Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Everything We Know So Far

With the new Modern Warfare trilogy done and dusted, it was only a matter of time before the Black Ops series made its return. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will follow on directly from Call of Duty: Cold War, and it’s shaping up to be the most ambitious and interconnected entry in the series to date. Like any modern espionage tale, the truths and untruths of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 have been masked in layers of mystery.

That hasn’t stopped us from digging into all of the footage and files that have been released to reveal some of this year’s most anticipated blockbuster titles. You’ve combed through the intel for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6? Mission accomplished! Because a question like that can only have one answer: yes. So here’s everything you need to know about the brand-new Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 ahead of release.

Release date

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will launch on Friday, October 25, 2024.

Platforms

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will not give up last-gen consoles yet. It is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Trailers

The reveal trailer places Black Ops 6 explicitly in 1991 after the Cold War, in Kuwait, with the return of Russel Adler, who sets the player on a trail of conspiracies regarding an infiltrated CIA branch called The Pantheon, whose plans must be stopped by you going rogue with Adler and two other characters, Sev and Felix. You may assume Frank Woods couldn’t stay away and that he appears towards the end of your campaign in your character’s capacity as a CIA agent, not as a field operative. He’s not interested in the field anymore, you see; it’s up to you to chase whatever it is he thinks he knows.

The footage shows the full range of mission types to be far more varied. Along with the usual bombastic blazing gunfights, you can sneak around and, perhaps most excitingly, it seems like there will be missions not requiring your gun’s assistance at all – some of the demo footage seems to show the return of the sandbox’s earlier, non-violent missions, like robbing a casino. It doesn’t mean you can’t shoot your way, but some missions are giving you the option of talking your way out too.

The open mission structure, which first showed up in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, is back, and this time it’s bigger and better than ever. Players can approach and complete these missions on their own terms.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Official Zombies Terminus Cinematic Trailer

A separate Zombies-specific trailer announced who we’d be playing as (our new Zombies crew) in this particular mode, and, as usual, it’s a group of characters that pack a bit of nuance, narrative, and personality. This time, we have Grigori Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Carver, Oskar Strauss, William Peck, and Maya Aguinaldo. Taking place more than half a decade after the Zombies mode in Cold War, the Dark Aether story will continue at that game’s Terminus outpost in an unnamed location of the Philippine Sea. There is the initial breakout followed by the opening of an outpost to first survive – and then to find Mac’s missing brother.

Gameplay

By far the most revolutionary change that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes to gameplay concerns what the team is calling Omnimovement. The most obvious addition here is the ability to leap in any direction – even backwards. Sliding, diving and prone options have also been enhanced to smooth and fluid an extent as possible.

Multiplayer will include 16 new maps by default, 12 built for 6v6 game types, and four that can also be played 2v2.

When you reach the cap in multiplayer – level 705 – the old Prestiege system comes back to allow you to again go straight back through the entire levelling system to open all the weapons and gear again; but this time you have 10 Prestige levels to cycle through, each offering a new reward, before hitting Prestiege Master, at which point you have another 1,000 levels to grind.

Although this isn’t a core part of the gameplay, it will be the first Flight Sim in the series to allow players to set up the HUD to hide and move crucial information.

Lastly, Zombies will return to its arcade roots, while also assimilating with the Dark Aether story. Two new round-based maps launch as part of the game under the moniker of Terminus and Liberty Falls. Outside of telegraphed new, and returning player-favourite features, what exactly will be lurking in the shadows or encroaching from below remains a mystery.

We’re not even out of January, but a mega-leak for Black Ops 6 has purportedly spilt all the goods on this year’s Call of Duty. There’s still a lot of info to pour through, but this so-called data dump includes a lengthy rundown of both Scorestreaks and Combat Perks. Don’t shoot the messenger: we can’t be sure that things aren’t going to change or some bits here and there aren’t complete fabrications. But given what we know of the game’s development, it’s about 90 per cent safe to declare most of these suspects will feature when the final countdown is reached.

Leaked Scorestreaks and Effects:

Scout Pulse — Unknown

RC-XD — Drive an explosive RC car

UAV — Pings enemies on the minimap

Counter UAV — Disables enemy radar

Watchdog Helo — Call a missile to drop a cluster bomb on the map

Interceptors — Unknown

Chopper Gunner — Man a machine gun on a chopper circling the map

Leaked Perks and Effects

Dexterity — “Reduced weapon motion while jumping, sliding, and diving. Take less fall damage.”

Gung-Ho — “Reduced movement penalties when reloading or using equipment. Reload while Tac Sprinting.”

Engineer — “See enemy equipment and scorestreaks through walls and enemy scorestreak icons on the minimap.”

Forward Intel — “Increases minimap area and shows direction indicators for revealed enemies.”

Tracker — “See enemy footsteps. ADSing auto-pings enemies. Long cooldown.”

Dispatcher — “Reduced score cost for non-lethal Scorestreaks. Stacks with Bankroll.”

Fast Hands — “Swap weapons faster and extend focus when throwing back grenades.”

Bankroll — “Start each life with +150 score toward Scorestreaks.”

Double Time — “Greatly increased duration of Tac Sprint.”

Cold-Blooded — “Undetectable by AI targeting and thermal optics. Player-controlled Scorestreaks don’t highlight you. Immune to Spy Cam.”

Vigilance — “Display a HUD icon whenever you appear on enemy minimaps. Immune to CUAV and Scrambler. Immune to Sleeper Agent.”

Gearhead — “Two Field Upgrade charges. Increased Field Upgrade charge rate. Hack enemy equipment and field upgrades. Booby trap Care Packages.”

Guardian — “Faster healing while capturing and holding objectives. Revive downed teammates faster.”

Quartermaster — “Recharge equipment over time.”

Preorder

There are two editions you can preorder for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Here are the differences between the two and what they cost.

Cross-Gen bundle — $70

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Open Beta access
• Woods Operator pack

BO6 Vault — $100

• Everything in the Cross-Gen Bundle
• Hunters vs. Hunted Operator pack
• Mastercraft Collection
• BlackCell (1 Season)
• GobbleGum Pack for Zombies