Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is ridiculous. One mission has you descending into a biochemical k-hole amidst a discontinued government facility as you fight off non-existent zombies, while the next goes full Ocean’s Eleven as you switch between characters to rob a casino. Each of its missions are unexpected, imaginative, and push the series to places it has never been to before. It’s so out there that, at times, I kind of miss the old-fashioned run and gun nature of earlier entries. However, if this is a sign of the future, you can sign me right up.
As wild as Black Ops 6 becomes throughout its campaign, it also has a handful of classic stealth missions where you are given an objective and expected to waltz into an area packed with guards to achieve your goal by any means necessary. You’re a spy with a litany of sick gadgets such as homing knives that lock onto enemies, tranquiliser traps which beep before sending your foes to sleep, and countless other items that feel pulled right from James Bond and Mission Impossible. You aren’t just a marine with a silenced pistol carefully hiding behind Captain Price, you’re an unstoppable killing machine all on your lonesome.
Nothing Beats Wiping Out Entire Bases With A Silenced Pistol
Unlike Call of Duty 4’s All Ghillied Up, where a younger Price must follow Captain Macmillian through the ruins of Chernobyl to assassinate Imran Zakhaev, most of the stealth missions in Black Ops 6 are surprisingly non-linear. You won’t be hiding beneath jeeps and lying prone until the next line of dialogue ushers you to move onward, but dispatching enemies however you want so long as it gets the job done. You’re playing as a motley crew of rogue agents, so it’s no surprise that military efficiency has long been thrown out the window.
Black Ops 6 also has a camera which can be used to tag and keep track of enemies. There is even a level at a Bill Clinton benefit dinner where you must track down a politician and use it to scan his retinas.
While this scripted nature is perfect for focused thrills, there is something liberating about the idea of being thrown into a level and talked through a location you’ve never seen before. You are forced to learn the layout of the level, how enemies behave, and what equipment may be used to your advantage.
I developed a habit of relying on my silenced pistol and a supply of throwing knives that never ran dry so long as I kept on pulling them out of corpses. But if or when things go loud, there is always plenty of louder and more powerful weapons to pick up strewn about the place.
This flow has always worked for Call of Duty, but in Black Ops 6 it is taken to another level. In more ambitious missions, such as an open world stage set in Iraq where you meet up with SAS, you’re handed a map and left to your own devices.
Black Ops 6’s Stealth Gameplay Has So Much Freedom
You can disable SAM sites, destroy anti-air placements, take out enemy tanks, and pick up supply drops dotted around a desert environment where enemies are patrolling constantly. I could have approached with all guns blazing and gone full Operation Desert Storm on their PMC asses, but I was afforded so many options for combat, stealth, and strategy that I wanted to remain covert.
I’m a rogue CIA agent in a foreign country trying to bring down a threat that wants to destroy the entire world, so it wouldn’t hurt to stick to the shadows. Whenever I aim at foes in this level, my allies will let out a line of dialogue about whether taking the shot will alert their friends, making it more than possible to take out entire bases without being spotted.
Be warned that the silent takedowns in Black Ops 6 are absolutely brutal. You will quickly become desensitised to snapped necks and knees to the nose.
Stealth in Call of Duty has always felt like something you resort to until everything inevitably comes crashing down and you’re forced to go loud and start blasting. Black Ops 6 has some of these scripted moments, notably in the Casino mission where one of the characters winds up taken hostage on purpose so the rest of your team can break into a vault. But it also goes in the complete opposite direction, to the point where I replayed missions and made it to the end without taking a single life or triggering a single alarm. You can stealth your way through and it feels incredible, made even better by gadgets galore that encourage this type of play.
I’m yet to reach the end of the campaign, and keep catching wind of an all-timer mission that pushes things to the limit. I have no idea if it involves the opportunity for stealth, but if it ends up letting me stick to shadows and cause chaos with a silenced pistol, I’ll be doing just that.
