Green Room Review| Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

 

Image Credit: Steam

Surprise a new review after several months of not playing anything I could properly review such as non story based racing games, Rock Band 3, and my live service addiction that grows my backlog Destiny 2. Recently though something entered onto Game Pass on release day that pulled me in to my old teenage obsession Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. As a sequel to both Cold War and Black Ops 2 this game sits in between two of the best Call of Duty stories released taking place in 1991 during the Gulf War taking players through an interesting and turbulent point in history. Let's Dive into it!

(Reviewed on Xbox Series played through a 4k TV)

Story

***Minor Spoilers***

The Story of Black Ops 6 picks up two years after the last flashback in Black Ops 2. Woods is still reeling from the betrayal in Panama that cost his best friends life and the life of Hudson. The game starts with players ambushing a convoy with two new characters Harrow and Marshall. When ambushing the convoy we are clued in that this mission is a recollection in a debrief. From here we are made aware of the big bad of this entry, Pantheon a so called cabal embedded in below CIA that only certain high ranking officials know of. As you move your target to extraction a familiar face returns, Russell Adler shooting the target and submitting to arrest by our heroes. This is where the rabbit hole begins. Unlike the Modern Warfare series this game features a hub that you return to between missions called the Rook here you can upgrade your character, speak with allies, and explore a few cool rooms and solve a puzzle. This title sets itself apart from feeling like a singleplayer version of warzone softly introducing the HUD and mechanics to those who may not have played warzone. At first the gameplay felt weird and at points still does but after the campaign I do feel it has grown on me. This game feels different from most Call of Duty titles like it has the CoD name but the gameplay felt strange and that is due in part to the campaign being developed by Raven software (Singularity, Wolfenstein (2009), etc.) it feels very much like a Raven game especially towards the middle and end. The missions do feel less linear and more up to your gameplay as many missions do offer stealth or loud approaches. Certain missions have unique mechanics that never return but it helps to keep the player interested. Honest thoughts this game feels like the best CoD campaign since Cold War and MW(2019) and it found a way to make the boring MW3 open combat mission style something fun and engaging for the one mission it has like that.

Gameplay

The gameplay is still Call of Duty there is not much else that has changed here. The big change is called omni movement which allows for you to slide and dive in any direction so it feels like the previous titles with just slightly different directions and a high skill ceiling. The campaign has multiple points where it allows you freedom to choose your own path or in certain missions a specific set of ways to solve an objective. The campaign has a upgrade system by finding money in missions that allows you upgrade your perks for faster reload, carry more armor and ammo, etc. As I brought up in the story section it campaign does play similar to warzone with the similar HUD and bringing in the armor mechanics and the allowing the same movement as in multiplayer. It did feel like ammo was slightly more scarce (Or I'm bad at ammo management both are possible) and there were Elite enemies who function as mini-bosses who can just absorb more damage than the regular rank and file troops who are mowed down by the hundreds as usual.

Audio

The audio continues to both impress and make me miss older CoD audio it really feels like the audio variety of the firearm sounds was thrown out in an attempt to keep the more realistic gun sounds. It feels unfortunate as that was always a thing in older titles that made me try different guns for the sounds and allowed me to identify what was being used by players unfortunately this trend will probably continue for the foreseeable future. The audio mix is great the actors absolutely kill it one scene where the player and Woods talk about what happens after they wrap up the story really made me feel like I was watching a show instead of playing CoD. The music is forgettable with a few standouts but the audio still continues the upward trajectory that the series always has carried.

Verdict

While some parts are forgettable and may make no sense this game feels like it has heart behind it that was missing for a while. This entry is strong showing for the first CoD to come out after the Microsoft acquisition. This game will be an easy sell to any prior CoD fan but if you have Game Pass and want to hop in to the series this title would be the best jumping in point. This title has earned itself 3.5/5 it is above average in having a fun story that feels like a Netflix show and allows player freedom. The multiplayer doesn't feel like anything new and brings few great maps that stand up to Treyarch's pedigree for making memorable maps. The omni movement is cool but overall underwhelming. Thank You for reading! What's your favorite Black Ops game let me know below!