Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – First Campaign and Zombies Details, First Multiplayer Impressions

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is releasing later this year and it continues the story events from 2012’s Black Ops 2. The year is now 1991 and Adler is back and more determined than ever. I went to the Black Ops 6 summit to play some multiplayer and get the low down on campaign and Zombies details.

Campaign

The campaign for Black Ops 6 picks up after the events of Cold War and Black Ops 2. The official timeline was revealed to be Black Ops 1, Cold War, Black Ops 2, Black Ops 6, Black Ops 4, and Black Ops 3. Cold War takes place in 1981 while Black Ops 2 is set in 1989.

Sometime between then and 1991, where Black Ops 6 is set, a lot has changed for Adler. Unfortunately, some of his past squadmates have died (no spoilers here yet) and Frank Woods has been injured and is relegated to the sidelines in this story.

Woods is still running his team but just in a different way from before since they had to break away from the CIA, due to being mislabeled as traitors, and go rogue. There’s a new force at play threatening democracy, and Woods and Adler are forced to scrounge up their own resources and team and clear their names.

Black Ops 6 really leans into the rogue aspect, as this special forces team no longer has access to tech and funding as they did before and are now forced to get creative. These agents are now breaking all the rules they knew before and aren’t really bound to any morals they’ve previously agreed to before, so we’re going to see them get creative and especially violent.

The campaign seems to really revolve around a “whatever it takes” theme and an “at all costs” mindset. A lot of features from Cold War will be returning to Black Ops 6, like the safe room you can return to after missions and puzzles you can solve for that you find in the world.

In addition to returning mechanics, we’re also getting more story options with new dialogue trees with your companions and multiple ways to complete missions. Black Ops 6 is branching out from just being your typical Call of Duty spy espionage storyline to being a fully-fledged campaign story experience that is tailored to how you want to play.

When you speak with your teammates in safe houses or in the world, you’re able to choose different dialogue options that will then open up unique connections and conversations. In these dialogue trees, there’ll be better looks into the Black Ops lore and references to previous games as they fit into the story.

Zombies

Black Ops 6 brings back classic round-based Zombies. The Zombies storyline, meanwhile, is directly continuing from Cold War’s campaign, where [SPOILER ALERT] Richtofen is revealed to be the Director who’s locked up Grigori Waver, Elizabeth Grey, and Mac Carver.

The story follows Dr. Peck who was shown at the ending of the Cold War campaign in Japan in the year 1990 looking for some old friends. Peck is looking to rescue his old crew with a new companion, Maya Aguinaldo, off a prison island that looks and feels like Alcatraz.

You can play Zombies as any of the Operators you have, but if you play using any of the characters in the story (Weaver, Grey, Carver, and Aguinaldo), you’ll be able to progress the storyline and get additional dialogue related to the campaign.

There will be two brand new maps at launch: Liberty Falls and Terminus (the prison site). Liberty Falls is set in the Appalachian mountains in a small town with lots of buildings to expand your runs with, while Terminus has multi-level areas set on a small island so you can gain several vantage points unlocking the different levels on the map.

Multiplayer

Black Ops 6 Multiplayer is keeping all the modern aspects I love about first-person shooters now, but with classic Call of Duty elements. The UI is reminiscent of the original Black Ops but with a new cleaner look that doesn’t clutter the screen.

While the HUD does keep to classic Black Ops looks, like the scorecard font and the circular minimap, you’re actually able to adjust all the on-screen widgets with some new premade presets that change the layout. Similar to how you can adjust the HUD in mobile versions of FPS games, you’re able to reposition where the on-screen widgets are and change the minimap to square if you prefer.

Hardcore players might rejoice because classic Prestige is returning with 10 total Prestige levels. The max level to hit before you can roll to Prestige is 55, and you can unlock Prestige Master at 1,000 levels. This feature is available to players right at launch so you can start grinding immediately if that’s your thing.

One of the biggest additions to Multiplayer that I’m really looking forward to is the new omnidirectional movement mechanic. No, it’s not the cool Advanced Warfare movement but it does give the ability for players to sprint, slide, and dive sideways without losing momentum.

In my opinion, Call of Duty has always suffered in terms of modern FPS movement mechanics due to it leaning more into the “realistic” side of military games. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m glad for the change.

It’s not something that’s never been seen before in an FPS, but it’s definitely the first time it’s being used in a Call of Duty title and I anticipate some players needing an adjustment period to get used to that mechanic.

You can turn the option off, but having played a few matches of multiplayer, I can tell you right now that if you do not utilize that movement tech, you will be at a heavy disadvantage. How far the new movement mechanics will go, I’m not sure. I did ask the developers if tap-strafing, the ability to change directions mid-air, would be possible now in Black Ops 6 due to the omni-directional movement but was not given a concrete answer.

I think it’ll take veteran players some time to get used to and the especially technically talented players will jump ahead in skill level at launch. However, I will say the movement felt incredibly smooth and the sliding and jumping chaining felt very satisfying.

If you want to optimize your movement in game even further, there’s actually a new intelligent movement button assist system that you can turn on to auto sprint, auto tactical sprint, auto mantle, and even auto crouch when you’re walking for a certain amount of time. Automating a lot of these movements will make game flow much easier for yourself and you can focus on the new omnidirectional movement tech instead.

Along with new movement mechanics, there are new loadouts with combat specialities and a dedicated melee weapon. So now your loadout will consist of one Primary Weapon, one Secondary Weapon, and one Melee Weapon.

With perks, there are three combat specialties: Enforcer Perks, Recon Perks, and Strategist Perks. If you select three of the same type of Perk into your loadout, you’ll get a fourth extra perk that aids your specific playstyle.

You can build up to 10 custom classes that allow you to have up to 5 attachments as default, but you can unlock 8 with the special Wildcard. I wasn’t told about what Wildcards would be in the game but they teased that they revolved around more attachments and potentially having two primary weapons.

Meanwhile, the Gunsmith, showcase weapon, and shooting range are all returning in Black Ops 6. There will be 16 brand new maps at launch with 12 Core Multiplayer maps and 4 Strike Maps for Gunfight and other additional modes. The two factions in Black Ops 6 are the Rogue Black Ops (the previous CIA agents) and Crimson One (the CIA-backed team).

There are also 12 new weapons that are era-appropriate for 1991, and new equipment and field upgrades. A few examples include an older prototype of the RC-XD (which is a crude little RC car with a bomb attached to the top of it) and War Cry (a field upgrade that allows you to smash two flares together to give you and nearby teammates a temporary buff).

Overall I’m really excited to see how Multiplayer and Zombies will play out in beta and launch since the time I got in Multiplayer seemed very promising especially with the new movement and intelligent button assist mechanics.