Ahead of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct reveal event, I traveled to Los Angeles to meet many of the developers and minds behind this year's COD release. I even had a chance to play a few rounds of Black Ops 6 multiplayer, but more on that later.

Our visit involved a lengthy presentation which delved into the campaign, multiplayer, and zombies segments of Black Ops 6, and some interesting new tech the game is adding to the shared Call of Duty engine. Mark Gordon, Studio Head at Treyarch, tells us that Black Ops 6 aims to "define the future of Call of Duty." After last year's brutal critical response to the Black Ops 6 is "undoubtedly our best work, our best Black Ops ever.”

Black Ops 6 is the longest-in-development Call of Duty game in the franchise's history and has a lot of pressure upon it for the above reasons, not to mention the fact that it's the first Call of Duty release under $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Let's take a deep dive into everything I saw and learned while visiting Treyarch and interviewing some of the team.

Black Ops 6's Campaign Revealed

After watching a high-octane Black Ops 6 trailer to the tune of The Prodigy's "Firestarter," we begin a deeper dive into the setting of the campaign. "A new era of Black Ops begins as a shadowy clandestine force infiltrates the highest levels of the CIA, branding any who resist as traitors," we're told as we learn that Black Ops 6 is the first game in the series where the team is on the outs. "No calling Uncle Sam for help," a Treyarch dev explains. The story sees players having to forces with past enemies. The word "rogue" is thrown around frequently.

Natalie Pohorski, Lead Producer at Raven Software, highlights the key pillars of deg the Black Ops 6 campaign:

• They're aiming to push the boundaries, starting with the narrative.
• Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller, from the locations around the globe to the gadgets.
• Mystery and paranoia are key to the Black Ops experience. Expect twists and turns.
• Historical touchpoints remain core to the narrative. This is another fictional story based on actual historical events.
• The Black Ops lore is deeply cared about, and there are direct connections to Black Ops II and Cold War.

A summary of the Black Ops 6 synopsis goes something like this: In 1991, an operation in Kuwait goes sideways and leads to a breach in protocol when Russell Adler reappears after going missing for months. He leaves Frank Woods with a cryptic message that leads to the discovery of a clandestine force called The Pantheon which appears to have infiltrated the highest levels of the CIA. The team is forced to go rogue and follow the trail of The Pantheon and prevent them from deploying an apocalyptic weapon.

As for gameplay, Black Ops 6 aims to deliver something more epic, including in player choice. Jon Zuk, Associate Creative Director at Raven Software, emphasizes that mission variety was the most important design tenant for the campaign, teasing locations, mission titles, and themes including the Gulf War, Casino Heist, Saboteur, Player Agency, Mind F***ery, Assassin, and something else redacted. In addition to the play styles and environmental differences, there are strategic opportunities during gameplay involving advanced enemies (think juggernauts with miniguns) and player equipment (yes, the RC-XD returns!).

Another core element to the structure of the Black Ops 6 campaign is the Safehouse, a location players explore in between missions. Here they can engage in dialogue trees with other characters and view the Evidence Board to plan out or choose missions. The goal here, we are told, is to offer player choice and sense of ownership. I did confirm with Jon Zuk however, that players cannot define their loadouts between missions, as the game must guide players into knowing what weapons are required before they've even seen the mission. Players however, can upgrade their gear here.

Black Ops 6 appears to be the most visually impressive Call of Duty.

We observed gameplay from two missions, the first dubbed Capitol Station which is set on February 3, 1991 where Governor Bill Clinton is hosting a "Meeting the Future" gala. We see a weapons/gear wheel in action, a motorcycle sequence with slow-mo moments, and automatic leaning around corners. Another mission, called Iraq, showcases the team suiting up as Delta operators on a big, open-world map. It's not a linear mission. The HUD is noticeably clean and empty, and across both missions it's impossible to ignore the impressive lighting effects.

What I saw was of course a highly polished presentation of carefully chosen demo clips months before release, but at a glance, Black Ops 6 looks like the most impressive COD visually. Part of that has to do with some literally game-changing animations. Let's talk about Omnimovement...

Black Ops 6 Introduces Omnimovement

A new genre-defining movement system built ground up for Call of Duty

A noticeable part of the campaign gameplay on display during our Treyarch Studios visit, and a massive part of the presentation is the Omnimovement system, which may change Call of Duty forever. Call of Duty players are accustomed to sprinting forward, but what if you could sprint in any direction? Follow that logic path and imagine you can slide and dare I say, dive, in any direction. Omnimovement lets you do all of this naturally, as a regular part of the flow of the game. I can't wait to share more on this element in the future, but I can share a few more details here today.

All Call of Duty studios are using the same shared engine so what you see in Black Ops 6 builds on Modern Warfare 2 & 3, and these new systems added, you can expect to see going forward.

Thousands of animations were mocapped to accomplish the fluidity and fidelity of these new movements. Imagine diving and turning in the air, instead of your entire character model spinning on an axis, your gun moves to where you point while your body maintains its momentum. But wait, there's more!

Black Ops 6 also introduces Intelligent Movement, where the devs drew inspiration from the Forza games and some of the cool settings they offer. For instance, in Black Ops 6 you can just point and go and don't have to press buttons to climb or mantle forward should you desire to based on new assist options players can toggle for crouching, sprinting, and mantling.

In-game, there's world connectivity where player models appropriately bash into doors with their shoulders, or smash up against walls. Some of this is reminiscent of what Battlefield V attempted to deliver years ago. Diving into water turns movement and animation into an actual dive, and perhaps most importantly, there's "corner slicing" now so your character automatically leans around objects and corners.

Animations level up significantly on the NPC side as well as the number of hit locations on enemies has more than doubled. For reference, Call of Duty games historically have four main hit locations that NPCs can react to when they take fire, and in Black Ops 6 there are now 9. There's also a new dynamic deathcam that, instead of displaying a static view upon death, the camera will now track the body for a bit to showcase the animations. This has been a source of many funny shared clips internally at Treyarch and Raven.

Black Ops 6's New Title Format Explained

Goodbye extra subtitles and Roman numerals

The rumors of a Gulf War setting for 2024's Call of Duty were true, but the title of the game takes a back-to-basics approach, opting to do something different than the secondary subtitle (a la Cold War) and the Roman numerals of the four games prior to that. Instead, Black Ops 6 just uses the number. I asked Miles Leslie, Associate Creative Director at Treyarch, about the title choice.

"That's an interesting question. For us, I think it's always Black Ops, right? And that didn't change. I think a lot of it was, and by the way, this goes across all the orgs, so it's not like Jon [Zuk] and I are there deciding the names, of course. There's lots of people involved in all these sorts of things. But they do a lot of work on what resonates with people and, of course we have our own opinions, but I think it was like how do we get back to what resonates with players?"

Leslie continues, explaining that "Black Ops Cold War is a Black Ops game and we almost kind of want to accentuate that with the 6. The 6 says that as well. It was like, no, no, that was a legit Black Ops game and we kind of want to return and resonate with the 6 and kind of cement that and I think elicit the rightful nostalgia vibes, but also that it's something new."

For what it's worth the team did joke about "how the hell [they] were going to do the Roman numerals" in a logo had they gone down that path.

Complete Timeline of the Black Ops Story

Black Ops 6 follows Cold War and Black Ops III and is set in 1991

Black Ops 6 takes place in the early '90s, after the events of Black Ops Cold War, and is tied to the '80s flashbacks from Black Ops II. The time period choice allows the gameplay to embrace '90s-themed gadgets and maintains the modern "boots on the ground" gameplay mandate. I asked Miles Leslie if there was ever consideration of going back to the future for Black Ops 6 and re-introducing some of the more wild boosting, jumping, and wall-running abilities.

"Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah. Yes. That always comes up. So the team is always like, oh, wouldn't it be cool? We can fly again and do all of these things. And I think for us is staying, I don't want to say to the roots, but back to basics in of boots on the ground has still been really important. We know that resonates with players across it. And again, it kind of went back to, it just feels right to stay in the '90, '91 era after that and doing the advanced movement or boost jump, it didn't feel right. You know what I mean? It was like we wanted to finish that story after Cold War, the continuation, what happened after BO II was the perfect sort of coming together on that."

The 1991 setting places the narrative at the end of the Cold War and the height of the Gulf War. America is seen as the last remaining superpower and this gives Americans a false sense of security, "leaving organizations like the CIA vulnerable to shifts in power behind the scenes," explains Pohorski.

In Black Ops lore, Black Ops 2 (the 1980s part of its story) leaves Frank Woods with a critical injury and the loss of his squad mates Alex Mason and Jason Hudson. Woods has since been pulled from the field, serving now in a role, the "eyes in the sky." He has a new handler in new character Jane Harrow. Harrow is basically the best ally to have at the agency. Another new character is Marshall, the new team leader.

Black Ops 6's New Gear

Black Ops 6 introduces 12 all-new weapons for the Call of Duty franchise

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 introduces 12 weapons that have never been seen before in the series, era appropriate and some prototype weapons. Some of the weapons shown to me during the presentation to emphasize the textures and design details added in this game include the PDW, Marine SP, Kompackt 92, SVD, and 9mm PM. As for the gear, following the theme of going rogue and having to make DIY weapons in the field, here are some examples:

• Spring Mine - Four claymores in a circle strapped together with zip ties
• RC-XD in its 1991 form, with C4 strapped on.
• Signal Lure - new to COD (for the real good slayers, all the enemies know where you are when you turn on this beeper)
• War Cry - new to COD (2 flares you bang together, and characters around you get a buff)
• Spy Camera (for players who love to help their team - you can tag enemies)

Black Ops 6 Progression And Prestige

Classic Prestige returns with the "right amount of new"

Treyarch set out to craft the most rewarding COD they’ve ever built with Black Ops 6 and for Prestige, they listened to the .

“Classic prestige is back”

• The dev teams are confident they’ve built the best version of the Prestige system in the franchise.
• The journey starts in the Military levels, 1 through 55, not unlike it is now in Call of Duty. This is how you unlock your gear.
• At max level you will again have the choice to enter prestige and start again at 1 with everything locked again. Now you can do it all over again.
• There are 10 prestiges with each offering a set of unique rewards.
• If you make it through all 10, there are 1000 Prestige Master levels, including a classified reward at level 1000.
• This entire progression system is available starting on Day 1 - no seasonal level caps.

Round Based Zombies Returns For Black Ops 6

Black Ops 6 has Two Zombies maps at Launch!

Long-time zombies fans will be pleased to know that round-based zombies returns with Black Ops 6. Kevin Drew, Associate Design Director on Zombies, tells us that they are refining what they established in Cold War and are looking at what worked in the past while adding a few never-before-seen things.

Black Ops 6: Zombies embraces the 1991 setting and continues the Dark Aether story five years later. Dr. Peck charters a boat to visit some “old friends," three of them you'll recognize. That's right, Black Ops 6 zombies returns to having dedicated characters for its zombie mode.

Black Ops 6 Zombies Characters

• Grigori Weaver (from Black Ops 1)
• Elizabeth Grey (handler from Cold War)
• Mac Carver (handler from Cold War)
• Maya Aguinaldo (new character)

You can still use any operator but when you use the main four you'll get a much more deeper experience with additional VO and they'll be featured in all of the cinematics.

Black Ops 6 launches with 2 new Zombies Maps

• Liberty Falls - Dark Aether Incursion
• Terminus: “Blacksite 13”

Miles Leslie confirmed to me that progression on weapons is shared between multiplayer and zombies, and there's a whole system for unlocking skins and rewards from zombies mode.

"We got a whole system on that. We want each group of players to feel like we're hand crafting stuff for them. And so yeah, a lot of care has gone into the progression," explains Leslie.

Black Ops Multiplayer Is a Standalone Experience

No Modern Warfare Gear or Operators Crossover With Black Ops 6

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 delivers an all-new multiplayer experience featuring 16 brand-new maps at launch. Sorry, no Nuketown (yet).

• 12 maps for core multiplayer.
• 4 strike maps, all new designs (these are small maps for gunfight and face off modes).
• Multiplayer takes place after the campaign which may explain the map designs (think battle damage).

Black Ops 6 multiplayer features two factions

Some of the new features coming with Black Ops 6 multiplayer include Combat Specialties, Dedicated Melees, and Mastery Badges, and returning features include Wildcards, detailed weapon stats, Gunsmith, Favorite Class, Showcase Weapon, and Shooting Range. Your loadout content at launch shapes up like this:

• Primary, Secondary, Melee
• Tactical, Lethal, Field Upgrade
• Enforcer Perks, Recon Perks, Strategist Perks
• Wildcards, Scorestreaks
• + Additional content post-launch

To confirm some of the obvious details as well, there will be 10 custom classes available (same as current COD), 5 default classes, 1 dedicated quick setup, 5 attachment slots (8 with a wildcard though...). This last part is a potential game-changer come time for Black Ops 6 integrating into Warzone but more on that later. As for the main multiplayer, there is no crossover or shared gear, skins, attachments, etc. between the current Warzone lineup (based on MW2 & 3) and Black Ops 6. In Warzone, expect everything to be available from all three games.

"Yeah, so I think the current thinking is that Black Ops 6 is a game and that's what we're talking about. So we want it to be a fresh start. Warzone, free to play. You're going to keep all your stuff, but on the side, that's a fresh start for everyone."

Other notable quality of life improvements and UI changes include a promised streamlined lobby and flow to getting into the game. David Duckworth, UI/ UX Director at Treyarch, confirms that they're well aware of to the current Call of Duty menu system and want Black Ops 6 to be fast and responsive, approachable, and content-focused. From the moment of launch, it’s all about getting into gameplay. The main menu will also see the return of the Quick party list in the top right, the post-game best play (returning from Black Ops 4) and the Winner’s Circle where winners can showoff to the lobby.

The circular in-game minimap returns, but players can choose the square version should they prefer, and better yet, Black Ops 6 introduces HUD Presets. I can finally live out my dream of moving the score and ammo widgets around and choose what corner of the screen I want the minimap to display in.

How Does Black Ops 6 Fit Into Warzone?

We'll have to wait until Call of Duty: Next

Unfortunately, Treyarch wouldn't openly talk about Warzone integration just yet. Yale Miller, Director of Production at Treyarch, did tell us however, that Black Ops 6 will feature familiar live seasons and emphasized the obvious - that Black Ops 6 is built upon a shared engine that all Call of Duty studios use.

They also reiterated their commitment to improving the experience of the launcher, including efforts to reduce the insanely large footprint/filesize Call of Duty currently commands. I fear this may mean we lose some fan-favorite Warzone maps as new content rolls out. As long as Rebirth Island remains for Resurgence mode, we're good.

Miller confirms that in the next few months they'll talk more about this and how omnimovement will integrate into Call of Duty: Warzone.

Confirmed: Omnimovement is coming to Call of Duty: Warzone.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available globally on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Battle.net, Microsoft Store, and Steam on Friday, October 25th, 2024.

The Black Ops 6 Open Beta will be free across all platforms, with players who pre-order gaining early access