There was a sort of cynicism in the air when Xbox announced that Call of Duty, the crown jewel of their newly acquired toy Activision-Blizzard, would be releasing its latest instalment Black Ops 6 on Game Pass on day one. Was this a desperate attempt to boost subscription numbers? Would this gambit lose Xbox money and cause more layoffs? Can Treyarch create a game under 250 gigabytes? Questions, questions.
These concerns weren’t unfounded, either. We don’t know how many Game Pass subscriptions Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is responsible for, but I can tell you anecdotally that two of my friends signed up just to play Black Ops 6. I’ve been a subscriber for years, so Black Ops 6’s arrival was just icing on the cake for me.
Return to Mayhem
I played Call of Duty annually when I was younger, with my final game being Modern Warfare 2 (2009). I was always more of a Halo kid, so buying a full-priced game I wasn’t going to put many hours into as a child with limited money wasn’t feasible. So, my journey with the series ended and despite my profession, I haven’t kept up the series at all over the past fifteen years. I’m still baffled that we’re on Black Ops 6 when I can’t recall Black Ops 3,4 or… Cold War?
I initially convinced everyone to play on the promise of Zombies, and while we did play a couple of rounds, we didn’t really click with the mode. The addition of omni-movement and open maps means you can essentially kite enemies forever, turning Zombies from a hard-fought territory defence into a carpal tunnel simulator as you incessantly left-click, mowing down hordes of zombies while sprinting backwards.
In the end, it was the multiplayer that won me over to Black Ops 6. There’s just a timeless enjoyment to queuing up with a few friends and playing Call of Duty’s various game modes. Whether that involves a 0/8 performance in Search & Destroy or a surprisingly coordinated defence in Headquarters, there are always laughs to be had with friends.
The Perfect Balance
Black Ops 6 strikes the right balance between competition and fun. There is just enough commitment to each match that while you want to win and will try your hardest, you won’t feel too disappointed by a loss. It’s a contrast to something like League of Legends, a game where each match requires significant time investment, meaning a loss is always going to grate players regardless of their pre-match expectations.
While it isn’t just the game itself that decides the atmosphere, Call of Duty lends itself well to this casual/competitive balance. If you’re having an atrocious game as an individual, it doesn’t immediately doom your entire team and it allows others to step up and ‘carry. It’s hard to describe the joyous atmosphere of ‘clutching’ a close game of Search & Destroy with friends watching from your point of view. You feel like the king of the world.
Various other features add a comedic element, like the fact that you can hear your opponent’s microphone for a few seconds after you kill them. On launch day, I shot dead a floundering opponent who had dove backwards as soon as I opened fire. As he died, I was able to hear, in a posh London accent, “Bloody Omnimovement.” It’s become a running joke among my friends and I.
Killstreaks & Carnage
There’s also the ‘play of the game‘ mechanic that we saw reach popularity with Overwatch. It’s a goal to strive towards while playing, seeing if you can get a large enough multi-kill to be featured in the highlight clip and show off to your friends. While these are mostly impressive, I had a particularly comedic one where, though I expertly killed 4 people, my final kill saw me empty almost an entire mag on shooting past an enemy a couple of feet away from me, prompting outbursts of laughter and overriding anything impressive I might have managed in the same streak.
Hearing the various sounds of people in public lobbies singing down the microphone for no discernible reason, shouting at one another and generally being belligerent brought back surprisingly warm memories of playing Call of Duty when I was younger with one of those thin controller microphones that Xbox sold. I don’t know if Xbox’s strategy will be a successful one in the long term, but it’s certainly been a good time for me.
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Black Ops 6 Is Proof That Bigger Isn’t Always Better
Sometimes having three main modes that all hit the mark is more than enough.