Now that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been revealed, the dust has settled, and I thought I would go over some of the new additions and changes coming to Multiplayer and Zombies later this year. I have played every game in the series since Call of Duty 4, so this will be my honest opinion on one of my most played franchises.
Movement
Player movement has to be the most significant change coming to this year's Call of Duty experience. After 30 years, someone finally thought, hey, why don't we implement the ability to run sideways and backwards? Not only that, but you can also dive backward while shooting forward. All I can say is I can't wait to get backward dolphin-dived no-scoped, but in all seriousness, this looks like a cool change. We will have to wait and see how this affects the speed and skill gap of the gameplay. Not too many people like slide canceling, how will people handle backward drop shotting?
Multiplayer HUD
The latest HUD (heads-up display) was also revealed, which is said to combine some of their best designs. Let's put that to the test side by side with the Black Ops 3 HUD and see how it compares. Does the Black Ops 6 HUD look like an upgrade from Black Ops 3? No, no it doesn't. Overall, I find the art style of Black Ops 3 more appealing than Black Ops 6.
Not only does everything appear too gray but not even the equipment gets any sort of color enhancement. The killstreaks look completely flat with a lack of detail in comparison to the Black Ops 3 killstreaks which had 3D drawings. The Black Ops 3 HUD also had a larger focus on objective score, while Black Ops 6 just put a small score with a generic line measurement in the top left. The text shown for getting kills is also very generic in comparison.
By the way what happened to the different factions? Oh, that's right, it's been replaced by generic characters to sell you 20-dollar celebrity skins later. Okay back on track. These are just some of my nitpicks, ultimately the HUD isn't going to be a dealbreaker for whether or not the game is good or not, and on the bright side, right after this, they told us for the first time we are going to be able to adjust the HUD, which is pretty neat. I know not everyone is going to use it, but it's a nice feature to have.
Multiplayer Prestige System
The next feature that was discussed, is the prestige system. They're bringing back the classic prestige system and touting it as some great new feature worth marketing. I'll be honest, I don't recall any prestige systems from previous Call of Duty's being amazing. In past games, the common reward you received was a reset to level 1 with a new rank emblem, a permanent unlock, and a new Create-A-Class slot. Nothing worth putting a spotlight on.
The last Call of Duty game I prestiged in was Cold War, which includes a terrible seasonal barrier to the prestige system that has plagued the recent entries in the series. It never made any sense why player ranks were locked behind a seasonal barrier to begin with, all it did was punish dedicated fans who played enough to hit the barrier, so, shockingly, it took this long for them to change it back.
So, what are the rewards and changes this time around that make it the best and most rewarding Call of Duty prestige system ever? It "sounds" the same as previous Call of Duty games… Then you get to level 55 and prestige 10 times until you get to master prestige level 1000. What's also funny is that the prestige system being available on day 1 was treated as an achievement for the team rather than a common feature.
Multiplayer Playstyles
It was mentioned that Black Ops 6 is balanced around three playstyles. Enforcer, which is simply run and gun. Recon, that's also run and gun, but with wall hacks. So, if you hate wall hacks when playing with crossplay enabled, you at least have your own built-in wall hacks to compete with now. The final playstyle is Support, it destroys streaks faster and allows trophies to be placed.
Honestly, the explanation for each playstyle was not as thorough as it could have been. It's funny seeing them describe the Support style and remembering that in past Call of Duty's, a single knife could take out a turret and trophies could be something you spawned in with every life. Now trophies are locked on a cooldown, and turrets take a special class to take down with fire rounds?
Theater Mode, Split-Screen, Maps, and Attachments
Theater Mode is finally back! In previous Black Ops entries, Theater Mode gave you an easy way to access and replay gameplay moments, which is a welcome addition. Split-screen will also be supported, but only on the current generation consoles, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.
There will be 16 multiplayer maps, but only 12 of them will be available for regular 6v6 game modes, and the rest are strike maps, which are available in 2v2's and faceoff 6v6. Let's do a quick check on past Call of Duty facts to see how it compares. Black Ops 1 and 2 both had 14 maps at launch. The last Black Ops game, Cold War, had a smaller count of 8 maps to start with, so 12 is a good amount to launch with. Hopefully not too many remakes this time around, because how many times do we have to play Nuketown before it can be said, enough is enough, let's make something new?
It was mentioned that a return to the classic three-lane route maps is what we have all wanted, but I don't remember Treyarch being known for three-lane maps. What I do remember is Treyarch having a lot of map diversity in Black Ops 1 and 2, so this idea kind of sounds unbelievable. Call of Duty: WW2 had every single map centered around the three - lane map design, and as a result, that possibly hampered the amount of variation.
Gun Attachments
We know that the 9-attachment system that was in Black Ops Cold War is returning to Black Ops 6, and I have personally never enjoyed it since its introduction in the Modern Warfare reboot. Having 9 attachment slots with 1000 attachments is ridiculous, and it's impossible to balance. In the past, the Call of Duty studios have struggled with gun balancing with one to two attachments. What makes you think they could balance 40 guns with 9 attachment slots and 1,000 different attachment combinations?
Zombies
Round-based Zombies is finally back and will continue where Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War left off in the Dark Either Storyline. There will be two round-based Zombie Maps at Launch, which is two less than Black Ops 4. That's basically all that's been revealed so far, but don't fret, as I did ungodly research and found more intel for you Zombie fans.
First off, dedicated zombie crews are returning, which is great. In Black Ops Cold War, you had generic operators who were a poor man's replacement to having a dedicated crew. You'll still have the option to play as a generic operator, which is a nice option for when you get tired of the quotes, I guess. The returns don't stop there, as the microtransaction mechanic in the form of Gobblegums is returning as well.
On one hand, I like the Gobblegum mechanic. On the other hand, they had extremely broken Gobblegums that would ruin the experience of the maps, so hopefully, there are fewer of those. What Gobblegum ruined the maps you may ask? Let me bring you back to Black Ops 3. One random player uses Power Vacuum and for the next 4 rounds, you have constant nukes and instant kills plaguing your game, making the mode feel extremely easy and repetitive. So, Treyarch, less broken Gobblegums would be well appreciated.
Final Thoughts
That's it for my in-depth Black Ops 6 reveal breakdown. I was optimistic this game would be a return to form for the Black Ops series, which I have preferred over the other Call of Duty games, but it's clear to see that this version of Treyarch is far from the Treyarch of Black Ops 1 through 3 or even 4. With the uninteresting art direction, sweat-based matchmaking in multiplayer seemingly untouched, and new characters no one cares about, this looks like Call of Duty: Cold War 2.0, which is a far cry from the great Call of Duty games of the past. I may play this on Xbox Game Pass for the Zombies, but otherwise, I'm passing on this Call of Duty.
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