Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign review — Delivers the fun

When I imagine what a typical Call of Duty campaign is, it's an action-packed, over-the-top movie that you get to play. It's short. You're forced along a single path. The action sequences are ridiculous, with a couple of good guys crushing massive enemy forces mission after mission. This doesn't work in a movie, but in a video game, it does. It's fun, and you're not taking the game too seriously. You're here to blow things up and be a tough badass.

Black Ops 6 broadly follows in those footsteps:

The game is overall very fun. Unsurprisingly, you're part of a small team of rogue operatives trying to fight off a dangerous and secretive paramilitary organization to prevent an unknown but deadly threat.

The story is precisely what you would expect from a game called Black Ops. It's not mind-bending but gives a decent reason to go off on adventures across the world. As part of your mission, you join a small team that you'll get to know better over time. You'll have your base of operations, and the game almost tries to have the team share a few moments. It is, however, not very developed, and you won't feel the same attachment to all members. It would have been nice to spend some time on lower-stakes missions as an opportunity to create real relationships within the team. In Modern Warfare 2, the game used calmer moments for dialogue and interactions, and it worked well. At your base of operations, you could spend cash to improve your skills, gear, etc. This felt a bit unnecessary and could even force you to hunt for cash during the mission, which is a distraction.

Contrary to what I described in the first paragraph, this Black Ops 6 doesn't set you on a single path. Instead, some missions provide you with more flexibility. However, this part doesn't work well. For example, early on, you're on a mission in the Iraqi desert and supposed to drive across a map to destroy missile launchers. At the same time, you have various points of interest that you can visit (clear a village, destroy a SAM site, pick up some supplies, etc.). Those moments aren't very interesting as it mainly feels like you're killing off easy NPCs but not moving the story forward. You're also expected to take care of the same target multiple times, which feels very redundant. It very much felt like filler to extend the playtime.

Where the game really surprised me was when a mission to a biological lab turned into a horror scenario full of zombies (I know that zombies are a classic game mode for Call of Duty, but it was my first time encountering it and completely took me by surprise). This mission is in a retro-futuristic underground complex with different enemies and goals compared to the rest of the game. At one point, you even face murderous mannequins playing some sort of evil Red Light, Green Light. I'm glad this wasn't the focus of the whole game, but it was fun for a mission.

As with this mission, throughout the campaign, the game was more eclectic than I was used to. At one point, you're doing some (simplistic) puzzle-solving, at another you're at a poker table, and at the end you experience a sort of psychedelic sequence. That's a lot. I felt they overdid it a bit and could have stayed a bit more traditional.

Overall, I had a good time. The environments were varied and well-built; the casino, capitol station, your base in the woods... all those places are great to look at and explore. The pace was good, and the action sequences were fun. It's short but sweet. If you have the Game Pass, I would recommend giving it a try!