Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Preview: Everything You Need to Know

Get your headset on and hands warm—it’s time to dominate some noobs in Call of Duty. Well, it will be later this year, at least. We’ve gotten a new Call of Duty every year since its second title in 2005, and now we know which one fans will be firing up this fall.

Call of Duty has been in hot water lately after the last installment, Modern Warfare III, was met with the worst review average for any core Call of Duty entry in the franchise’s 20-year history. Oof! Can this year’s game turn things around for the storied shooter series?

Will this game reignite the players’ love for Call of Duty, or will it just be another letdown in a series that’s arguably lost steam in recent years? Here’s what we know for sure—and what we’ve heard.

Note: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is likely to be a traditional “Web2” game with no crypto or blockchain elements.

What is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6?

Activision has described Black Ops 6 as “a dark new chapter of the Black Ops franchise,” and shared the following teaser video, among other materials, as part of a campaign called “The Truth Lies.”

As the title suggests, this is the sixth installment of the Black Ops series. Since the first installment of Black Ops in 2010, the sub-label has focused on storylines and missions set around past conflicts including the Cold War and Vietnam War, along with more futuristic battles.

This new installation appears to be no different in that respect, but will be adding some new features to the joy of fans.

When is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 coming out?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set to release on October 25, 2024 across Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Officially, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will debut on Xbox Game Pass on day one, as Microsoft announced on May 28. That’s a big shift for the series, as the publisher will potentially skip out on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of game sales to try and drive more users to its subscription service.

Activision reportedly intends to continue its yearly release schedule into the foreseeable future. According to Insider Gaming, there are titles planned for release all the way up until 2027 when Sledgehammer Games—the main Modern Warfare III studio—will make its return.

Activision officially announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on May 23, 2024, and a full reveal of the game took place on June 9 during the Xbox Games Showcase.

What is the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 story?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be set in the early 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall. The Soviet Union is crumbling as the Cold War came to a close, leaving the U.S. as the only remaining superpower. 

As early leaks suggested, the game’s events will specifically unfold surrounding the Gulf War which started in 1990 and ended in 1991. But as confirmed at the Xbox Games Showcase, story events will also tie in 1986 flashbacks from Black Ops 2.

With the background for the story set, Treyarch has promised to bring new types of variety to the gameplay not seen in the franchise before. Each level will have multiple ways to be completed with a key focus on making every mission feel iconic.

All this combines to create a mysterious “high octane spy thriller” with an “action-packed blockbuster feel”—but with twists so that you never know who to trust or what is real. 

What’s new with movement?

Call of Duty’s movement system has seen industry-wide criticism over the past few years. Some believe that it’s too frantic and arcade-y, while others have expressed concerns that it isn’t as smooth as it always has been. But with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, player movement is being fully revamped.

With the new Omni-movement system, players will be able to move “like never before and seamlessly chain combat movement. Notably, players will be able to sprint, slide, or jump in any direction with fresh animations that no longer look janky. This Max Payne-style movement promises to be a major upgrade to the series.

The team is also looking to implement Intelligent Movement, which reduces the amount of times you need to press a button. With this optional feature, you’ll be able to automatically scale walls, crouch through holes, or sprint across a gap. 

You’ll also automatically perform a movement called “corner slicing.” This is where your weapon will dynamically angle itself around a corner as you peek over the edge—a real Spec Ops tactic for clearing out rooms.

In addition to all of this, footage shows the ability to use enemies as a meat shield. Whether or not this feature is available in multiplayer has not been confirmed.

What about multiplayer?

Multiplayer will be returning with 16 all-new maps, all set after the single-player campaign’s events—so complete that first if you want to avoid some spoilers.  

We are likely going to see classic Black Ops multiplayer maps returning, including Grind and WMD, according to Insider Gaming. This is a surprise to absolutely no one as the Call of Duty franchise has been living off nostalgia since its golden years. In fact, last year’s Modern Warfare III launched with a full set of decade-old maps right out of the gate.

We’ll also see the prestige system also returning to multiplayer, allowing players to reset their rank once they reach max player level. Once you hit 10th prestige, you can enter prestige master with 1,000 additional levels with a secret reward for players who make it all the way to the end.

What’s up with Zombies?

A round-based Zombies survival mode has also been confirmed. This is a change back to the old-school way of approaching the Zombies game mode after Call of Duty moved towards a larger-scale, sandbox-style experience. The story will continue the Dark Aether storyline where it left off at the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.

Two maps available at launch that will have returning features like the mystery box, pack-a-punch, aether crystals, and large ammo caches. There are also reports of a “dark aether field emitter,” but no one is quite sure what this is yet.

What else do we know?

Hit boxes have been reworked. Players will have nine different regions on the player model that they can be hit, up from four in previous entries. How this affects hit registration and time to kill is unknown for now, but this feature allows for new, dynamic death animations.

Players will also be able to customize their heads-up display (HUD) and minimap to a much greater extent than in previous games, including allowing users to fully hide the HUD in any game mode—not just hardcore. Also, the theater mode is back; we can’t wait to see your 360 no-scope montages using this feature.

It has also been reported that skins bought or unlocked in Modern Warfare 2 and 3 will not carry over into Black Ops 6. This is good news for some, and bad news for those who spent $20 on a Snoop Dogg skin. 

As expected, the Call of Duty Warzone battle royale experience is going to get an update in line with the new launch, leaks suggest, with action returning to the original Warzone map Verdansk, according to Insider Gaming.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on January 31, 2024 and last updated with new details on June 10.