This time of year seems to come by so quickly. It is always generously stacked with games, and there is often far too much to play. Without fail, though, there is always a Call of Duty title before the year closes out. Thankfully I breathe a massive sigh of relief at this, the franchise has moved on from yearly Modern Warfare releases. Since 2019 we have seen three games bearing the Modern Warfare banner and two consecutively in the last two years.
Black Ops Is Back Baby!
So yes, it is safe to say I am a little tired of Modern Warfare. We did see Cold War and Vanguard between Modern Warfare (2019) and Modern Warfare II, but they weren’t the most memorable shooters from the series. I’ve always been fond of the Black Ops experiences from Treyarch, so I was a little excited to hear this year’s outing was going to be Call Of Duty Black Ops 6.
I think Treyarch has always done an exceptional job with the Black Ops lineup. In this era of gaming though I know it is a collaborative effort across several teams to get the whole plethora of modes within Call Of Duty out of the gates. The formula over the last few years has been exhausting and tiring with regurgitated maps, a stale seasonal ranking system and expensive skin packs. My attention turns to see how the acquisition of Activision Blizzard under the Xbox umbrella goes, I am not expecting much in the way of changes, but it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out over this game cycle.
Prestige Returns To A Classic System
One feature that frustrated me in the previous games was the seasonal prestige system. Releasing prestige levels in seasonal bursts either made you feel like you were done and dusted way before the season ended if you were playing consistently. If you were too busy for the period then you’d almost feel left behind. Black Ops 6 returns to the traditional methods of levelling with 10 prestige levels. Once these are up the game states that you can then level as far as level 1000 beyond 10th prestige, but it remains to be seen if they will bring any more prestige levels into the mix.
With a return to tradition, this means the dreaded choice of losing your weapons but choosing one per prestige to bring across. Luckily you can retain the weapon build you were using before choosing prestige so that you don’t forget your setup. Weapon blueprints, reticles and more are also safe, so you don’t lose absolutely everything and this is explained to you before you carry out the process.
Game Modes Galore
Right off the bat, we have plenty of modes in the first week with your standard Free For All and Team Deathmatch options being your non-objective modes. Classics such as Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, Search & Destroy, Domination, Control and Headquarters are here. Infected arrived after a few short days along with the world-famous Nuketown map as well.
Kill Order was my least favourite mode where each team has to protect a high-value target. The concept is great but its execution and point scoring seems a little erratic and often unfair. You’re not rewarded for surviving whilst playing as the target other than personal score, but thrusting yourself into firefights and gaining kills scores the team points. Players who are not a high-value target can also contribute by killing the opposing high-value target. What I enjoyed is that face-off modes take scorestreaks out of the equation, allowing for a good old-fashioned scrap without projectiles and stuff going on in the air.
Visuals & Audio
Black Ops 6 has some incredible map design throughout the plethora of maps this year. Whilst not all of them float my boat, you can easily see a lot of work has gone into them. Performance on Xbox Series X is rock solid with not many issues across the launch week apart from a few lag spikes here and there. Menus are much improved and don’t feel as clunky but I’d imagine this is down to the work of the Call Of Duty hub overall, as it is all directed from one menu depending on the game you’re playing.
Audio performs as well as you’d expect from a Call Of Duty game and let’s face it, the sound effects don’t often change. But it is always satisfying to get those levelling-up sounds popping off on the screen or the hit markers turning and merging into kills. The overall presentation so far between Campaign and Multiplayer is excellent and I’m sure this is likely down to a lengthy development cycle as each game rotates through the years. One intense moment I had was on the map Pit which is set in underground mines with the enemy team filling the area with smoke changing the course of the game completely. Navigating through the waves of smoke felt very realistic with beautiful lighting work glistening through the fumes.
Final Thoughts
Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 stays true to the previous titles and carries the torch into this interesting period for Call Of Duty. For Xbox players with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, it is fantastic that it is available to players on launch. Not only will this reign in veterans, but the casual crowd can dip their toes in if they choose. From the multiplayer perspective, it is a welcome change from Modern Warfare and bears similarities to Cold War in how it feels to play. A classic prestige system being re-introduced allows players to digest the game at their own pace and not feel left behind by seasonal updates.
This year feels like Call Of Duty has gone back to basics. It still angers me that Xbox still doesn’t allow players to switch off the crossplay options within the internal menu system and skill-based matchmaking appears to be ever-present. These issues aside though, we have a nice refreshing return to Black Ops that not only looks great but also feels satisfying to play for hours on end. For now, time to level up those guns for Warzone on November 14th!
Overall
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85%
Summary
Pros
- A refreshing change from Modern Warfare
- The return of the Classic Prestige system
- Gunplay is fantastic and punchy
- An arsenal of fun weapons
Cons
- Still can’t turn off crossplay on Xbox
- Skill based match making still present
- Some maps are infuriating to play