I grew up when Call of Duty was in its golden age, from Modern Warfare 2 to Black Ops 2. In secondary school, friendship groups were split into Xbox Live clans, and if you fell out with your friends, you had to ask your parents for £8 to change your gamertag. I used to run with a group called Optic (I’d say it wasn’t an OpTic Gaming ripoff, but I’d be lying), until I messed up one too many quickscopes. So, I had to grovel to my dad for that £8. He refused and the entire clan changed their gamertags instead.

I quickly learned that multiplayer just wasn’t for me. It was a cesspool of toxicity that was bleeding into my school life, and the interpolitics of squeaker clans seemed silly even back then—we were awful, certainly not good enough to go pro, so why pretend?

Instead, I found a new home in Zombies, the round-based arcade mode where you shoot undead hordes for hours on end while catching up with your friends. I’ve never really looked back, skipping every game without Zombies and then inevitably pouring hundreds of hours into the mode exclusively when Treyarch released a new entry. Colour me surprised then when it came to the Black Ops 6 multiplayer beta and I found myself hooked.

The movement is the slickest it has ever been in Call of Duty without veering too far into the realm of Titanfall-style wallrunning and jump boosts. The omnidirectional movement makes sliding feel more responsive and tactical, as you’re able to quickly get into a room and catch enemies unaware from below as you snap onto them with your submachine gun in a nice evolution of the age-old tactic of dropshotting. It’s exhilarating, and for the first time in over a decade, I feel in tune with the frantic shooting of a Call of Duty multiplayer match.

There are clips of people spinning their cameras around like they have an aimbot toggled on, which is a little too far, but that’s not exactly representative of how Black Ops 6 plays moment-to-moment.

Unlike the slower and more methodical pace of games like Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six Siege, or PUBG, Call of Duty is all about speed, especially in the core modes where you can respawn seconds after being killed. Outside of Team Deathmatch, dying isn’t all that big a deal, so taking risks by darting into open areas and taking on several opponents at once is encouraged.

Omnimovement in Black Ops 6 in progress

It’s not as chaotic as Quake, but it’s still more fast-paced than what I’m used to. Thankfully, the more versatile movement here makes that rapid-fire gameplay feel intuitive. You’re able to quickly get in and out of hotzones like never before with ease, which finally made the multiplayer click for me.

The maps themselves are some of the strongest we’ve had in years, too. They are smaller and more focused, with plenty of cover on each objective, but there are also enough vantage points that attacking feels fair. There’s a train car map with an objective that’s mostly walled in, but peer too far to the right and you’re within view of a sniper’s nest, while a few of the cars nearby offer opportunities to throw ‘nades overhead to reach anyone camping the point. They feel as tight-knit as Nuketown or Hijacked, befitting of the fast-pace gunfights.

Of course, the shooting itself is great. Call of Duty hasn’t bungled that outside of Black Ops 4. The ping of hitting a shot is as satisfying as ever.

I’m excited to dig deeper and finally try out the new third-person option, especially since years of Fortnite have made TPS feel more natural with a controller in my hand, and I can’t wait to unpack the higher-tier killstreaks and weapons. It has been a long time since I’ve wanted to play multiplayer, rather than feeling obligated to, since Call of Duty was once infamous as being the bedrock of toxic gamer culture. But that’s finally changing here.

Black Ops 6 is taking itself a little less seriously, too. Call of Duty’s roots are gritty, but the tryhard competitive scene of multiplayer which amounts to sweats who want to play against new players to steamroll them (hence all the outrage at skill-based matchmaking) just made it an impenetrable pit of poison, especially with all the bigotry hurled over voice chat.

But with new mechanics like human shields and voice overs that feel almost camp in the overbearing masculinity of their delivery, Treyarch is leaning into the sillier, spur of the moment comedy that can come from multiplayer games, something it has been cultivating over the years with the likes of Prop Hunt and a dedicated Ranked mode to contain the sweatier players, as it tries to shift the community away from such mean-spirited competition.

Black Ops 6 is shaping up to be something truly special: a Call of Duty that isn’t just shoveled out the door to meet the yearly quota for a change. With Zombies returning to its roots and embellishing such an amazing foundation, and a multiplayer mode that brings with it the best movement we’ve had in COD history, the future of the series is starting to look a lot more optimistic.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

FPS 4.0/5 14 5.8/10 Released October 25, 2024 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs Developer(s) Treyarch, Raven Software Publisher(s) Activision Engine IW 9.0 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op Cross-Platform Play Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC
Where to play Close

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SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

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.

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