Highlights

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will blend past and new elements, including familiar faces, an expanded Safe House hub, and round-based Zombies.
  • Black Ops 6 will reintroduce classic killstreaks and the prestige system, honoring past games in the series.

Hype is still high around the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in the wake of its dedicated Direct presentation on June 9. The official reveal trailer for the game has already amassed close to 60 million views, making it the most popular trailer in the franchise's long and successful history. A lot of this anticipation has likely come from the release moving away from the wider IP's recent focus on the Modern Warfare series, but the respect that the game is already paying to the history of Black Ops is another huge factor in the hype surrounding it.

While more details around Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be revealed at the Call of Duty NEXT presentation on August 28, fans already know a lot about how the title will handle its campaign, core multiplayer, and Zombies experiences. The wider Call of Duty franchise has attempted a lot of new introductions in recent years to varying levels of success, but these details ensure that Black Ops 6 is taking the highlights of the sub-franchise's history to create an excellent blend of old and new.

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Cover No Text
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Black Ops 6 is Attempting to Replicate the Best Aspects of its Past

The Direct presentation for Black Ops 6 placed a lot of focus on the game's campaign, confirming that a lot of familiar faces like Frank Woods and Russell Adler will be returning to the franchise. Not only does this directly tie the upcoming game to the well-received narrative of 2020's Cold War, but Woods' use of a wheelchair confirms that the game will also be following up on the story of Black Ops 2.

These links between Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 2 appeal well to older fans of the CoD franchise, but a lot of fresh mechanics from Cold War offer something from the IP's more recent history. For example, Black Ops 6 will feature an expanded version of Cold War's Safe House hub, while also featuring the same kinds of meaningful dialogue options that Cold War employed.

Black Ops 6 is Taking Things Back to Basics in a Big Way

Black Ops 6's take on the franchise's iconic Zombies mode was arguably the most scrutinized aspect of the game's reveal, with a lot of controversy existing over how the mode has been altered over the years since Cold War. Around this time, the IP moved towards the Outbreak formula of Zombies, which went away from traditional round-based experiences in favor of open-world maps with objectives that players need to complete.

This approach has continued as far as the recent Modern Warfare 3, and Black Ops 6 has already been firm in stating that its Zombies mode will return to round-based gameplay. The upcoming title will feature two round-based maps at launch, and will even see the return of a dedicated cast of playable Zombies characters, which itself was a defining element of the mode's past that has been lost with recent releases.

Black Ops 6 's multiplayer received the least attention at the Direct, but it was still apparent that the mode shares the same respect for past Black Ops games as its Zombies and campaign.

The Direct confirmed that classic Black Ops killstreaks like the iconic RC-XD will reappear in Black Ops 6, with the title also finally reintroducing the classic Call of Duty prestige system as opposed to the more recent season-based system. While the October 25 release date for Black Ops 6 still seems like a long way off, it is already more than evident that the game has a strong focus on capturing the magic that made its predecessors so beloved.