REVIEW: Call of Duty Black Ops 6 brings solid campaign and good online experience

Every year, a new CoD, and this year was no different. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is among us, but is it any good? Does it bring anything new to the franchise? Or is it just more of the same, made to make more money off of fans? I can tell you that the game is a pleasant surprise for me and brings some very interesting new features to the franchise in general. Want to know all the details? Come with us to check out the full review!

Campaign

Many people, myself included, don't give the campaign mode of Call of Duty the attention it deserves, but it's a fact that many of them are excellent and have a large fan base defending them. I went to play the new game with an open heart and already knew that it would have an espionage theme, since it is a sequel to Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, game about the Cold War.

However, I was also expecting a game that would be more of a generic one where every mission I would walk forward and have a shooting exchange and that's it. That's where the developer Treyarch shone. There are 11 missions in total and they manage to be creative in a very fun way. We have puzzles, action and even moments of horror and psychedelia.

For example, in one of the missions, we are placed in a Gala party of the Bill Clinton as a photojournalist, to get the retina of one of the senators to gain access to the base of the place to rescue Eagle, one of the protagonists. The game drops you into the event, gives you a map and lets you do the mission however you want. You can steal a card, bribe an employee or even get evidence against this senator. This proposal is repeated in other missions and gives us, the players, greater pleasure in doing those missions.

Another cool example is a mission in the desert where we need to go to 3 locations to complete the objective, but the game gives you a very large map and the possibility to explore in whatever way you think is coolest, to get supplies, money, collectibles and even advantages from that mission.

However, the things I liked the most involve the campaign mode lobby. The main characters are characters exiled by the CIA and decide to investigate everything on their own. To do so, they go to an old KBG base in Bulgaria and there it becomes ours safehouse. In this place, we can explore everything as we want, talk to other characters and it is also where we choose missions and also do upgrades, using money acquired in the missions.

The difference here is that this house hides several secrets. Using a black light flashlight, we can explore these secrets. On the walls, we see piano notes to open a secret passage, or how to restore power to the place through the basement. It's an intriguing thing to do and brings a bit of history and also a good reward to the player.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the different missions. Using good excuses about a toxic gas, for example, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 takes advantage of this to give us a horror mission, using elements from zombie mode, while also giving us important points from the game's story. Not only that, but it takes advantage of this different phase to introduce different mechanics, such as giving us a Batman-style grappling hook to climb to higher places and even finish off enemies, as in Doom.

This pretext is later used in another mission to take us to another type of world, besides the zombie one, which I also loved, but I'll leave it up to you to be surprised by it on your own.

Multiplayer

As usual, a new CoD also brings us a new multiplayer. There are new weapons, new perks and maps, but it's not like we've had the biggest change in the franchise here. If you're already used to the franchise's multiplayer, you'll probably love this one, except for some annoying elements, which may or may not be adjusted over time.

For example, as I write this review, the game's respawn is completely broken, with enemies frequently spawning behind you on every map. Speaking of maps, they're also a problem. Unlike other titles in the franchise, this game was released with only smaller maps, practically ignoring the medium and large ones.

Yes, it's really cool to play in Nuketown, for example, but if all maps follow the same philosophy all the time, the chance of the game becoming increasingly boring faster only increases. Another annoying problem involves the perks. We have the ones already known from previous games, be it the Ghost for motorhomes, or Scavenger to collect ammo from enemies, but now we have one in particular that literally marks all enemies through the wall when you die. Considering the size of the maps, this becomes a completely stolen item. Everyone is using it, which doesn't make it any less broken.

Regarding customization, there are several challenges to complete and, of course, many kills to get your weapons golden, platinum and dark matter (check the correct name later). We also have exclusive paint jobs for zombies mode, encouraging people to play all modes. Since I received the Vault version for review, I have all the operators available so far, so I can't say how this works for the base version of the game.

The system Prestige has also changed in relation to the last titles. It's back to how it used to be. In other words, you play until you reach level 55 and then choose whether or not you want to Prestige. For those who don't know, when you do this you start from level 1 again, but with a new emblem around your name and the right to choose a definitive reward. It's a cool way to keep the game active, but remember, you'll always have to unlock weapons and perks with each new Prestige, even if you keep your upgrades.

I'll go into more detail in the gameplay section, but the new movement mechanics are a big difference for multiplayer. Thanks to omnimovement, it is now possible to run and jump in any direction, in addition to having more mobility on the ground as well. It is not mandatory to do well in the game, but whoever masters this movement will certainly have advantages, especially in the implementation of it in Warzone.

Zombies Mode

The famous Zombies Mode returns in this game somewhat reinvigorated. In Cold War, they chose to innovate a bit with open world modes and, although not bad, it wasn't that fun either. In Black Ops 6, we return to the conventional round style, with two initial maps: Terminus e Liberty Falls.

Liberty Falls is the day map and Terminus or at night. Both follow the same philosophy. You start with a pistol of your choice and some perks. As you kill zombies, you earn money to buy other weapons, ammunition, glue perks, GoblleGums power-ups and much more. As you pass the rounds, it gets harder, requiring not only skill, but also that you know how to upgrade your weapons and items along the way.

I played both maps and enjoyed them both. I personally prefer this mode in this format. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test it with friends, where everything is even cooler and, in a way, easier, but the elements of opening new parts of the scenario remain here and it promises to be an excellent game mode in the long run, especially when it receives more maps and new improvements.

Gameplay and graphics

In general terms, the gameplay of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 It doesn't change in relation to other games in the franchise. It's a first-person shooter and we can do what you'd expect from a game of this genre. We walk, run, aim and shoot, as well as being able to interact with the environment, whether climbing walls or crawling under specific places.

The difference here is what has already been mentioned Omnimovement, a new movement mechanic in the game. In previous games, we already had very agile movement and the possibility of sliding and even jumping, like “fish jumping”, but this has been improved here. Basically, the character can now walk in any direction, but above all, run, slide and even fish jump in any direction.

But it doesn't stop there. In the middle of jumps, when making movements in higher places, it is possible to turn in the middle of the movement and shoot at enemies, making everything more fluid in combat. When on the ground, the character also no longer crawls all stiffly, but instead adapts to the direction, allowing aiming in any direction.

Although it is not an innovation in the industry, especially for those who have already played Max Payne, for example, and you know how the jumps work there, for the Black Ops 6 and the Call of Duty franchise in general, is a super welcome feature and should be mastered a lot in the community Warzone, mainly.

As for graphics, I played on PC on a Acer Nitro 5 with a Intel Core i5-11400H and video card RTX 3050 with 4GB of video and 16GB of RAM working in dual-channel. I played the entire game in Full HD resolution using Nvidia's DLSS in Quality mode and achieving an average of 90 frames per second.

Based on my laptop's configuration, I consider it to be a great performance, especially for multiplayer and zombies, where we don't pay as much attention to detail. In the campaign, however, in quieter moments, it was noticeable that it took a while to render details on the walls. Far from being ugly or blurry, it just seemed to have few details, especially when a cinematic scene was playing where everything was more realistic and we noticed a more abrupt difference between one thing and another.

The coolest thing, even with mid-range hardware, was being able to see the details in the characters. In this part, they remain expressive and with plenty of detail in their faces and even in their clothes. The game's art direction helps a lot in this part, after all, we go to a variety of different locations, whether open or not, standing out much more than the polygons that the video card can offer.

Recommended requirements

As you can read, the game ran well on my Acer Nitro 5 with an intermediate configuration. In any case, follow all the hardware and software recommendations so that the game works perfectly on your PC:

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
OPERATIONAL SYSTEM Windows 10 64-Bit (latest update) CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 or Intel Core i5-6600 RAM: 8 GB Video card: AMD Radeon RX 470 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or Intel Arc A580	VIDEO MEMORY 2 GB STORAGE SPACE requires SSD with 102 GB of available space at launch INTERNET Broadband internet connection

RECOMMENDED SPECIFICATIONS
OPERATIONAL SYSTEM Windows 10 64-bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64-bit (latest update) CPU AMD Ryzen 5 1600X or Intel Core i7-6700K RAM 12 GB VIDEO CARD AMD Radeon RX 6600XT or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti / RTX 3060	VIDEO MEMORY 8 GB STORAGE SPACE requires SSD with 102 GB of available space at launch INTERNET Broadband internet connection

COMPETITIVE SPECS / 4K ULTRA
OPERATIONAL SYSTEM Windows 10 64-bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64-bit (latest update) CPU AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or Intel Core i7-8700K RAM 16 GB VIDEO CARD AMD Radeon RX 6800XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / RTX 4070	VIDEO MEMORY 10 GB STORAGE SPACE requires SSD with 102 GB of available space at launch INTERNET Broadband internet connection

Price and Availability

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 was released worldwide on October 25th for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One e Xbox Series S | X. This game marks the first Call of Duty release released directly on the Game Pass on Day One, due to the purchase of Activision by Microsoft.

The game's value is from R$339,00, which can reach R$479,00 na Safe Version, which brings several additional weapons and operators, a battle pass with 20 levels of advancement and 1100 CoD Points (in-game currency). It is additional content for those who really play the game a lot and considering the value of these items separately, the difference in value is even worth it. This does not mean that the price charged for these games is cheap. After all, it is almost 30% of a minimum wage in the base version of the game.

Conclusion

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Is it good? Fortunately, it is a great title in the CoD franchise. The campaign features an engaging story full of twists and turns and a lot of creativity, as well as the famous Multiplayer and Zombies modes.

I still think that Multiplayer needs balancing and a review of what they will do in future maps, which does not take away from the merit of being a super fun game that will once again keep its fan base there, even more so now that it is available on Game Pass.

Zombies mode completes the experience, initially with only two missions, but which guarantee the classic and enjoyable experience of hordes, especially when playing with friends. It is a must-have title for fans of the franchise and for those who have never played it and have an Xbox or PC, you can try it out through Microsoft's service.

This was our review of Call of Duty Black Ops 6. But what about you, are you already playing the game? Comment below what you think and what should be improved. Also check out our other articles and reviews, such as the one on Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

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Text proofread by: Daniel Coutinho in 13 / 11 / 2024