Black Ops 6 has done one thing in Campaign right which MW3 failed miserably

The Black Ops 6 Campaign is leagues ahead of MW3 and there's no debate about it. It has earned nothing but praise from critics and players alike. However, the same cannot be said for last year's Modern Warfare 3. It featured one of the lowest-rated Call of Duty Campaigns in the series' history, delivering fans only four hours' worth of content — that too was lacking in several aspects.

One of the highlights from the MW3 Campaign that was heavily marketed was the new concept of "Open Combat" missions. Simply put, they would allow players to take on a mission on their terms. Don't get me wrong, they are still linear levels, but they would allow players to approach a mission with stealth or go full-on guns blazing, promising variety.

The concept was quite enticing and the marketing played a crucial role in making the player believe it. They could pick up different weapons, Killstreaks, and more within the mission and play it how they want to.

But things didn't play out as expected. In fact, because of how poorly the missions were designed, they became some of the most tedious, boring, and worst levels in the game. Coming back to Black Ops 6, the concept was still in the game but was not marketed as such at all, and guess what? It turned out to be great.

So let us take a closer look at the Open Combat missions from both titles and explore how BO6 did it right and MW3 didn't.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinion.

How Black Ops 6 Campaign does Open Combat missions better than MW3

The concept of the Open Combat missions from MW3 is embedded into the Black Ops 6 Campaign. Most missions in BO6 qualify as Open Combat if we take MW3 as the benchmark. For a level to qualify as Open Combat, it has to satisfy only one condition: allow the player to take on a mission how they want to. Let us understand this with a few examples.

The third mission in Black Ops 6, Most Wanted, allows you to play the mission how you want to. The primary objective of the mission is simple: get the retina scans of a senator. I won't go further into it to avoid spoilers, but you get the idea of it.

Exploring the mission Most Wanted in Black Ops 6 (Image via Activision)

Let's just say, you have three ways to get his retina scans, and a section of the mission will be played differently depending on the path you take. This means that your decisions will have consequences that will alter how a part of the mission plays out. Do note that the ending of the mission will be the same because it is a linear game after all.

Let us take another example of such a mission. The fourth mission in the game is called "Hunting Season" and is a blend of linear and open-world gameplay. The mission kicks off with the team in Iraq helping the SAS. After completing the initial objective, you are given a vehicle you can take to explore the entire desert and complete side quests, helping other soldiers pinned down by enemies, liberating villages, and more.

Also read: Did Adler kill Jane's parents in Black Ops 6? Possibilities explored

It's not necessary to complete these side quests, but having them certainly added a breath of fresh air. You'll be rewarded for completing them.

These are just two examples of missions from the game that were truly Open Combat missions, and there are more just like them. They give the user the playground and let them play how they want to.

On the other hand, Modern Warfare 3, the game that conceptualized Open Combat missions and advertised them so much to its fans, failed to properly implement the formula in the game.

Let's take the example of the second mission from the MW3 Campaign, called Precious Cargo. This is our introduction to the Open Combat missions. In this mission, Farah must place trackers on missile containers. You do have the option to take on this mission how you want, be it stealthily or blasting everyone you see, but there are no consequences to your actions.

The mission will play out the same way irrespective of which route you take. While this was an "Open Combat" mission, the fact that there are no consequences for your actions makes it pointless. What's the point of being able to sneak out or go guns blazing if nothing changes in the game?

This theme is repeated with every other Open Combat mission in MW3. There is no reward to be had for taking a different path, there are no consequences, and so what is the point of having options if they don't change a thing?

This is why all these missions in MW3 felt excruciatingly tedious and felt like were added to the game to only increase its playthrough time.

This is how Black Ops 6 nailed it and does Open Combat missions better than MW3. The missions in Black Ops 6 Campaign give you several ways to tackle an objective and most of them play out differently depending on the route you decide to pursue. This not only keeps things interesting to the player but also adds a lot of replayability value.

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Edited by Adarsh J Kumar