Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Vault Edition Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · November 28, 2024

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Vault Edition 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 Vault Edition Review Pros:

Amazing graphics.
221.6GB Download size.
You get the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
Trophies are added to the overall Call Of Duty list, It has a Platinum trophy list amount but no actual Platinum trophy.
Trophies on the PlayStation do at least seperate the lists so you can see all the Black Ops 6 trophies.
Set the graphics preset to quality or performance.
Graphics settings – eco mode preset, gamma and brightness sliders, and safe area.
Controller settings – 12 layouts, can rebind controls, bumper ping, stick layout preset, vibration, and deadzone inputs.
Full or partial haptic feedback support.
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.
First-person shooter gameplay.
Three game modes – campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies.
20 battle pass tokens.
Free premium battle pass unlock.
Instant unlocks for the Blackcell content in the Battlepass, and instant Battlepass rewards.
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.
New characters and costumes for multiplayer.
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 are 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 customized 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.
Peaking round corners is automatic and blends in really well.
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 of 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.
In the Iraq level, 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 point of no-return warning before entering the final parts of the story.
New playlists get added from time to time.
Double exp weekends which can be all of them or individuals for weapon, player, and battle pass exp.
Use the same login details to have your online profile and purchases carry over from over versions.
Any achievements you earn in other versions will unlock on the PlayStation after you do the criteria once so if you have the shoot down 50 score streaks on Xbox, shoot down one on Playstation and you get the trophy.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Vault Edition Review Cons:

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.
Game settings don’t transfer from version to version.
Not all vehicles can be driven in the campaign.
Ai can see you a bit too easily.
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.
The cost of some DLC skins is horribly overpriced.

Related Post:

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Vault Edition:

Official website.

Developer: Treyarch and Raven

Publisher: Activision

Store Links –

PlayStation