Call of Duty: B06

How to do a first person shooter…right.

The game has exemplary mechanics, nothing short of a normal Call of Duty Game, but it stands out because of the ingenuity of combining and reintroducing old characters and new gameplay styles, like the hook shot used to bring the main character to higher ground, and the Zombies utilized to solidify the story of Black Ops 6.

Many games are phenomenal from a technical perspective, but lack the appeal to the audience, a trap open world games seemingly always fall into (even after a big budget and the best minds on the job…check out my blog post Tears of the World for more). Black Ops 6 is by far (in my opinion) the best Call of Duty game because of the interconnected mechanics and story. From Case one to the Pantheon to The Cradle, and the sprinkled in James Bond moments that get your heart rate sky high, it’s a break away from flat first-person shooter games.

The campaign is a masterclass on Game Design and Development. Case who is a stoic, down to earth character (A lot like Link from the Zelda franchise), plays a big role in the canon of Call of Duty as he supposedly was once the main character of another game: Bell in Cold War (this is quite up in the air, but I strongly support this viewpoint). The game occurs around 1991, when Case, or “Case One” is a test subject of a messed up Super Soldier Serum, breaks free, brainwashed, and works for the CIA. Then many events unfold: Kuwait and following Saddam Hussein’s tracks, overthrowing crime bosses, all while solving the underlying question: what is Pantheon?

The storyline is breathtaking, it spans across all the canon characters, tackling deep topics like personal “beef”, the implications of control, and betrayal. There are so many ideas to unpack in the way the plot progresses, but why is it such a masterclass?

It’s because of one simple reason. The campaign could change and its ideals could shift, but the strong correlation between Case in the Campaign and the players you can play in the Multiplayer strike me…and when I had noticed, I could never look at the game the same way again. But in order to answer how the Multiplayer and the Campaign correlate, let’s look at the multiplayer gameplay and (interestingly) the story behind it.

What is the primary focus of the Multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6?

The whole idea established by the campaign was the Black Ops were the saviors of America, unearthing the corrupted underbelly of the government. Yet in the multiplayer, it’s Black Ops against Crimson One, which is a team of the CIA, its mission is to eliminate Black Ops. And this begs the question, what does the feud have to do with the campaign?

Considering that the Black Ops are always on the side of discovering the moles in the CIA, AKA Pantheon Operatives (and case may even be one himself…) We come to the inevitable conclusion that the Crimson One is actually headed, or directed, by the mole. This is quite powerful because it fills in gaps in the story like the mysterious ending of the campaign like Case’s mysterious end, and the mole in the government hacking into Livingstone’s computer.

The more a player digs deeper into the actualities of the game, there are stark parallels: most of the maps are a part of the campaign, and most of the maps in the campaigns are coincidentally maps where Black Ops has been attacked by Pantheon soldiers.

So, Crimson One, directed by the government itself, may be a part of Pantheon?

It is difficult to find the fine line between the two ideas: are the operatives of Crimson One all Pantheon operatives, or is all of Crimson One just being manipulated?

What is my take on the Zombies in Black Ops 6?

The Zombies were singlehandedly the best part of the game: they incorporated elements of the Zombies mode into the game, making the story a seamless transition between storylines. I like to think that Case’s Emergence mission (a mission in the game where Case takes a horrifying trip down memory lane and faces the people he turned into zombies by unleashing The Cradle) is directly related to the Zombies in Zombie mode, like a game in Case’s head. Another internal conflict!

Games that make the player consider the moral implications of revenge are all around us, but games that tie into the BO6 Canon and still leave the audience with mysteries…that’s a game worth playing. Although there are many battle passes and events as a result of commercial gains, Call of Duty introduces many fan-favorite characters, deliberately bringing into the game lots of speculations on the gray areas of the storyline.