Black Ops 6 Campaign first impressions: A mixed bag of typical Call of Duty gameplay

Some gameplay from the Black Ops 6 Campaign was just revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live. The developers showcased the mission 'Most Wanted' from the campaign, where fans were given a glimpse of Russell Adler and the newcomer, Troy Marshall. In the mission, players are tasked with rescuing Russell from a CIA Blacksite, which is located right underneath the Capitol Station building in Washington D.C.

The premise of this mission was pretty interesting to begin with and needless to say, what follows is some high-stakes action in the typical Call of Duty fashion complete with non-stop shooting, explosions, and more.

Now that you have a basic hold of what the mission entails, we'll take a closer look at the gameplay footage while sharing my thoughts on the Black Ops 6 Campaign along the way.

Black Ops 6 Campaign: My first impressions

Similar to other Call of Duty games, the Black Ops 6 Campaign mission 'Most Wanted' kicks off with a scripted cutscene, where the "good" guys are planning on retrieving intel on the Blacksite from a Senator who is attending a fundraiser in the Capitol Station.

Right out of the bat, what caught my attention were the visuals. They aren't bad by any means but considering it's a new-age Call of Duty game, I was expecting more on this department. However, since it's a cross-gen title, I believe the developers had to make sacrifices to make the game run well on last-gen systems, and due to this, the visuals didn't get the upgrade I was expecting it to.

However, the lighting was definitely better than we got with MW3 (2023), which was one of the major reasons for Modern Warfare 3 looking dull, even when compared to 2019's Modern Warfare. Anyway, let us get back to the main topic at hand, which is the gameplay.

Well, here's the funny part, there was barely any gameplay. Now, many fans would say that this is how Call of Duty Campaign missions are, and I agree with that. But considering it was a gameplay reveal, very little was actually revealed. What was showcased was mostly scripted footage where the entire 7-minute clip had maybe 2-3 minutes of actual gameplay at best.

So, we infiltrate the Capitol Station and are tasked with getting the retina scans of the Senator. Interestingly, there are multiple ways to complete this objective. You can either blackmail him or be a brute, it's completely your decision to take. These open-ended missions, which allow the player to decide how they want to approach an objective are certainly appreciated.

Immediately changing scenes, we are now using the retrieved retina scans to get inside the Blacksite. However, you might be surprised to find that the Blacksite has already been infiltrated by the new "evil" faction called Pantheons, and they shot up all the guards. This is an important junction, as Troy gives us the choice of going stealthy or guns blazing. In the Black Ops 6 Campaign reveal footage, we were offered the gameplay from the latter.

We kill the enemies and get inside to find Russell more than just safe and sound. In fact, he was taking out the Pantheons one by one, all by himself. We also get to know that it was Woods who sent the crew to retrieve Russell as he is quite important to the Black Ops 6 Campaign's plot.

Finally, after a long wait, we get to some actual gameplay. As the crew's about to leave the Blacksite, they are attacked by a Juggernaut. The player pulls out the RC-XD and uses it to take out the Juggernaut. During this part of the clip, we see the new Omnimovement in action, with the player sprinting backward and diving all around. Now this was some actual gameplay and it was fun.

The movement seemed to be quite smooth and will certainly be a game-changer. I am certainly looking forward to the game's beta to try it out myself because it does look fantastic in action.

The failed exfil scene in Black Ops 6 Campaign mission 'Most Wanted' (Image via Activision)

After taking down the Juggernaut, the team goes for an exfil by rappelling up the elevator wires. But, things never go as planned, and an explosion throws them off. Fortunately, the player can get a hold of a railing and survive the fall, saving Adler as well.

This is then followed by another choice of simply taking down everyone you see or escaping in the most cinematic way possible.

In the first case, it is another guns-blazing action sequence, where three guys take on a horde of Pantheon soldiers. We see the player using the Disruptor in this part of the gameplay footage, which is basically a Shock Stick. We are also shown the Homing Knife, which is a Throwing Knife that explodes.

But here's the interesting part, in the game's campaign, you will be able to control this knife. Meaning, that you will be able to steer it mid-air and explode it on your command. That scene, in particular, was probably one of the best things about the Black Ops 6 Campaign gameplay reveal.

However, if you decide to go the "cinematic" route, you, Russell, and Troy will be riding motorbikes out of the Capitol Station, escaping in the most Hollywood-esque way possible, bypassing the blockades by cops. But of course, it's a Call of Duty game, and a simple bike ride wouldn't cut it. So, you are then chased by Pantheons, who you take down on the go as you wreak havoc on the streets of Washington D.C. This is where the gameplay footage ends.

Escape sequence in the Black Ops 6 Campaign mission 'Most Wanted' (Image via Activision)

This scene reminded me of the prison escape from Vorkuta in Black Ops 1, where Mason and Reznov, escape on bikes as they are chased by the Russian soldiers.

So, as you can tell, despite being a 7-minute clip of "gameplay reveal", we mostly saw scripted scenes. And the few parts that showed some gameplay, weren't particularly mindblowing. It was mid at best. To recap, in terms of actual gameplay, we saw shooting, Omnimovement, the Homing Knife, and a bike chase scene.

Now, despite that, I would say my impressions of the Black Ops 6 Campaign were quite good. Sure, the "reveal" wasn't the best and it was possibly one of the worst gameplay reveals in the past decade of Call of Duty as they barely showed us any gameplay. However, the entire premise of the Black Ops 6 Campaign seemed interesting and the ability to approach a mission on your terms is quite intriguing.

We were also given a glimpse of the part where we decided to be aggressive while obtaining the retina scans. In this scene, we were seen engaging in hand-to-hand combat and frying off the face of a guard protecting the Senator. That was interesting and I believe there are more such gameplay features hidden throughout the mission. It's just that Call of Duty didn't give us the complete picture of what they had prepared and it was a poor reveal, despite the game looking promising.

So overall, my two cents is that the Black Ops 6 Campaign is shaping up to be a great campaign with a solid narrative, open-ended missions, action-packed sequences, and an interesting set of characters.

Hence, despite the poor reveal, I am certainly excited about the Black Ops 6 Campaign and will be looking forward to the beta to try out all the new features.

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Edited by Shraman Mitra