Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review — Fire in the Sky

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the latest in the now-insurmountable collection of titles in the Call of Duty franchise. While the last time I was really into Call of Duty was the original Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2, the Black Ops sub-series has always piqued my interest more than the mainline installments. The games’ focus on the titular special forces made for more compelling narratives with more of a spy-drama feel, and the series both introduced and continued to release installments of my all-time favorite thing to come from Call of Duty: the Zombies game mode.

With all that in mind, I didn’t turn away when given the chance to review Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and while not the most exciting game of the year for me, I wasn’t disappointed.

Black Ops 6 immediately stands out from other Call of Duty titles for introducing the Iraq War as a setting. This recent period of US military history has a strikingly unique aesthetic, thanks to the changing political and technological landscapes of the time, and as far as I’m aware, it’s never been portrayed before in a Call of Duty game.

The story continues the multi-game tale of Frank Woods and opens during the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields in 1991, a real-world event orchestrated by Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Armed Forces, and one of the most striking war visuals of all time, giving Black Ops 6 perhaps the strongest start it could have hoped for.

That being said, I didn’t find the story itself overly interesting. Many Call of Duty and general modern spy-movie tropes are used throughout the campaign. There’s an evil paramilitary group (never seen that before in a CoD game, right?) being secretly run by the CIA, and it’s up to a small, unique team of soldiers to stop it. Even with the striking backdrop, I don’t think the game’s opening is great, as it feels pretty rushed—a problem that persists for the rest of the campaign.

That being said, the campaign is still fun on the gameplay side, doing what Call of Duty campaigns do best: creating tight, visually interesting areas to fight through between small, exciting cinematic moments.

Though I quickly spotted reused animations from Warzone (which, I guess with how quickly these games come out, is to be expected), the gunplay feels drastically improved over recent Call of Duty games. Compared to Warzone, guns feel punchier, smoother to handle, and very animated, creating an overall satisfying experience. The day Call of Duty stops having the best-feeling gunplay is the day I think the franchise will finally die.

The game also uses its setting to introduce some new and unique firearms to the series, inspired by the unique landscape of warfare in the early 1990s. A few favorites of mine are the SWAT 5.56, AS VAL, and AMES 85.

Those satisfying gun mechanics carry through to other aspects of the game, such as multiplayer. To be perfectly candid, I barely touched this feature and wouldn’t say it was anywhere near my favorite part of Black Ops 6. For those who swear by the multiplayer CoD experience, I would say, from my perspective, it’s just as good, if not better, than recent games in the franchise.

What really excited me was the return of Zombies, something that has come back a few times over the years and has, at times, felt as though Treyarch dropped the ball. Thankfully, Black Ops 6 does Zombies very well.

At the moment, the game seems to have only two Zombies maps, which is more than the single map released on launch with Black Ops Cold War. Both maps play really well and use a sort of early 1990s aesthetic, which is pretty much the 1980s with the introduction of punk rock. It works really well, giving the maps a definitively unique appearance compared to other Zombies games.

The best part of Black Ops 6’s Zombies, however, has to be the inclusion of the game’s phenomenal gunplay, which really enhances the already tried-and-true gameplay. Lately, there have been a lot of competitor titles released specifically to fill the void of no CoD Zombies updates, a notable one being Sker Ritual. With the release of Black Ops 6, I think the franchise has returned to the top with the Zombies gameplay it invented.

One huge issue I have isn’t with the game itself but with the Call of Duty launcher.

Since all CoD games available on Battle.net are now installed via one launcher, anyone who buys Black Ops 6 must install it through said launcher. This creates an annoying separation; where to access Black Ops 6, you must first open Call of Duty, which then closes to open BO6, which then opens or closes separate programs again, depending on whether you want to play Campaign, Zombies, or Multiplayer. If any of these games need an update, they will then close and restart as well. It’s a frankly tedious experience that I don’t think needs to exist. Just let me download the game I want to play; thanks.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available on Steam, Battle.Net, PlayStation, Xbox, and Xbox Gamepass.

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