Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review

This year, duty also fell on all fans of shooting games, but this year seemed a little more significant, for at least two reasons: firstly, it was necessary to restore the reputation after last year’s very weak part of the series. Best of all, it was the first Call of Duty that was also available “for free” on launch day as part of Game Pass, which was a big experiment with an uncertain outcome. Now we already know that the creators and publisher are happy, because the game set several records in the series (for example, the largest number of players in the first week), sold better on PlayStation and Steam than last year’s part, and on the other hand, on Xbox it successfully broke record of new subscribers in one day.

• Platform: PS5 (review), PS4, PC, X1, XSX/S
• Release date: 10/25/2024
• Manufacturer: Treyarch (USA)
• Genre: FPS
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: yes, up to 16 players
• Download data: 84 GB
• Game time: 7 hours (campaign)
• Price: 1999 CZK (Alza)

A somewhat peculiar campaign

When it was first announced that this year’s Call of Duty would be “an espionage thriller set in the 1990s, following the fall of the Soviet Union, specifically the Gulf War,” I was absolutely thrilled. The given historical period and geographical coordinates provided scope for witty storytelling and heartfelt military action, enough to draw enough inspiration from history or, again, from modern Hollywood films. Unfortunately, while this year’s campaign is noticeably more detailed and polished than last year’s, it didn’t live up to its full potential, instead focusing on adventure elements and bizarre supernatural elements.

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavrzel / Zing.cz

After a stylish introduction during the Gulf War, it is revealed that a mysterious military organization, the Pantheon, is operating on the ground. A meeting with her disrupts the mission of the CIA agents, who subsequently also encounter the alleged traitor Adler. A group of agents are recalled from service, but this does not stop them from moving to a secret house in Bulgaria, from where they begin to carry out missions to various parts of the world, something in the style of modern Mission Impossible films. Unfortunately, we’ll end up seeing a lot less of the Gulf War in the campaign than we expected, while some missions revolve around stealth or non-shooting adventure missions, and there will mostly be zombie or even supernatural presence. “demons”. Of course, this is explained by chemicals and hallucinations, but this does not change the result.

Instead of an interesting historical setting, the campaign focuses on bizarre supernatural elements.

I’ve been playing the Call of Duty series regularly every year since the first installment and still enjoy it. As for its story campaigns, I dare say that their best feature is the design and explosive atmosphere of a Hollywood blockbuster, transformed into a fun “corridor shoot”, a format that maximally supports cinematic drama and fast-paced action. So I’m not at all happy when we instead get experiments with adventure playthroughs or even zombie and demon raids, especially given the interesting historical setting that was available in this year’s release. Unfortunately, there’s another attempt at “open map” where you wander between a few main missions and a bunch of side missions, reminiscent of last year’s terrible integration of Warzone mechanics. This year’s campaign is rich and varied, but in terms of content and tone it went in a direction that I was clearly not happy with.

Multiplayer and zombies

This year’s multiplayer mode will feature a number of small changes, one big change, and, unfortunately, the usual technical issues. The main improvement is, of course, “OmniMove”, or a new method of controlling and moving your character, who can now run or lie down, jumping in all directions, including backwards, while maintaining the player’s ability to quickly turn and aim. – the result is tricks like those from the films of director John Woo, but at the cost of slightly higher requirements for maintaining accurate aim. Although some of his actions look amazing. In terms of technical issues, apart from the relatively classic issues with connectivity, lag and matchmaking in some matches, the problem is mainly in smaller maps, where sometimes spawning occurs right behind the enemy, even in small teams.

Last year’s experiment to bring the entire game, including the campaign and zombies, into the open world of Warzone failed. Personally, I feel really bad for the zombies because I loved chasing monsters in the open world, it reminded me of my favorite games DayZ or Stalker. But it was largely rejected by the hardcore Call of Duty zombie mod community, so this year we’re going back to basics in the form of a classic model with locked wheel karts. But these maps are very stylish and detailed, full of all kinds of ideas and hidden surprises. Both the prison lab complex and the infested city (very reminiscent of Raccoon City) have a great atmosphere, and with the right team you can enjoy the right mix of carnage and tactics while unlocking better gear, all paired with the right boss. .