Call of Duty: Black Ops 6  — hands-on report

Activision recently declassified a trove of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 intel, including hands-on with Multiplayer, round-based Zombies, and Warzone. I blasted across six new Multiplayer maps, the undead-infested Liberty Falls, and a Nuketown-inspired Resurgence map. Each Black Ops 6 mode also touts Treyarch’s new Omnimovement mechanic, adding slick fluidity to the series’ signature gunplay.

Black Ops 6 launches on PS5 and PS4 on October 25, but if you want a head start on the action check out full details on the upcoming Beta starting August 30.

Now let’s dig into the hands-on details.

Multiplayer

Omnimovement – Black Ops 6’s new marque mechanic is crackling with potential. You can now sprint and hold the Circle button to dive in any direction while maintaining 360-degree aiming control. By the time I wrapped my mind around the possibilities, and was diving down staircases and doing mid-air 180s to take out pursuers. Another favorite technique is to dive into an enemy-occupied room and gun them down before they can react. Better yet, Omnimovement is globally featured across MP, Zombies, and Warzone.

Global weapon loadouts and progression – Two huge quality-of-life improvements for Black Ops 6 make managing your arsenal smoother. Global weapon progression means you’ll have access to all the weapons and attachments you earn across Multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone. Additionally, any loadout or Gunsmith edits you make in one mode will be mirrored globally to the other modes.

Kill Order mode – This new mode has both teams protecting their own High-Value Target while hunting down the enemy’s HVT. Treyarch has found a slick balance between chaotic TDM-style action and a light layer of strategic, objective-based play. It’s definitely entering my regular rotation.

Body shields – Got the drop on an enemy? A new body shield mechanic lets players grab an unaware enemy for some extra protection. For a diabolical touch, Treyarch has activated proximity chat across teams to exchange words. Mind your sportsmanlike conduct! 
Best Play – Celebrate your team’s game-winning display or examine your downfall with the return of Best Play cams, which mark the end of the match with a third-person camera flourish.

Shoot doors to open them – A nice hands-free touch.

Treyarch’s MP design philosophy – Black Ops 6 marks a return to the studio’s MP bread and butter: small, fast, three-lane maps. The move away from large, expansive maps means you’ll always be around the corner from some combat. Prepare for 16 all-new maps at launch.

New Multiplayer Maps – I fought across six of the upcoming Core 6v6 maps during the hands-on event. 

• Scud – A massive, downed radar dish acts as a map reference point. Deep winding trenches, underground passages, and explosive red barrels are scattered around the map for plenty of unpredictable action.

• Rewind – Firefight through a U.S. city street, with the map’s namesake being a ‘90s-era video rental store within a strip mall. Close-quarters combat breaks out amidst piles of VHS tapes, with a fast-food restaurant across the road for more intense encounters.

• Skyline – A ritzy condo atop a city skyscraper. A narrow upper-floor hallway became a central point of conflict, where plenty of ranged firefights broke out, complete with a swimming pool below to dive down into when things get heated. Watch out for the perilous elevator shafts at the map’s bottom.

• Babylon – These crumbling, sandy ruins are a paradise for anyone craving intimate battles in tight spaces. Pack an SMG or shotgun to help clear corners.

• Derelict – Abandoned train cars fill a shattered trainyard, creating jagged pathways through the map with unique lines of sight that will keep your head on a swivel.

Round-based Zombies

Round-based returns – Treyarch resurrects to the roots of Zombies mode with players surviving waves of progressively stronger monstrosities, demanding steady progress through the map and powering up weapons to survive. The two launch maps include the claustrophobic Terminus and colorful new Liberty Falls…

Liberty Falls map – This launch map is a slice of necrotic Americana. Blast through waves of undead while exploring the small town’s vehicle-cluttered streets, the lanes of a bowling alley, motel, comic book shop, otherworldly church, and more locations. Ziplines connect the rooftop destinations of the town, creating a layer of twisty-turny paths to learn.

Shared Door Buys – Players can now pool funds to open doors and progress through Zombies maps, which means more money for powering up your gear.

Exfil or die – Risk and reward reign in round-based Zombies. Exfil offers an opportunity to end your run on a high note, or you can go down fighting in new dramatic game over outros that change dynamically depending on where and how you die. I botched my exfil, failing to clear out the zombies swarming the landing zone in time. My resulting game over involved an armored zombie grabbing onto my escaping chopper and punching it to smithereens.

Melee Macchiato Perk – This new drink powers up your punch to send zombies flying across the map with a click of R3.

Wonder Weapons – Demolish the dead with the Ray Gun, Beamsmasher, and devastating Thrustodyne Model 23. The latter is a massive, repurposed jet engine that vacuums up zombie packs and shreds them to ribbons.

Directed Mode – Need a guide through the zombie hordes? Treyarch is releasing a new Directed Mode post-launch with Season 1, which will assist players in the Main Quest up through wave 15.

Warzone

Area 99 – The launch of Black Ops 6 is accompanied by a new Resurgence map. Area 99 is the birthplace of the iconic Black Ops map, Nuketown. An abandoned facility with a decrepit retro ‘60s vibe makes for a fresh Warzone addition.

New Points of Interest – Area 99 packs 10 tantalizing spots to land. Here are a few I fought through:

• Pod Dormitory – These retro-futuristic multicolored dorms are made of offshoot pod-like capsule apartments. A great spot to land and possibly snag some loot, privacy, and a vantage point.
• House Factory – A destination filled with half-constructed prefabricated houses, resulting in some interesting and unexpected sightlines. This point of interest even includes a tiny replica of the iconic Nuketown map. Cute!

• Nuclear Reactor – Take it from me – do not jump into the glowing green irradiated coolant. 
• Mannequin Assembly – Piles of damaged mannequins are scattered all around this facility, presumably destined for a weapons testing site somewhere.. Watch out for the hydraulic press above the conveyor belt, which is still active…
• Other Points of Interest – Look forward to also looting Nuketown Shipping, Test Site, Bunker, Loading Bay, Cooling Towers, and Warehouse.

The weapon inspect animations are undeniably cool.

Treyarch and the rest of the COD devs have something special in store here for Black Ops fans especially, and Omnimovement is a gameplay innovation that makes the storied franchise player extra fresh once again.

But don’t just take my word for it. If you pre-ordered Black Ops 6, you’ll be able to dive into the early access beta starting tomorrow, August 30. The full game launches on October 25.