Black Ops 6 Is Clearly Influenced by Mission: Impossible

The spy fiction genre can trace its roots all the way back to the early 1800s, and it’s remained a fairly popular genre ever since, with major franchises like James Bond and Mission: Impossible still dominating the box office whenever a new entry rolls around. Naturally, the spy genre has found its way to video games, though it’s been a notoriously difficult genre to adapt. Far too often, spy video games struggle to balance slower-paced espionage with high-octane action, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 does a surprisingly great balancing act.

Carrying forward many of the same themes as its Cold War-set predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s campaign revolves around distrust in political organizations and world leaders, and a gang of former CIA agents trying to save the world against all odds. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a spy thriller through and through, and its story and action seem to have been inspired by the aforementioned Mission: Impossible series.

Related

One Classic Call of Duty Feature is the Odd One Out in Black Ops 6, But It Didn’t Have to Be

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s approach to customization is a breath of fresh air, but it is a shame that another classic multiplayer aspect falls short.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Campaign Shares Some DNA With Mission: Impossible

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Campaign Is a Mission: Impossible-Like Spy Thriller

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s campaign features a premise that will seem all too familiar to long-time Mission: Impossible fans. After a high-value target extraction goes awry and a mysterious new military organization known as The Pantheon rears its head, Frank Woods and his team of black ops agents are suspended from the CIA. Believing they’re the only ones who can stop Pantheon’s nefarious plans, Woods and his team are forced to go rogue.

Now actively hunted by the CIA, Woods and his team are truly on their own, with their only respite being a safe house in Bulgaria known as ‘The Rook.’ Without spoiling too much, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s campaign builds to a climactic, very Mission: Impossible-inspired ending in which Woods and his team are in a race against time to stop Pantheon’s devastating bioweapon attack that will undoubtedly kill millions.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Campaign Borrows a Few Mission: Impossible Set Pieces

Though Frank Woods’ team of rogue black ops agents may not have government assistance, they still have access to a small arsenal of classic spy gadgetry. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s campaign will have players sneaking behind enemy lines, using disguises to blend in with the crowd, using remote cars to disable power supplies, lockpicking doors, hacking into secret frequencies, and crawling through air vents and underground tunnels, to name just a few examples of the game’s Mission: Impossible-like mechanics.

Many of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s campaign set pieces also feel heavily inspired by Mission: Impossible, with one of the best examples being the mission ‘Most Wanted,’ which sees players sneak their way into a political charity event located above a secret CIA prison. The player is given the simple objective of obtaining an ambassador’s retinal scan, and they’re given several different ways to approach it.

One way sees players steal a note from a magnate’s jacket in the cloakroom, meet up with the man, steal his pager, and organize a meeting with the ambassador in the venue’s kitchen. This culminates in a brief fistfight with the ambassador’s bodyguards in a sequence that feels very reminiscent of Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘s bathroom scene.

Another Black Ops 6 mission sees players pulling off a heist in a casino, an activity that involves hacking into mainframes, swimming through underground waterways, winning a game of high-stakes poker, and passing keycards between team members using sleight of hand.

Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.

The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.

In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.

Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.

Released

October 25, 2024

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer , Online Co-Op

Engine

IW 9.0

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

How Long To Beat

8 Hours

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown

X|S Optimized

Yes

PS Plus Availability

N/A

File Size Xbox Series

216 GB (October 2024)

Split Screen Orientation

Vertical or Horizontal

Number of Players

1-4

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Cross Save

Yes – PlayStation, Xbox, PC

Cross-Platform Play

Yes – PlayStation, Xbox, PC

PC Release Date

October 25, 2024

PS5 Release Date

October 25, 2024

Xbox Series X|S Release Date

October 25, 2024

Expand