People asked me, a Call Of Duty fan: “How’s the new COD going?” – such is the mass appeal of Call Of Duty that even many of my friends outside the industry wonder whether the shooting in Black Ops 6 will really work. And each time, my brain turns on and I turn inward, where I struggle to think of anything sensible to say. To the point that a fog forms and a figure emerges from the fog – it’s me. I hold the M4A1 with the barrel extended and the foregrip vertical. My brain and body make a pinching motion in physical response: 1) I shrug 2) I say, “It’s like Call Of Duty.”
This year’s PvP offerings are largely the same for COD relatives. You spit lead at other players in deathmatches and your team’s hardpoints, then search and destroy. Defeat dads spending precious evening hours putting kids to bed or kids who should be asleep by now, and you’ll unlock up-to-date weapons, perks, and perks. Of course, the real reward is unlocking some tiger stripes that will make your weapon look like it was released from a zoo.
There’s something familiar about it all, when you’re working on a up-to-date weapon that everyone is using and a up-to-date attachment that will make it as powerful as the one everyone is using. As a former esports executive, I love racing metaguns and – whether it’s hearty or not is debatable – I really enjoy the dopamine hit of seeing that I’ve unlocked a up-to-date front grip. But that doesn’t mean that the Gunsmith (where you do the aforementioned tinkering) and the compact pool of weapons don’t encourage experimentation – quite the opposite!
You’d think that a compact group of submachine guns and assault rifles or whatever would make for a lackluster EXP chase and ward off the variety. In any case, the sheer range of attachments combined with the easy-to-use weapon set creates a collection of barrels and bullets you’ll want to experiment with. Most importantly, when you experiment, you feel like you’ll easily find a build that fits the meta for you.
Take your weapons to the arena and enjoy the classic COD FPS gameplay, minus the Battlefield-style war maps with tanks and capture areas. For some reason it doesn’t exist in Blops 6 and I personally don’t mind it. Some of you who liked these modes might be a little depressed, but hey, there’s always a chance they’ll be added later. As I write this, the game does not yet have its first season or battle pass, which will bring with it up-to-date maps, weapons and the like. It’s a matter of ongoing development, so consider this review as my thoughts on the experience of the launch iteration.
Elsewhere, there’s Control, which is a bit like Domination, except that scoring or defending points is divided into rounds in a best-of-three mode. If the attacking team scores all the points in the allotted time, they score a point and the teams switch roles. And as you might guess, if the defending team prevents the attackers from doing their job, they score a point. What’s nice is that both teams share a common pool of lives, which adds an additional victory condition that adds to the tension. Don’t be the reason your team went from 15 comforting lives to 5…
… you might say to yourself as you dive into a group of five players before you’re knocked down like a bloated clay pigeon that’s landed at the feet of a tweed-clad stag party on a shooting range. Treyarch calls Blops’ up-to-date movement system “Omnimovement”, allowing you to sprint and dive in any direction. You can slide across doors, lunge backwards, and even spin in the air. Land on your back and you can roll onto your stomach and shoot bullets at someone’s ankles. I like that it’s a “technical” game-changer, in the sense that I’ve seen very good players do some John Woo moves, and I, an average player, have done the occasional nice slide run and felt good about it. In fact, it’s intended for both sides, where 90% of people can play COD as they always have, with a bit of occasional talent, while the remaining 10% can master the game as they did World Chase marker athletes.
And most importantly, I’m a fan of throwing myself around maps, only one of which I despise (that’s a huge compliment). While I really think it’s a bit of a disservice to them that I have to name-check them instead of burying them in my consciousness like Terminal, Favela, or Castle, I think overall they’re a solid group that promotes fun shooters. Don’t ask me How they thoroughly promote enjoyable shooting, I just know I really like the elderly Payback estate and its messy conservatory. Scud is similarly frenetic, set in a crumbling military outpost where submachine guns and shotguns rule its innards while snipers outside can cover the distance by sticking their heads into pieces of broken concrete. Canal systems in Lowtown? They suck. I hate Lowtown.
Leaving aside the discussion of channels and PvP for a moment, let’s focus on zombies for a moment. The last few COD Zombies have been open world events that felt a bit hollow and left behind the simplistic, round-based chaos of the past. Well, Blops 6 brought the past back to the forefront, so to speak. We have some time-honored maps with the usual rhythm: collect money by shooting the undead, open doors, activate traps and fight with friends for the mystery box. One thing I appreciate is the ability to have any weapon you want, rather than always starting with a pistol. It’s nice to be able to get up-to-date bonuses and such once you accumulate enough EXP.
In conclusion, I would best sum up Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 this way: it’s like Call Of Duty. I think it’s good. He’s not bad. If you like Call Of Duty, you will like this. If you don’t like Call Of Duty, you won’t like it. If you haven’t played Call Of Duty in a while but have enjoyed Call Of Duty in the past, you definitely will probably Yes. Now imagine me backing into the fog with my M4A1 and disappearing into a hall filled with the moist squeals of a man passionately eating lasagna too close to the microphone.
