Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s campaign will be missing one notable feature from past Black Ops games. While multiplayer is the meat and potatoes of Call of Duty, the Call of Duty: Black Ops franchise is known for having some of the best campaigns in the entire series. They feature all kinds of twists and turns, gigantic set pieces, and are layered in historical conspiracies. It’s a rich series that is filled with all kinds of dramatic storytelling. Furthermore, the series is known for being pretty ambitious as it’s the only sub-franchise in Call of Duty that has branching storylines and therefore, its canon can be a bit confusing. Main characters can live or die based on your choices, entire events can be avoided, and even countries can be nuked off the face of the planet depending on what path your campaign takes.
With all of that said, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will not be like this. This time around, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will feature a linear story, meaning players will not have any agency on how the story plays out. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Black Ops Cold War both had campaigns that had various choices and multiple endings, even though there are canonical options. Black Ops 6 has a more concrete story with defined beats and therefore, only one ending. When speaking to IGN, Raven Software confirmed that there will only be one ending in Black Ops 6. “Black Ops 6 is a linear story, so there is not a branching ending for this one,” said Associate Creative Director, Jon Zuk.
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While it’s far from the only Black Ops game that’s like this, it is pretty surprising given how dramatic the choices and endings for Black Ops Cold War were. In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, you could choose to do the right thing and go after the bad guys or you could sabotage your team and kill them all before detonating nuclear bombs across Europe. In turn, the United States rushes to cover up their involvement in the matter as it was American nukes that were stolen.
Still, it sounds like Black Ops 6 will still have a level of dynamic interaction so it’s not just stringing you along mission to mission. Similar to Black Ops Cold War, there is a hub where players can review evidence they have collected throughout the story, talk to other characters, and plan their next mission. It has also been confirmed that some missions give you different ways to play, encouraging replayability and still emphasizing a degree of choice. Ultimately, the outcome will be the same, but the core experience will be different and keep the player engaged on multiple playthroughs.
Raven has noted that players may be nudged into playing a certain way, such as stealthing their way through a mission, but it won’t result in an auto-fail if they choose to go guns blazing. Ultimately, the game will let players play the way they want for the most part. This is arguably a better way of giving players agency beyond branching story paths, as it focuses more on gameplay this time.
Thankfully, the studio has also leveraged the fact that it had a four year development to make the campaign a bit meatier. On top of varied gameplay, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 promises to have a longer campaign than Black Ops Cold War, so those checking out the campaign through Xbox Game Pass hopefully won’t finish it in just a few hours.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will release on October 25th for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Players can pre-load the game right now and can click here to learn what time the game will be available.
