Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published October 30, 2024 · Updated November 28, 2024

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is the signature Black Ops. The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review Pros:

Amazing graphics.
196.71GB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Mouse and Keyboard support.
The game is in the COD launcher so every game is in one place.
Set the graphics preset to quality or performance.
Graphics settings – graphics preset, render resolution, dynamic resolution, upscaling/sharpening, Nvidia image scaling preset, Nvidia image scaling sharpness, VRAM scale target, variable rate shading, texture resolution, texture filter anisotropic, depth of field, detail quality level, particle resolution, bullet impacts, persistent effects, shader quality, on-demand texture streaming, allocated cache size, download limits, tessellation, shadows, weather grid volumes, water quality, ambient occlusion, static reflection quality, and screen space shadows.
Display settings – display mode, display monitor, display adapter, screen refresh rate, display resolution, aspect ratio, restart shaders pre-loading, gamma, brightness, Nvidia reflex low latency, exo mode preset, v-sync (menus), v-sync (game), and focused mode.
Controller settings – 12 layouts, can rebind controls, bumper ping, stick layout preset, vibration, amd deadzone inputs.
Accessibility options for hard of hearing, hard of sight, arachnophobia mode, low motor strain, simplified controls, and ways to reduce motion sickness.
You can import settings from your previous title.
Can rebind controls for the mouse and keyboard.
Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for every part from ADS to movement.
Benchmark test option.
First-person shooter gameplay.
Three game modes – campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies.
Player card with banner and Emblem. You can show off any selected items in your showcase.
Purchase from the last game carry over.
You can ping items and enemies in the game.
Four campaign difficulties – Recruit, Regular, Hardened, and Veteran.
Cutscenes are a mix of in-game and FMV.
Excellent voice work.
Challenges – weekly, daily, armory unlocks, Weapons, operator challenge, and calling cards.
The final kill is the kill at the end of an MP game.
Unlock and activate double exp tokens for rank, weapon, and/or battle pass.
Uses the Cod HQ as its suite of games so here is where you select each of the game modes and come back to it every time you want to swap including other installed games in the series.
The story this year is based on what happened and could have happened in the 90s.
Hard-hitting soundtrack with improved special effects and noises.
Quick multiplayer play lets you select the modes you want to play and then join the best game.
Audio options let you mute players and/or party members.
Full clan support.
Proximity chat option.
Your settings, rank, purchases, and progress is all tied to your Activision account meaning you can use any version to play as long as you are logged in.
In multiplayer the best play of the game is shown at the end with a winner’s circle presentation.
Decent loading times.
Immersive vibration implementation.
All the challenges for unlocks like calling cards etc are all broken down into flow menus making them easier to read and follow.
The Hud can be completely customised from Hud element placement to map type, colors used and so much more.
The campaign has its own set of optional challenges for multiplayer profile cards.
Collectible audio logs in a single player.
Three save files for the campaign.
Four campaign difficulties – recruit, regular, hardened, and veteran.
Find and open safes in the single-player.
The campaign uses a lot of news footage from the time.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play through the campaign.
Daily challenges you complete in multiplayer pop up in the game as do all other challenges you complete.
The campaign is a force of nature with movie-like graphics, a gripping story, and excellent production value.
The face tech showing emotion etc is much improved over the last entry.
Accessibility options are plentiful to the point where you can have allies show blue and enemies show red in the campaign.
Multiple choice encounters within the story.
The acquisition desk in the campaign is where you spend cash found in levels and has you building stations that unlock new operator perks.
Operator perks take money but you choose what to buy, these are things like fast reloading, more ammo, etc.
In between missions in the campaign, you have a lot of operations that you can freely explore, find secrets and Collectibles, choose missions, interact with your team, and deal with operator perks and crafting.
You can replay missions.
Puzzles hidden throughout the campaign.
Levels are bigger and encourage multiple ways to approach encounters.
Stealth is a big part in levels, you can take out enemies quietly and pick up and hide bodies in a variety of ways.
Ominimove is the new movement system that allows you to sprint, slide, and dive in any direction
Pickups in levels include weapons and gear.
Checkpoints trigger as you play.
Find armor plates for a bonus shield.
The campaign feels a lot more fleshed out and fun, it’s a bugger more rounded experience.
Some of the levels will give you a selection of weapons and items to choose from.
Lock-picking mini-games in the campaign.
The game has it where you can automatically peek and shoot around corners. (completely optional)
The campaign pacing and genre mixing keep it fresh but also engaging.
Tac map – at a certain point in the campaign you get access to this and it allows you to track objectives and fast travel around locations.
There is a lot more openness to the campaign, you get to control the narrative a lot more, where you go and what you do.
The Iraqevel, in particular, is a stand-out level setup, with full control of the open world, setting objectives, finding secrets, and uncovering bonus objectives.
Auto saves regularly.
Drive around the open Iraq desert, it’s like its own open-world game in itself.
The gear wheel system lets you quickly swap between items and gears.
The banter between you and your team is fantastic, it reacts to what’s going on and adds loads of atmosphere.
You can take and use other vehicles in the campaign.
During the campaign, you get to use scorestreaks which helps you learn the multiplayer element.
I could not stop playing the campaign.
All these years of mediocre campaigns have led to this.
In the campaign, you can find and use the armor plates.
The campaign does give you a pint of no-return warning before entering the final parts of the story.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review Cons:

There isn’t a dedicated achievements list and instead, they just get added to a massive list of all COD games, and it is hard to know which is which.
Shaders pre-loading means long load times and constant restarting, sometimes the game won’t even tell you this information.
I have moments where I will constantly get dropped into games that are just about to end.
Bad spawn points are a huge thing, some maps have gone because of it but it’s still pretty bad.
Still getting it where my battle pass points don’t show until I reboot.
Multiplayer load times are not as fast as they used to be.
More an FYI but credits brought from the shop are only available on that storefront.
If you own a Vault Edition of the game it is only recognized in the store of the platform you bought it on. (you can still use the vault items tho)
Never sure when you hit a checkpoint in the campaign.
You play a voiceless character.
During the campaign the AI can still have amazing aim regardless of difficulty, and when you are spotted and sometimes when you are not, they know and shoot at you.
Lost Internet connection and the game no matter the node (online/offline) throws up an error and then shuts the game down. Online always needed connection.
No season has passed as of yet.
Not all vehicles can be driven in the campaign.
A couple of the maps in multiplayer have real spawn camping issues.
Your AI partners can be really bad and don’t always help or even stealth with you.
For as awesome as the campaign is, there is a lot of filler chucked in and sections get dragged out.
Ai can see you a bit too easily.