Finally, a Call of Duty game that isn’t complete trash.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, released on October 25, is the greatest iteration of the Black Ops series since 2018. The game’s campaign has quickly become one of my favorites under the two original Black Ops games mainly because of the storytelling, but also the easter eggs hidden within the missions. Another great thing about this game’s campaign is the return of a fan-favorite character, Frank Woods, who hasn’t been a prominent character since the first Black Ops game, even with him being in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012) and Black Ops: Cold War (2020).
The story picks up on the events after Black Ops 2, specifically the side of black ops 2 that takes place in the late 1980s. Treyarch, one of the studios that makes Call of Duty games, brought back the duo of Alex Mason and Frank Woods for this campaign. To keep this segment from being too long, the game gives you different endings depending on the actions taken. One of these endings happens to be where Mason is shot by Woods who thinks he’s that game’s antagonist, Raul Menendez. Woods is crippled by Menendez and because of this, he’s wheelchair-bound for Black Ops 6’s campaign, which takes place in the early 90s.
The main protagonist is a new character named William Calderon or “Case” which was kind of upsetting. The main protagonist of the first Black Ops game, David Mason, who I was expecting to see once again, is the first main character of the franchise and my favorite character in Black Ops 1. Treyarch decided that Mason died in Black Ops 2, which felt like a massive slap in the face to many long-time fans. He appeared in Black Ops: Cold War with Woods but they were more like side characters. Despite this, it’s now one of my favorite campaigns in the trilogy.
The multiplayer is solid with a decent variety of weapons as well as some of the best rewards I’ve seen since Black Ops 3 (2015). The prestige rewards include skins inspired by older games like a zombified version of one of the unnamed marines you play as on the first ever zombies map “Nacht der Untoten” from the 2008 title “Call of Duty World at War”, the outfit Mason wore on the Black ops 1 mission “rebirth”, and an outfit inspired by the 2025 version of Raul Menendez. The only flaw with the multiplayer to me is the campers that take a total of 12 steps the entire game but other than that, it’s great.
Finally, after the two worst iterations of zombies being Vanguard and Modern Warfare Zombies, we have a zombie mode that is fun to play and doesn’t make you want to break your controller. The two launch maps, “Liberty Falls”, and “Terminus” are opposites of each other – Liberty is very easy and Terminus is pretty hard if you’re not a seasoned zombie player.
The characters are fairly interesting but nothing compared to the old characters like the original Ultimis crew consisting of a German scientist Edward Richthofen, Russian soldier Nikolai Belinski, U.S. marine Tank Dempsey, and Imperial Japanese soldier Takeo Misaki. They were a big part of what made zombies so fun because they were pretty much additional entertainment. Richtofen going from talking to the zombies like babies to maniacally taunting the zombies and saying other funny stuff was my favorite part of playing as him. My only complaint about Black Ops 6 zombies is that set characters aren’t nearly as interesting or entertaining to listen to as the characters from the older games.
A big complaint about the game is that it’s a reskin of the Cold War zombies mode and not anywhere near “old zombies.” This is a really dumb complaint to have but is understandable. Black Ops 2 had two of the best maps ever, Origins and Buried, and Black Ops 3 had the best zombies out of all of them. I would do anything to play those old games for the first time again because they’re special to me. The original zombies formula probably isn’t ever going to be revisited but this game just about perfected the formula Cold War was going for which is what makes it so good.
I would very much recommend you purchase the game if you’re able to do so. It’s available to play on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Xbox series s/x. I’m not lying when I say it’s the best Call of Duty game we’ve had in years. The $100 version of the game comes with a couple of weapon blueprints, the first season’s battle pass, and four operator skins. Three of them are characters from Black Ops Cold War, being Adler and Park from the campaign and the robot Klaus from the zombies map “Mauer Der Toten”. My favorite operator from this bundle is the warden of Alcatraz Brutus from mob of the dead who’s now made his third appearance but with a different look. If you’re able to spare a little more money for the deluxe edition, I would very much recommend it.
