The Call of Duty franchise has had its fair share of collaborations. Its yearly halloween celebrations have brought horror icons like Jigsaw, Leatherface, Terrifier, and Ghostface to the first-person shooter. Activision has been quick to pay homage to other Microsoft-owned IPs as well, with everything from Bethesda’s Fallout and Doom to Blizzard’s Diablo being represented within the FPS games. Action movie icons like Rambo and Die Hard’s John McClane have even made their way to the series, with Godzilla and King Kong featured as well. With these team-ups and many more, it’s no surprise that Call of Duty has paired up with Squid Game to celebrate its second season, though it really went the extra mile with this latest crossover.
Not only does the Squid Game event have its own battle pass, full of themed rewards like weapon blueprints and a Front Man skin, but numerous game modes have been added to the series’ active titles. Despite some issues with movement recognition, Red Light, Green Light is a fun recreation of Squid Game’s most iconic activity. Call of Duty: Warzone’s Squid Game mode is also a hit despite its associated patch making the battle royale game more buggy, as it sees players rotating through different games to be the last one standing. However, one mode stands above the rest, and it’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Pentathalon. In fact, it’s so good that it would be a genuine shame to see it leave once the event comes to a close on January 24.
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Why Black Ops 6’s Pentathalon Game Mode Shines So Brightly
The biggest strength of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Pentathalon is its variety, and the impact on the core gameplay that said variety has. The mode features several rotating objectives, which include:
- Roulette: Players battle over an explosive Hand Cannon, which marks its user on the map but rewards a huge amount of points per kill.
- Piggy Bank Team Deathmatch: Players fight for kills to build up the number of points in the giant Squid Game Piggy Bank, which appears at the end of the two-minute time limit. Usually, picking this up will award its collector with all of their equipped streaks.
- Kill Confirmed, Domination, and Hardpoint: Traditional versions of these three objective modes appear, but with shapes instead of letters used to mark the zones and envelopes replacing dog tags.
For objective lovers who enjoy playing both Domination and Hardpoint, as well as a bit of deathmatch from time to time, they are able to experience everything they like within a single game mode. It keeps players on their toes, as they need to be ready to adjust their strategy on the fly and adapt to whatever game mode is triggered. The objectives constantly switching also has major benefits, like preventing the spawn-trapping that can happen so often in straightforward matches of Domination. Beyond that, Pentathalon awards objective play so much that players are encouraged to fight for a win, which is hugely refreshing given how little many players care about winning in normal Call of Duty matches. After all, if the enemy team secures the Piggy Bank, the match can instantly shift to favor their side, as a number of streaks can be activated all at once.
A special killstreak is also featured in the form of the Young-hee doll, which forces the enemy team to stop in place for a game of Red Light, Green Light. If they move, they instantly die.
Keeping Pentathalon in Black Ops 6 Would Only Require Cosmetic Changes
Fortunately for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, keeping a version of Pentathalon around for multiplayer fans to enjoy should not be overly difficult. While it would hurt to lose the added charm that comes from seeing Squid Game shapes and envelopes, and hearing the phenomenal music from the show throughout the match does add to the fun, it would still have the same exciting gameplay loop without these little touches. All Treyarch would need to do is replace the Squid Game elements of the mode, which means moving back to normal Black Ops 6 music, using letters for objective zones, and swapping dog tags back in. Instead of the piggy bank, it can be reskinned with a vault or collection of weapon cases. With Ransack getting a Christmas-themed reskin via the Ran-snack LTM, showing that Treyarch is capable of giving existing modes a makeover, there’s no reason a phenomenal mode like Pentathalon can’t thrive long-term.
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.