Highlights

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 features a complete campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies mode.
  • The campaign is set during the Gulf War and explores growing distrust in America.
  • The game should avoid non-canon alternate endings like Cold War's, focusing on in-game choices instead.

Officially unveiled a few weeks ago during the Xbox Showcase, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 looks like it could end up delivering the most complete Call of Duty experience in recent memory. Along with a multiplayer mode packed with 16 original maps, and the long-awaited return of traditional round-based Zombies, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is delivering another fully-fledged campaign, directly following on from the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and technically tying in with the flashback sequences in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

A focal point of its Direct showcase, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's campaign is aiming to be another "high-octane spy thriller" in a similar vein to its predecessor. Set at the height of the Gulf War, tensions between the US and the Soviet Union have died down following the fall of the Berlin Wall, but a growing distrust of government is starting to spread across America. Based on that brief premise, it seems as though Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 could already deliver one of the most compelling campaigns in franchise history, and while there's a lot it should carry forward from its predecessor, there's one feature it needs to stay well away from.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Should Avoid Cold War's Alternate Endings

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Alternate Ending Felt Redundant

In keeping with Treyarch's other past entries, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War introduced a few new features to the franchise's campaign mode. One of the best additions was Black Ops Cold War's choice system, where players were frequently given one or two major choices per mission that would affect the gameplay or narrative. These choices ranged from dialogue options that saw players either kill or apprehend an arms dealer, to optional objectives that saw players either rescue or abandon a captured spy. For the most part, this choice system felt like a great addition, adding quite a bit of replayability to Black Ops Cold War's campaign, and adding some real weight to the narrative.

However, there was one choice in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's campaign that stood out for all the wrong reasons. Right at the end of the campaign, players are given the choice to either side with the team they've been working alongside the entire game or betray them and side with the game's antagonist. Betraying Russel Adler's team sees the player gun down iconic characters like Woods and Mason before launching some nukes across the world.

While this ending's macabre nature is intriguing, it's also rather jarring for any long-time Call of Duty fans. With Cold War taking place between Black Ops 1 and 2, this ending obviously isn't canon, with Woods and Mason still very much alive in the latter, which does lessen the impact of this ending massively.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Should Invest Its Resources In Other Areas

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 technically precedes Black Ops 2's 2025 timeline, which would make an alternate ending like Cold War's feel just as redundant. Instead of crafting a whole non-canon campaign mission for an alternate ending, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 should use those resources to craft some more intricate choices that are sprinkled throughout the campaign. These choices could offer just as much replayability as an alternate ending, allowing players to change certain narrative and gameplay aspects of the final mission without jeopardizing the series' canon.