Congratulations, Black Ops 6, On A Return To Singleplayer Competency – Aftermath

I’ve played a lot of Call of Duty this year, so when I picked up Black Ops 6 over the weekend, I was coming in hot.

There’s a lot you can say, and there’s a lot that’s been said, about this game’s politics. And other Black Ops games’ politics. And other Call of Duty games’ politics. Black Ops 6 has WMDs and Saddam; you’re up to your eyeballs in the establishment of the New World Order; you spend a lot of time, as is pretty standard in a Call of Duty game, mowing down dudes for whom English is not their first language at home. If that kind of stuff makes you want to bail on it, or not touch it at all, I get that, it’s a lot!

As a white Western man, I have historically loved this shit, it’s my video game comfort food, even as I appreciate the comfort zones at play and, as an Australian, give zero fucks about all the star-spangled HOO-RAHs. So when I say I love this shit, I don’t mean the politics, which I let wash over my back like water off a duck, but everything around them. Call of Duty fills the same spot in my heart that Schwarzenegger movies (many also featuring pretty crummy politics!) used to, in that they are interactive versions of big, dumb, explosive action movies, something to switch off to, but which here also happen to have some of the best moment-to-moment rhythm in video games.

Sadly, the last few games haven’t done it for me, but with Black Ops 6, the Call of Duty singleplayer campaign is back, baby. I’m not saying it’s good, even by this series’ dire standards over the last few years. But it does at least clear the low bar set by the Modern Warfare reboots, which given the state of their singleplayer campaigns is nothing short of extraordinary.

The contempt shown towards the last two Modern Warfare singleplayer campaigns (the third especially) pointed towards a future where Call of Duty simply gave up and abandoned them altogether. The high cost of meeting (self-imposed) visual standards, the priority given to the series’ multiple multiplayer modes and some dismal story-telling doomed them from the start, a real shame considering the last campaign before that–2021’s Vanguard–was pretty good!

Black Ops 6 isn’t a return to the heights of the original Modern Warfare games, but it is at least a reversal out of the bin. It’s a full, proper singleplayer campaign, complete with a fleshed-out cast, scripted missions, a plot, the works. None of it made any sense to me, of course, but I found it was more fun not knowing who anyone was or what they were doing, because this allowed me to write everything off–particularly an attempt at looping the zombies mode into the narrative–as a fever dream and just concentrate on the shooting.

I had fun blasting my way through a very well-animated, Tom Clancy-ass story about political intrigue and biological warfare. The series’ gunplay, as always, is crisp, almost tangible. Pulling up your iron sights, pulling the trigger, seeing something fall down, this is where Call of Duty has always excelled, and Black Ops 6 is no different. There’s something about the speed it all takes place at, the sound, the animation–nobody does it better.

Panning back out from those iron sights, I appreciated some non-shooty bits of Black Ops 6 as well. There’s loads of interesting espionage gear to play with, an adventure game sequence set at a Bill Clinton fundraiser, a casino heist and some surprisingly enjoyable stealth missions (enjoyable because the second you’re inevitably discovered it just turns into a regular Call of Duty mission, guns blazing). There are also some bigger missions set on the game’s bigger multiplayer maps, where you’re given multiple objectives to complete and the freedom to tackle it all at will. One plays out like a miniature Far Cry, another like a homage to Control, there’s even a Diet Hitman in there, and all are a nice little diversion from the more linear, traditional missions.

The tributes to other games don’t end once you’re between stages, either. For reasons that are never quite adequately explained, you and your team of wanted international mercenaries are holed up in a house in Bulgaria where you…can spend cash you pick up during actual levels to take part in what’s essentially a home improvement minigame. You know, mercs for hire, on the run, taking time out to sink some brews and renovate. Normal Call of Duty stuff. It’s extremely stupid, but also charming in its own way; getting to see these gruff killers cooking a stew is a vulnerable, personal touch I wish the series gave us more of.

Black Ops 6‘s campaign is not a great shooter. Not by general standards, not even by the franchise’s own standards, which to be fair are, at their peaks, pretty close to some of the best ever made. But you know what, I don’t really mind. It’s just nice to have a Call of Duty singleplayer game around that’s not terrible. Comfort food doesn’t need Michelin stars. And with my brain switched off and my finger on the trigger, Black Ops 6 sees Call of Duty once again hitting the spot.