wings of the research complex, shooting various zombies and other evil spirits, fighting bosses and collecting colored keys, potentially interesting, but again, I would like more depth. We find out exactly what events Case (the main character) is going through in this bad trip, but… once again, that’s it. Well, it happened once and it happened, and now it happens. The hallucinations of the other character are more interesting, and for some reason I was reminded of The Medium by Bloober Team, but what a plot disaster it is. Wrapping it all up to end like this? Seriously?

Between missions, you have to return to the base, an abandoned estate that once belonged to the KGB somewhere in Bulgaria, which you can improve with as many as three upgrades for the money you find during missions – a shooting range, a weapons table, and an equipment station, talk to members of the squad, level up your character’s characteristics, and solve a few puzzles. At first, the idea seemed interesting, but in the middle of the game I realized that I would be grateful if all the interactions between the characters at the base were in the form of cutscenes, which, by the way, are incredibly well done here.

However, enough about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s story mode, I’d like to never return to it again. As, in principle, to the zombie mod, which no one I know plays, so all attempts to adequately complete the race, not to mention fulfill Easter eggs, are doomed to failure by default. Instead, the two maps that are currently available for exploration turn into a collection of zombies and endless running to an ignominious end, all for the sake of quickly pumping weapons for multiplayer.

Yes, the progress here is shared, there are a lot of zombies, and even more experience for killing them, which is why all the players I’ve met use this mode exclusively for leveling up. The mechanics are simple – you kill the first couple of waves of zombies to get enough money to buy weapons, upgrades for them, and some of the killstreaks (for example, a turret), and most importantly, to open barriers to a certain place on the map. You reach it and then run around in circles as long as you can, ignoring tasks and calls to evacuate. This is especially convenient in the Biolab on the Terminus map, where two circles with ramps and water to jump into if zombies start to squeeze you from all sides turn the game into a grind fest. You can, of course, try to complete zombie missions solo, but what’s the point? Especially when there is multiplayer.

This mode, for me personally, is probably the only one where Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 really managed to do something right. Let’s not dwell on the basics, you’ve definitely seen at least some part of the series over the past decade and a half and know what’s what. Let’s move on to what Treyarch has done well this time. For example, the shooting mechanics, which are downright excellent.

If you’ve played Modern Warfare 3 on consoles, you’ll remember how terrible the reticle homing was. I mean, it worked too well, and the reticle automatically followed the enemy for a fairly long period of time. This has been fixed here, the auto-assist is still present, but now it is not so noticeable. If you want, you can find ways to abuse it, for example, some players do very ugly things with the SVD, but this is not a widespread phenomenon.

Or a return to the classic prestige system, after reaching the maximum 55th level of an operative, you will be offered to “reset” your progress and start from scratch in exchange for unique rewards. Don’t worry, you won’t lose all the unlocked camouflages and other goodies forever, as soon as you unlock your weapons again, everything will be in place. Also, with each prestige level you are given a token to unlock any item in your arsenal, which you will always have, and although you will be tempted to spend it on your favorite gun or a series of kills, I would recommend choosing one of the perks that become available at later levels of the operative instead. They are usually useful and you will avoid the situation when you have barely leveled up to it and have already reached the next prestige and need to start all over again.

Speaking of perks, they are divided into three specialties: assault, scout, and strategist. The first is designed for fans of aggressive play, the second is focused on invisibility to enemies, gadgets, and kill series, and the third is aimed at increasing endurance, wearing additional gadgets, and recharging them over time. Perks can be combined, but choosing three from the same category will give you a specialization bonus.

Stormtroopers start moving faster and regaining health after killing an enemy, scouts can see through walls after respawning and get an indicator next to the mini-map that tells them when the enemy is nearby and out of sight, and strategists use gadgets faster, see enemy devices through walls and earn extra points for destroying them. A quick tip for getting to the first prestige is to choose strategist perks, non-lethal killstreaks with reconnaissance UAVs and counter UAVs, and play Kill Confirmed, and experience points will flow.

I’d also like to point out some changes that have taken place in weapon leveling. Let’s start with the camouflages, they are now divided into groups – first there are those earned for kills with a headshot and only after you open them all, those that are given for completing challenges a la making 5 kills in a row three times become available. I like this approach better than what happened in the last installments of Modern Warfare, you feel like you “earned” this skin again, just like 15 years ago, but we all know that as soon as the first season starts and the cosmetics store opens, all this will lose all meaning.

I would also like to praise the developers for the fact that weapon modification no longer looks like an idiotic balancing act between bad and worse. Most of the modifications now only improve certain characteristics of the weapon, and if they do, they are not as dramatic as in the previous parts, so you can safely focus on making the barrel to suit your playstyle without worrying that the number of accompanying disadvantages will negate the very idea of modification.

One of the most controversial new features is the much-hyped Omnimovement feature. In the promotional videos, we saw players flying out of windows in the style of Max Payne or jumping back in a spectacular manner while continuing to shoot. Is this in the game? Yes. Does it work? Well, technically. The promos didn’t lie, you can jump in any direction and shoot at the same time. But the promo videos didn’t promise that you would hit anyone. Have I ever killed an enemy who spectacularly jumps out from behind the nearest corner? Regularly. Or was it the other way around? Not often.

What definitely works is sliding across the floor (very annoying) and jumping backwards, which results in you being on your back, with the ability to rotate the barrel almost 360 degrees. This is already very effective, and it also fools the brain quite well, at least mine. This is a new, unusual position of the enemy’s body, and when I run by, I have not yet learned to instantly recognize it as a threat, and for a second it seems that it is the enemy’s body. Unfortunately, a second is all it takes for the “body” to hit me in the jug.

And now for the bad stuff. Maps. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has, without exaggeration, the worst set of maps in the history of the series. They’re either just plain useless or simply unbalanced. Moreover, after a few days of playing, you’ll know what type of weapon fits each particular map, and that’s not good, especially when you’re focused on upgrading a particular barrel. There are practically no universal maps where you can play equally well with a submachine gun, sniper or Marxman weapon. Snipers are not in favor at all, at least not yet, and it’s good to have a couple of maps where you can snipe to your heart’s content. So an automatic rifle is the best choice, and on smaller maps you can switch to a submachine gun. As part of the experiment, I ran the most with the Marxist rifles, and it was much harder than in the last three Modern Warfare games.

Another controversial point is that SBMM (Skill Based Matchmaking) is always on. That is, the game picks up players of your level, which leads to two consequences, which I think is the best thing that happened to multiplayer shooters. First, the matches turn out to be quite challenging, and you have to gnaw out a victory, you can’t play haphazardly and hope that someone will “drag” you in. Secondly, it generates a lot of sweet tears from cybercats and streamers who want to play with newbies to record “360 no scope, nuke in 50 seconds, 34.29 K/D” clips, but find themselves in a match with people trying to do the same thing. Their whining is my favorite Call of Duty content since SBMM was introduced to the series.

In general, the multiplayer is not bad, the temporary absence of a combat pass and a store also has a positive effect – so far, the game does not have absurd weapon skins and Nicki Minaj, Spawn, Homelander and Lara Croft are not running with you, although already at the 50th level I got the feeling that the maps started to get boring, if in the last Modern Warfare I went in every month to close the combat pass and get new weapons and blueprints, then Black Ops 6 seems to be postponed after closing the first prestige at least until new maps are released.

I can’t say that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a complete failure, and I’m sure that this installment will find its audience, as there are a lot of rather radical changes, which hasn’t happened to the series for a long time, but I’m personally glad that I didn’t pay money for the game thanks to my Game Pass subscription, otherwise it would have been very unpleasant.