Test - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: Test: Perhaps the best campaign in the series

We would probably all rather erase the half-hearted campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from our memories. In general, Activision's cult series in recent years has not necessarily been convincing with its quality single-player products. There are correspondingly high hopes for Raven Software, who delivered a fantastic spy thriller with Black Ops Cold War. Now Black Ops 6 is here and even exceeds expectations.

Raven Software takes the tried and tested Cold War formula and expands it significantly for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. There has never been such a diverse campaign in the history of the series, the bombast typical of the series with minute-long firefights and huge explosions is skillfully alternated with stealth missions, exciting undercover missions and really surprisingly structured sections with a focus on storytelling. The setting is the Second Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm. Historical figures are missing, as are biological weapons, evil terrorists and communists. Simply put: Call of Duty is back and better than it has been in a long time.

Endless variety

Once again, Black Ops 6 sends you to various locations around the globe. Of course, you end up in the Middle East several times, for example you storm Saddam Hussein's palace in Iraq, which takes place in the usual highly polished firefights. Weapon handling is precise as always, every gun feels different, hit feedback and recoil are at the top level that we know and love from Call of Duty.

The Omnimovement, which was widely advertised in advance, fits in so seamlessly that I almost didn't notice it at times. You can now sprint in all directions, not just forward. This allows for some daring maneuvers in which you run around corners at a rapid pace and give the enemies no chance. Or you storm into a room, face an enemy majority and sprint backwards, firing on all cylinders, to retreat.

The typical gadgets are also not missing, a stun grenade attracts enemies and eliminates them silently, the explosive remote-controlled car is also available and you can even use a remote control to guide a throwing knife to the target? awesome! Black Ops 6 offers the finest shooter fare on the mechanical side, but also shines in other areas.

A mission sends you to a fundraising gala to take a high-resolution photo of a US Senator's retina? Even Bill Clinton makes a guest appearance here! Another time you infiltrate an Italian casino and jump back and forth between various characters during the mission. You play with marked cards, sneak into the server room, recode an access card in a little mini-game, the finest agent fare with James Bond elements.

Elsewhere, the campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 almost mutates into a zombie shooter, which is explained by the narrative and is so brilliantly staged that its style and setting are almost reminiscent of a Bioshock. Without going into too much detail about this explicit mission, at least the following can be said: For me, it is one of the best sections that has ever existed in Call of Duty.

No chance of boredom

Raven Software not only manages the variety in mission design very well, the pacing of the campaign is also almost perfect. Whenever the continuous fire adventure was in danger of becoming tiring, a stealth section followed, of which there are several, some with multiple solutions. For example, do you simply want to blow up a helicopter with an explosive charge or would you rather add water to the fuel? However, the options are never overwhelming and are revealed very clearly through the overview cards in the respective missions.

If you're not a quiet person, this won't be a problem in most cases. Almost every mission will let you shoot everything bluntly, if you fail to go silently. After sneaking around for a while, you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a hail of bullets in an airport, through which you then rumble aboard a tank and drive the entire building into disrepair within a few minutes. This is the great popcorn action that we love Call of Duty for.

In Iraq, the developers even set you a mission that borders on the open world. On a comparatively large map, your mission is to take out three missile emplacements for an SAS officer. You either do this directly or tackle smaller side tasks such as recovering supply boxes or cleaning terrorist camps.

Neat one in the tower

Between the actual missions you regularly end up in a former KGB hideout in Bulgaria, which the team calls a “tower”. is titled. Here you not only prepare for the next missions, there are even a number of puzzles that don't put your gray cells to the test, but still offer a nice change from the everyday life of an agent..

You continue to chat with your allies in the tower and learn smaller story bits and details from their lives. You also spend money found in missions to unlock a total of three training facilities. These give you access to the so-called “Operator Extras”, which you probably know from multiplayer.

With the money you collect, you unlock permanent upgrades such as more health, less recoil, reduced damage from explosions and much more. This may seem strange at first, but it turns out to be a big help. Because Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 proves to be quite tricky even on the second of the four difficulty levels. You'll probably bite the dust at one point or another, the perks definitely make life easier. But purists can also ignore them completely.

Hans Mole and the CIA

You spend most of your time in the shoes of William ?Case? Calderon, whose team was suspended after a mission went wrong. Together with Frank Woods and Troy Marshall, he goes into hiding when rumors about a mole within the organization spread. But of course it's not just the CIA itself that's hot on your heels, with ?Pantheon? A well-equipped paramilitary unit also makes your life more difficult.

The story of Black Ops 6 isn't always that logical and it's at B-movie level at best, but let's not kid ourselves: that's exactly why we love the series! Long-time fans are also happy about the return of familiar faces such as the aforementioned Frank Woods and Russell Adler. At around eight to ten hours, the campaign is also surprisingly long, without feeling stretched out at any point.

The developers could only have addressed the overarching theme of the Second Gulf War a little more. The conflict is mentioned in the sometimes incredibly good-looking pre-rendered cutscenes, but overall it doesn't play a role. You're on a secret mission and not fighting on the front line, which begs the question: Why bring up Desert Storm at all? In my opinion, the conflict could have simply been left out and still delivered an entertaining spy story.

On the technical side, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is surprisingly mixed at times. The sometimes unspeakably atmospheric games with light and shadow are still convincing and some locations are bursting with details. But then there are often enough dreary desert locations, and the above-mentioned open-plan mission in particular falls short. I also repeatedly had strange graphic glitches on the Xbox Series X and many faces were downright ugly and emotionless.

When it comes to sound, however, there is hardly anything to complain about. All weapon sounds pop out of the speakers with a rich bass and it's not uncommon for the sound carpet to really suck you in. The German speakers mostly do a good job, although there are a few strange exceptions that break the immersion with either far too little or far too much emotion. Fortunately, this rarely happens.