Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Campaign (Review)
Overview
Call of Duty is a series that has undergone wave after wave of iterations over the years with countless games that have spanned across various eras of history and as video games, set trends and established staple features for the genre. There is a common comment that "Call of Duty has failed to innovate" and this sentiment has always come as a double edged sword with games like Infinite Warfare being one of the most disliked trailers of the time.
I think that there are two safe time periods that Call of Duty can occupy that always turn out and feel like they cooked and they are the Modern Warfare series, and the Black Ops series. Black Ops was my first Call of Duty that I played multiplayer for and COD 4 being my first Call of Duty campaign, the run COD had between these games solidified and defined the hallmarks of the Call of Duty experience.
Black Ops 6, much like its Modern Warfare reboot counterparts, is an experience that taps into what the fans loved originally, and has Black Ops 6, continue on the trail of where Call of Duty Cold War wrapped up, and fits within the timeline of Black Ops 2. As a video game, and a Call of Duty campaign, which I haven't played in years up until this past week getting caught up on Cold War and Black Ops, I can say that this campaign has been trying some new things and I think in a lot of ways Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is a fresh and compelling Call of Duty campaign, especially for those who love the Black Ops. It has an interesting range of level variation, new refined gunplay mechanics, and a story that fumbles in some respects, but is entertaining none the less in a Call of Duty kinda way.
In this review I will only be covering the campaign and shedding light on my thoughts, so without delay let's get into my review for Call of Duty Black Ops 6.
Story
The story for Black Ops 6 takes place a few years after the events of Cold War, and is the first time that Call of Duty explores the political climate of the 90s and the conflicts entailed. The story will see you in the shoes of William Case Calderon along with Troy Marshall and Jane Harrow on an operation to extract an Iraqi minister of defense Saeed Alawi and are confronted by a rogue paramilitary referred to as Pantheon, who will serve as the games primary antagonist. The story for Black Ops 6, will slowly open up and see the return of many iconic characters such as Black Ops badass Frank Woods, and Cold War's hard boiled Russel Adler. The story will see the team taking up shop in an abandoned mansion called The Rook, and chasing down clues and the mysteries behind a new bio-weapon called "The Cradle". I don't want to spoil the reveals of this story, but I will say that the story dives into many interesting operative fantasies from espionage, heists, and going full guns blazing with the typical set-pieces.
There are some really interesting ideas that are explored here, that I feel lead nowhere in this entry, which I did find a little disappointing and I do think leaves the door open to reconnect on with future entries, I think overall the Black Ops 6 has a bombastic story that will suffice. But the biggest issue for me that I find is how the campaign at time can handle its pacing feeling like it is jumping around moment to moment, and not letting these characters or moments sit, in the same way the older games really did. I won't spoil the ending, but man does it feel like it jumps all over the place and feels like something that should have taken place earlier in the story, not at the last mission of the campaign.
But outside of these pacing issues, I think overall Black Ops 6 does tell an enjoyable story that has plenty of easter eggs and fan service for old fans, and tells a satisfactory story that feels like it captures the aura of a Black Ops game, and does well in execution in most respects. It doesn't hit the highs of the original Modern Warfare or Black ops, but does have something to offer.
Level Variation
When talking about the story I talked about the different settings that the levels would be a host to, and these different themes correlate well to the types of levels on offer in Black Ops 6's campaign and I feel like there is a good variety of missions here, with some that are multi-objective open area missions and others feeling like spy espionage, with wanting to be methodical in approach. The levels offer multiple routes, tools and methods for picking off enemies, but all the outcomes ultimately do lead to one outcome in each level. Which brings me to my next point, there is no choices or branching paths in Black Ops 6, the game is linear and honestly it is the one thing that I do feel would be cool to make a return, and it would be cool to see how many of these different missions and how you complete them has an effect on the story.
I think this is something that I would like to see them explore again in a future entry, because I feel like it is something that really did solidify Black Ops 2's campaign, and made many of the options and choices feel like their was weight to the decision, and I think it is something that here in Black Ops 6, whilst you're provided freedom in how you tackle objectives and missions, there is ultimately no drastic changes in outcomes to how the story plays out.
One thing that I will say caught me off guard was this one particular mission in this campaign, which broke my preconceived conceptions of a COD campaign and had me asking myself "wait, this is Call of Duty?". Yes the mission emergence was a huge stand out for me in how it tasks the player with different tasks to complete, the way it handles traversal through the use of a grappling hook, which is so badass, boss encounters, and different varied bosses too. The level feels like a completely different game in many respects, and it is awesome to see Treyarch get creative.
I feel like in many respects, Black Ops 6 throws a lot of ideas at you, that do work and keep the blood pumping throughout the campaign, and I think in many ways it does harken back to the shooters of the late 2000's in the bombastic nature and different types of missions. I'd like to see them lean further into many of these different ideas in future games, I think that the level design of emergence was something else and makes me excited to see what Raven Software and Treyarch continue to cook up, because I feel gold is around the corner.
New Movement and Mechanics
Black Ops 6 sees the overall movement of the Call of Duty experience be reworked to the new Omni-movement system which allows much more freedom and expression with the players movement, influencing the position and angles you can shoot from, and sees the return of dolphin diving, but add to this the Omni-movement and you can be looking to the side while diving and shoot your enemies making you feel like a matrix badass, and adds more flexibility to how
you choose to approach different situations in encounters.
In the campaign specifically there is one great feature that provides you a great breadth of exposure to many of Black Ops 6's various tools, and that is the inclusion of a scroll wheel, which can store each of the different gadgets you can use. It really does make you feel like a One Man Army and overall these additions for me really do throw me back to the good old days of playing Call of Duty, and had me chasing the feeling of the good old days.
The Visual and Sound Presentation
Lastly I'd like to touch on the visual and sound presentation for Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and man, I feel like if there is one department that COD generally delivers on it is its visual presentation. The way that it brings all the different time periods to life like raiding Castro's hideout, or the underground facility of emergence. There are some levels in this game does go into a semi-supernatural realm and it does a killer job conveying this mind bending psychological scenes, that are neatly contrasted with the military affair you're generally in for in a Call of Duty campaign. The sound design is pretty solid, with weapons feeling satisfying to use, particularly in stealth missions, there is something about getting that one tap shot on an enemy that sound when you secure the kill. The set pieces, explosions are all satisfying and contribute to the atmosphere of a scene.
Conclusion
In conclusion for me Call of Duty Black Ops 6 in many ways feels like a return to form, it's like stepping back into the shoes of a game that I used to be really fond of, it doesn't quite hit the same highs as the original Black Ops with its narrative, having some pacing issues and an ending that feels a bit awkward and out of place, and it doesn't offer the range of choice that was provided in Black Ops 2, even with a large plethora of open sandbox areas that allow you to approach a mission in a more flexible manner. But despite these things, Black Ops 6 offers a pretty entertaining campaign, a compelling array of missions diverse in their structure and approach, and some truly interesting ideas that I hope to see return and evolve in future games. The campaign ends at a weird spot, but I'm interested to see how they Black Ops timeline evolves and were both Treyarch and Raven take it from here. Black Ops 6 is available on Game Pass and if you currently hold a subscription, then I would definitely recommend checking out Black Ops 6, do I think that it is worth the full price, if you're picking this up purely to experience the campaign, then I would suggest waiting for a sale or considering the game pass route.
