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Ahead of theCall of Duty: Black Ops 6Direct reveal event, I traveled to Los Angeles to meet many of the developers and minds behind this year’s COD release. I even had a chance to play a few rounds ofBlack Ops 6multiplayer, but more on that later.
Our visit involved a lengthy presentation which delved into the campaign, multiplayer, and zombies segments ofBlack Ops 6, and some interesting new tech the game is adding to the shared Call of Duty engine. Mark Gordon, Studio Head at Treyarch, tells us thatBlack Ops 6aims to"define the future of Call of Duty.“After last year’s brutal critical response to therushedCall of Duty: Modern Warfare III, it was a bold, yet welcome, statement for Gordon to deliver thatBlack Ops 6is"undoubtedly our best work, our best Black Ops ever.”
Black Ops 6is the longest-in-developmentCall of Dutygame in the franchise’s history and has a lot of pressure upon it for the above reasons, not to mention the fact that it’s the first Call of Duty release underXboxafter their$68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Let’s take a deep dive into everything I saw and learned while visiting Treyarch and interviewing some of the team.
Black Ops 6’s Campaign Revealed
After watching a high-octaneBlack Ops 6trailerto the tune of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter,” we begin a deeper dive into the setting of the campaign.“A new era of Black Ops begins as a shadowy clandestine force infiltrates the highest levels of the CIA, branding any who resist as traitors,“we’re told as we learn thatBlack Ops 6is the first game in the series where the team is on the outs.“No calling Uncle Sam for help,“a Treyarch dev explains. The story sees players having to join forces with past enemies. The word “rogue” is thrown around frequently.
Natalie Pohorski, Lead Producer at Raven Software, highlights the key pillars of designing the Black Ops 6 campaign:
A summary of theBlack Ops 6 synopsisgoes something like this: In 1991, an operation in Kuwait goes sideways and leads to a breach in protocol when Russell Adler reappears after going missing for months. He leaves Frank Woods with a cryptic message that leads to the discovery of a clandestine force called The Pantheon which appears to have infiltrated the highest levels of the CIA. The team is forced to go rogue and follow the trail of The Pantheon and prevent them from deploying an apocalyptic weapon.
As for gameplay,Black Ops 6aims to deliver something more epic, including in player choice.Jon Zuk, Associate Creative Director at Raven Software, emphasizes that mission variety was the most important design tenant for the campaign, teasing locations, mission titles, and themes including the Gulf War, Casino Heist, Saboteur, Player Agency, Mind F***ery, Assassin, and something else redacted. In addition to the play styles and environmental differences, there arestrategic opportunities during gameplayinvolving advanced enemies (think juggernauts with miniguns) and player equipment (yes, the RC-XD returns!).
Another core element to the structure of theBlack Ops 6campaign is theSafehouse, a location players explore in between missions. Here they can engage in dialogue trees with other characters and view the Evidence Board to plan out or choose upcoming missions. The goal here, we are told, is to offer player choice and sense of ownership. I did confirm with Jon Zuk however, that players cannot define their loadouts between missions, as the game must guide players into knowing what weapons are required before they’ve even seen the mission. Players however, can upgrade their gear here.
Black Ops 6 appears to be the most visually impressive Call of Duty.
We observed gameplay from two missions, the first dubbedCapitol Stationwhich is set on August 25, 2025 where Governor Bill Clinton is hosting a “Meeting the Future” gala. We see a weapons/gear wheel in action, a motorcycle sequence with slow-mo moments, and automatic leaning around corners. Another mission, calledIraq, showcases the team suiting up as Delta operators on a big, open-world map. It’s not a linear mission. The HUD is noticeably clean and empty, and across both missions it’s impossible to ignore the impressive lighting effects.
What I saw was of course a highly polished presentation of carefully chosen demo clips months before release, but at a glance,Black Ops 6looks like the most impressive COD visually. Part of that has to do with some literally game-changing animations. Let’s talk aboutOmnimovement…
Black Ops 6 Introduces Omnimovement
A new genre-defining movement system built ground up for Call of Duty
A noticeable part of the campaign gameplay on display during our Treyarch Studios visit, and a massive part of the presentation is theOmnimovement system, which may changeCall of Dutyforever.Call of Dutyplayers are accustomed to sprinting forward, but what if you could sprint inanydirection? Follow that logic path and imagine you may slide and dare I say, dive, in any direction. Omnimovement lets you do all of this naturally, as a regular part of the flow of the game. I can’t wait to share more on this element in the future, but I can share a few more details here today.
All Call of Duty studios are using the same shared engine so what you see in Black Ops 6 builds on Modern Warfare 2 & 3, and these new systems added, you’re able to expect to see going forward.
Thousands of animations were mocapped to accomplish the fluidity and fidelity of these new movements. Imagine diving and turning in the air, instead of your entire character model spinning on an axis, your gun moves to where you point while your body maintains its momentum. But wait, there’s more!
Black Ops 6also introducesIntelligent Movement,where the devs drew inspiration from theForzagames and some of the cool settings they offer. For instance, inBlack Ops 6you can just point and go and don’t have to press buttons to climb or mantle forward should you desire to based on new assist options players can toggle for crouching, sprinting, and mantling.
In-game, there’sworld connectivitywhere player models appropriately bash into doors with their shoulders, or smash up against walls. Some of this is reminiscent of whatBattlefield Vattempted to deliver years ago. Diving into water turns movement and animation into an actual dive, and perhaps most importantly, there’s “corner slicing” now so your character automatically leans around objects and corners.
Animations level up significantly on the NPC side as well as the number of hit locations on enemies has more than doubled. For reference,Call of Dutygames historically have four main hit locations that NPCs can react to when they take fire, and inBlack Ops 6there are now 9. There’s also a new dynamic deathcam that, instead of displaying a static view upon death, the camera will now track the body for a bit to showcase the animations. This has been a source of many funny shared clips internally at Treyarch and Raven.
Black Ops 6’s New Title Format Explained
Goodbye extra subtitles and Roman numerals
The rumors of a Gulf War setting for 2024’sCall of Dutywere true, but the title of the game takes a back-to-basics approach, opting to do something different than the secondary subtitle (a laCold War) and the Roman numerals of the four games prior to that. Instead, Black Ops 6 just uses the number. I askedMiles Leslie, Associate Creative Director at Treyarch, about the title choice.
“That’s an interesting question. For us, I think it’s always Black Ops, right? And that didn’t change. I think a lot of it was, and by the way, this goes across all the orgs, so it’s not like Jon [Zuk] and I are there deciding the names, of course. There’s lots of people involved in all these sorts of things. But they do a lot of work on what resonates with people and, of course we have our own opinions, but I think it was like how do we get back to what resonates with players?”
Leslie continues, explaining that"Black Ops Cold War is a Black Ops game and we almost kind of want to accentuate that with the 6. The 6 says that as well. It was like, no, no, that was a legit Black Ops game and we kind of want to return and resonate with the 6 and kind of cement that and I think elicit the rightful nostalgia vibes, but also that it’s something new.”
For what it’s worth the team did joke about"how the hell [they] were going to do the Roman numerals"in a logo had they gone down that path.
Complete Timeline of the Black Ops Story
Black Ops 6 follows Cold War and Black Ops III and is set in 1991
Black Ops 6takes place in the early ’90s, after the events ofBlack Ops Cold War, and is tied to the ’80s flashbacks fromBlack Ops II. The time period choice allows the gameplay to embrace ’90s-themed gadgets and maintains the modern “boots on the ground” gameplay mandate. I asked Miles Leslie if there was ever consideration of going back to the future forBlack Ops 6and re-introducing some of the more wild boosting, jumping, and wall-running abilities.
“Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah. Yes. That always comes up. So the team is always like, oh, wouldn’t it be cool? We can fly again and do all of these things. And I think for us is staying, I don’t want to say to the roots, but back to basics in terms of boots on the ground has still been really important. We know that resonates with players across it. And again, it kind of went back to, it just feels right to stay in the ‘90, ‘91 era after that and doing the advanced movement or boost jump, it didn’t feel right. You know what I mean? It was like we wanted to finish that story after Cold War, the continuation, what happened after BO II was the perfect sort of coming together on that.”
The 1991 setting places the narrative at the end of the Cold War and the height of the Gulf War. America is seen as the last remaining superpower and this gives Americans a false sense of security,“leaving organizations like the CIA vulnerable to shifts in power behind the scenes,“explainsPohorski.
In Black Ops lore,Black Ops 2(the 1980s part of its story) leaves Frank Woods with a critical injury and the loss of his squad mates Alex Mason and Jason Hudson. Woods has since been pulled from the field, serving now in a support role, the “eyes in the sky.” He has a new handler in new characterJane Harrow. Harrow is basically the best ally to have at the agency. Another new character is Marshall, the new team leader.
Black Ops 6’s New Gear
Black Ops 6 introduces 12 all-new weapons for the Call of Duty franchise
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6introduces 12 weapons that have never been seen before in the series, era appropriate and some prototype weapons. Some of the weapons shown to me during the presentation to emphasize the textures and design details added in this game include the PDW, Marine SP, Kompackt 92, SVD, and 9mm PM. As for the gear, following the theme of going rogue and having to make DIY weapons in the field, here are some examples:
Black Ops 6 Progression And Prestige
Classic Prestige returns with the “right amount of new”
Treyarch set out to craft the most rewarding COD they’ve ever built withBlack Ops 6and for Prestige, they listened to the feedback.
“Classic prestige is back”
Round Based Zombies Returns For Black Ops 6
Black Ops 6 has Two Zombies maps at Launch!
Long-time zombies fans will be pleased to know thatround-based zombies returns withBlack Ops 6. Kevin Drew, Associate Design Director on Zombies, tells us that they are refining what they established in Cold War and are looking at what worked in the past while adding a few never-before-seen things.
Black Ops 6: Zombiesembraces the 1991 setting and continues the Dark Aether story five years later. Dr. Peck charters a boat to visit some “old friends,” three of them you’ll recognize. That’s right,Black Ops 6zombies returns to having dedicated characters for its zombie mode.
Black Ops 6 Zombies Characters
You can still use any operator but when you use the main four you’ll get a much more deeper experience with additional VO and they’ll be featured in all of the cinematics.
Black Ops 6 launches with 2 new Zombies Maps
Miles Leslie confirmed to me that progression on weapons is shared between multiplayer and zombies, and there’s a whole system for unlocking skins and rewards from zombies mode.
“We got a whole system on that. We want each group of players to feel like we’re hand crafting stuff for them. And so yeah, a lot of care has gone into the progression,“explains Leslie.
Black Ops Multiplayer Is a Premium Standalone Experience
No Modern Warfare Gear or Operators Crossover With Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6delivers an all-new multiplayer experience featuring 16 brand-new maps at launch. Sorry, no Nuketown (yet).
Ratcliff
Volta
Some of the new features coming withBlack Ops 6multiplayer include Combat Specialties, Dedicated Melees, and Mastery Badges, and returning features include Wildcards, detailed weapon stats, Gunsmith, Favorite Class, Showcase Weapon, and Shooting Range. Your loadout content at launch shapes up like this:
To confirm some of the obvious details as well, there will be 10 custom classes available (same as current COD), 5 default classes, 1 dedicated quick setup, 5 attachment slots (8 with a wildcard though…). This last part is a potential game-changer come time forBlack Ops 6integrating intoWarzonebut more on that later. As for the main multiplayer, there is no crossover or shared gear, skins, attachments, etc. between the current Warzone lineup (based on MW2 & 3) andBlack Ops 6. In Warzone, expect everything to be available from all three games.
“Yeah, so I think the current thinking is that Black Ops 6 is a premium game and that’s what we’re talking about. So we want it to be a fresh start. Warzone, free to play. You’re going to keep all your stuff, but on the premium side, that’s a fresh start for everyone.”
Other notable quality of life improvements and UI changes include a promised streamlined lobby and flow to getting into the game. David Duckworth, UI/ UX Director at Treyarch, confirms that they’re well aware of feedback to the currentCall of Dutymenu system and wantBlack Ops 6to be fast and responsive, approachable, and content-focused. From the moment of launch, it’s all about getting into gameplay. The main menu will also see the return of the Quick join party list in the top right, the post-game best play (returning fromBlack Ops 4) and the Winner’s Circle where winners can showoff to the lobby.
The circular in-game minimap returns, but players can choose the square version should they prefer, and better yet,Black Ops 6introducesHUD Presets. I can finally live out my dream of moving the score and ammo widgets around and choose what corner of the screen I want the minimap to display in.
How Does Black Ops 6 Fit Into Warzone?
We’ll have to wait until Call of Duty: Next
Unfortunately, Treyarch wouldn’t openly talk aboutWarzoneintegration just yet. Yale Miller, Director of Production at Treyarch, did tell us however, thatBlack Ops 6will feature familiar live seasons and emphasized the obvious - thatBlack Ops 6is built upon a shared engine that allCall of Dutystudios use.
They also reiterated their commitment to improving the experience of the launcher, including efforts to reduce the insanely large footprint/filesizeCall of Dutycurrently commands. I fear this may mean we lose some fan-favorite Warzone maps as new content rolls out. As long as Rebirth Island remains for Resurgence mode, we’re good.
Miller confirms that in the next few months they’ll talk more about this and how omnimovement will integrate intoCall of Duty: Warzone.
Confirmed: Omnimovement is coming to Call of Duty: Warzone.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6will be available globally on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Battle.net, Microsoft Store, and Steam on Friday, October 25th, 2024.
TheBlack Ops 6 Open Betawill be free across all platforms, with players who pre-order gaining early access
