The Call of Duty series has a history of amazing maps. Activision’s esteemed FPS is basically teeming with them; Shipment, Terminal, Favela, Rust, Firing Range – the list goes on. With every game, CoD adds more maps, no matter what banner they come under. For my money, Modern Warfare typically has the best (but then, I usually prefer that arm of the series to Black Ops). That’s all changed this year, however, with the phenomenal deployment of a fantastic map in Black Ops 6.
I’m talking about Red Card. The second you enter the main entrance of this well-conceived stadium, you know you’re in for something special. You’re in the stands of an international soccer pitch, you can race through the lobby and view the memorabilia upstairs, explore the promenade and fan festival stands, or swing back into the lobby or parking garage.
But, better yet, the engineering wizards over at Treyarch, Raven, Beenox et al have managed to do something really special in Red Card: it’s the use of the licensed track Epic, by Faith No More, that makes it really stand out. Not only is it a great track in and of itself (taken from the killer album, The Real Thing), it’s a dynamic, tidal song that’s a perfect accompaniment to the back-and-forth nature of a good CoD multiplayer game. I didn’t realise quite how much IRL music could benefit an FPS like this until I played Red Card.
You see, depending on where you are in the map, you’ll be able to hear the song playing from the speakers of the pitch itself. If you’re deep in the player tunnels, it’s distant and echoing off the hard walls. If you’re up in the stands, it’s blaring out – almost aggressively – duelling for precedence over gunfire and exploding semtex. If you’re in the lobby, it’s nothing more than background noise, really, underpinning the skirmish you’re desperately trying to live through.
I don’t even want to think about how much Activision shelled out for the licensing rights to Epic – and whether this will be a permanent fixture in the map, since we all know how difficult maintaining licensing rights in music can be. But it works.
I think it all works so well because Red Card is also a really interesting map, from a design standpoint. Many Call of Duty maps can feel a bit confusing at first, and given Red Card is a multi-level affair, it’d be easy to become disoriented or lost. But once you get to know the musical cues, you can actually rationalise yourself within the setup of the level – it’s a really smart way of letting you glean information from audio – as well as visual – cues. Something that Call of Duty has really excelled at over the past few years.
The Lobby and the Main Entrance give you plenty of space to get the drop on more gung-ho foes, and the staircase and fully-functioning elevator in the north lobby give you the option to play mind games with your enemies, too (loading up the elevator with streaks or equipment and making a mobile siege base out of it is hard to set up, but very satisfying if you pull it off). I’d recommend using the Engineer Perk on this map, too; there are plenty of places for wily operators to plant equipment of their own as you navigate the horiztonal and vertical intricacies of a map like this.
I must have played a good 20 or 30 matches in Red Card over the weekend, and I’m not sick of Mike Patton’s crooning, growling, and rapping yet. Nor am I frustrated with the layout of the map and the tricks you can play when you’re launched into it (despite the dodgy spawn points). High praise. Let’s see if I still feel this way a few seasons deep… who knows, maybe Activision is planning on cycling the songs you hear in Red Card as the game progresses… How cool would it be to start popping headshots to Jane’s Addiction, or Nine Inch Nails, or something else suitably 90s?
Incidentally, you may recognise Patton’s dulcet tones from elsewhere in gaming – this isn’t his first time flirting with interactive entertainment. He was the voice of the eponymous Darkness in, you guessed it, The Darkness. He was the voice of Nathan Spencer in the controversial Bionic Commando reboot in 2009. And he lent his pipes to the Anger Core in Portal, too. I guess being frontman for at least ten bands and influencing every singer worth their salt in alternative music just wasn’t keeping him busy enough, ey?
If you want more Call of Duty Black Ops 6 music talk, you can find an interview with the game’s composer, Jack Wall, at the link.
Call of Duty BlackOps 6 is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
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