Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a 2024 first-person shooter video game co-developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision. It is the twenty-first main installment of the Call of Duty series and is the seventh entry in the Black Ops sub-series, following Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Set during Operation Desert Storm, Black Ops 6 single-player story follows rogue CIA operatives Troy Marshall and Frank Woods as they assemble a team of agents to hunt down Pantheon, a paramilitary group with covert ties to the agency. As with previous Call of Duty titles, the game also includes a multiplayer component and a new iteration of the cooperative round-based Zombies mode.
Black Ops 6 had a four-year development cycle—the longest in Call of Duty history; a portion of the game's production was spent on rebuilding core aspects of Black Ops within the latest version of the Call of Duty game engine. An omnidirectional movement system was also introduced, allowing players to sprint, dive, and slide in any direction. Marketing for Black Ops 6 began in May 2024, through the release of live-action teaser trailers and the publishing of advertisements on the front pages of multiple newspaper outlets; a full reveal debuted during the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase event on June 9. The game was released on October 25, 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Upon release, Black Ops 6 received generally favorable reviews from critics, achieved the largest launch weekend in the franchise's history, and was nominated for several accolades. All three modes were met with praise, with critics positively highlighting the new omnidirectional movement system. A sequel, titled Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, was released in November 2025.
Gameplay
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a first-person shooter. Depending on the game mode selected, players use a selection of military equipment, such as weapons, "field upgrades", and "scorestreaks", to combat AI opponents, other human players, or undead creatures. Players can perform a wide variety of movement actions when traversing a level/map, including walking, crouching, sprinting, jumping, sliding, and diving; while sprinting, players can initiate a "tactical sprint", which further increases the player's movement speed for a limited duration. In a change from previous Call of Duty titles, players have omnidirectional control over the sprint, dive, and slide mechanics, allowing them to perform these actions in any direction; players can also rotate themselves in a 360 degree view while they are laying in the prone position. In addition, a series of "Intelligent Movement" settings are also available to players, which automate certain movement actions, including sprinting and mantling.Black Ops 6 features three main game modes: a single-player campaign, a multiplayer component and a new iteration of the cooperative round-based Zombies mode. In the campaign, players assume control of a silent protagonist, "Case", as he and a team of rogue CIA operatives work to hunt down Pantheon, a paramilitary group with covert ties to the agency. The campaign features 11 missions, and is estimated to take at least 8 hours to complete. Players typically have multiple ways to approach a mission's objectives; some missions include stealth elements. In-between missions, players are able to access a safe house, where they can select new missions via an evidence board, interact with non-player characters, and spend cash, which is found throughout missions, on various in-game perks; these are split across three categories, which are related to the player's physical abilities, weapons, and gear. Certain campaign missions reward players with cosmetic items for use in the multiplayer and Zombies modes upon their completion, including weapon "blueprints", player skins, stickers, and weapon charms.
The multiplayer component puts two opposing teams—"Rogue Black Ops" and "Crimson One"—against each other across a wide selection of game modes, such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, and Kill Order, most of which allow for six-versus-six combat; an exception to this is the round-based "Gunfight" mode, which puts two teams of two on small-sized maps with randomized loadouts. Like previous Call of Duty games, player performance is tracked with experience points, which is earned by killing enemy players, completing objectives, or finishing challenges; XP can also be earned in the Zombies mode. As players rank up, they gain access to various loadout items, including new weapons, pieces of equipment, and perks, the latter of which are split into three "combat specialties"; selecting three perks of the same specialty grants access to in-game buffs. Once players reach level 55, they can choose to enter the "Prestige" ranking system, which resets their progress back to level 1 but grants a set of cosmetic rewards and a token that can be used to permanently unlock any loadout item. This process can be done up to ten times; once players complete the tenth Prestige, they are granted the ability to rank up to level 1000, and if they do so, they receive additional cosmetic items.
In Zombies, one to four players fight endless hordes of the undead, which increase in both number and difficulty with every completed round, across six maps, which directly continue the mode's storyline after the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Each map includes a main quest that players must solve without any guidance, along with a number of side quests and easter eggs. Two additional modes—"Directed" and "Grief"—were added to all maps post-launch; the former allows players to complete main quests with in-game assistance, while the latter pits two teams of four players against one another as they attempt to survive the undead, while hindering the enemy team indirectly via debuffs. Zombies features two primary currencies for players to manage: "Essence" and "Salvage"; Essence is used to unlock access to new parts of the maps, acquire weapon upgrades from the "Pack-a-Punch" machine, and to purchase additional player upgrades, including "Perk-a-Cola" cans and armor vests, while Salvage is used to acquire ammo modifications for the player's weapons, increase a weapon's damage tier, and to craft various pieces of lethal and tactical equipment. Players can also obtain "GobbleGums"—single-use consumables that grant various in-game effects—and unlock "Augments", a set of minor and major upgrades to perks, field upgrades and ammo mods. Each perk, field upgrade, and ammo mod features up to three minor and major Augments, with one of each type being equipable at the same time, allowing players to customize and experiment with different play styles.
Plot
Amidst the start of Operation Desert Storm, CIA operatives Troy Marshall and William "Case" Calderon, along with their handler, Operations Specialist Jane Harrow, are deployed to the Iraq–Kuwait border to extract Iraqi minister of defence Saeed Alawi, but are forced to go off mission when Alawi claims to be targeted by a paramilitary force called "Pantheon". After surviving an encounter with Pantheon soldiers, the team prepares to extract Alawi, but he is executed by Russell Adler, a rogue agent who fled from the CIA after being framed as a mole for the Nicaraguan drug lord Raul Menendez. Adler allows himself to be captured, telling Marshall to relay a message to fellow operative Frank Woods : "Bishop takes Rook". Afterwards, CIA Deputy Director Daniel Livingstone reprimands the team for Alawi's death, ignores their warnings about Pantheon, and suspends Woods, Marshall, and Case from duty.Woods tells Marshall that Adler's message refers to an abandoned KGB safe house in Bulgaria—code-named "the Rook"—that the two discovered in 1976, and decides to go there with Marshall and Case to investigate Pantheon; Harrow stays behind to cover for their absence. After using his files to recruit ex-Stasi technical genius Felix Neumann and assassin Sevati "Sev" Dumas, the team breaks Adler out of a CIA black site hidden under Washington, D.C., while a political event hosted by Governor Bill Clinton takes place above ground. The team extracts Adler just as Pantheon assaults the black site, but they are blamed for the attack instead and are declared fugitives. Adler reveals that Pantheon has been engaging in weapons deals with Saddam Hussein; with help from MI6 agent Helen Park and allied SAS forces, the team assaults one of Hussein's palaces in Iraq, where they find "the Cradle", a psychochemical weapon originating from an abandoned CIA biolab in Kentucky.
While Adler stays behind to track down Pantheon's head scientist, Matvey Gusev, Case, Marshall, and Sev investigate the biolab. Case is separated from Marshall and Sev; he accidentally inhales the Cradle and hallucinates fighting off undead creatures while hearing a woman's voice, which explains that Pantheon was originally a secret CIA division overseeing the Cradle's development as a performance-enhancing drug, with Case being the only test subject, before Livingstone shut down the project and disbanded Pantheon. As Case regains his senses, the team discovers that Pantheon has stolen the biolab's stores of the Cradle, and also finds a recording revealing that Harrow is working with Pantheon. Using clues in the recording, the team steals financial records from a casino in the Mediterranean principality of Avalon, which reveal that it had been wiring money to Gusev in Iraq. Afterwards, Case and Marshall reunite with Adler in Kuwait and work with his old ally, U.S. Army Captain Lawrence Sims, to capture Gusev, who reveals that the Cradle is being stored in Vorkuta.
The team raids Vorkuta, and while they are unable to stop the Cradle from being moved, they capture Harrow and bring her to the Rook for interrogation. Adler injects Harrow with a truth serum, prompting her to reveal that she joined Pantheon after they leaked information claiming the CIA was responsible for her parents' deaths in 1960, and that Pantheon is planning to use the Cradle to carry out a false flag attack on the Capitol Building to discredit Livingstone and replace him with Harrow, putting them in control of the agency. Pantheon forces assault the Rook and rescue Harrow; Case gives chase and boards Harrow's escape helicopter, causing it to crash in a nearby river. Under the influence of released Cradle gas, Case strangles Harrow to death before presumably drowning. Marshall tries to radio Case, explaining that Livingstone managed to evacuate the Capitol. Two weeks later, the team meets with Livingstone, who asks them to continue working as an independent clandestine unit in order to fully eradicate Pantheon, who is conducting operations in Avalon. Meanwhile, Pantheon operative Jackson Caine infiltrates Livingstone's office and accesses his computer.