After a nice little vacation in Puerto Rico, I came back in time to play Call of Duty Black Ops 6 on Game Pass. I dipped my toe back into the COD waters after years with MW3 on Game Pass. It was fun, but everyone knew it feel short. I was definitely looking forward to playing a better installment. Lucky for me, Black Ops 6 really is that good.
Jumping Back into the Black Ops Universe
I still remember the first Call of Duty Black Ops, to this day. Playing as crazy Mason and the whole Resnov alternate ego angle is classic. I fell out of the yearly COD hype when I was in my Battlefield arc, so I’m way behind in the series.
It’s great that the Black Ops games rely more heavily on covert actions as opposed to some of the mainline Call of Duty games do. From the previews, Black Ops 6 looked to lean even heavier into the spy craft angle. The fact it was the first day one COD release on Game Pass also made it an automatic play.
Off the bat, it took a bit to find the right version on Game Pass. They make it very easy to purchase the Vault Edition upgrade, but I had to look a bit to find the Standard (included with Game Pass) version. Once that was sorted though, I’m glad it was not some 150GB download.
I’m Not a Fan of the Call of Duty Launcher
After installing, the whole Call of Duty launcher system was a bit jarring. It opens up fine (after installing the anti-cheat), but then there’s so many multiplayer and microtransaction options to choose from. I had to search a bit to find the Black Ops 6 campaign, but I understand multiplayer is always their big draw.
Before I could even select BO6 though, the launcher informed me there’s an update and I had to restart the launcher. It was weird it doesn’t install an update before opening up the launcher (like just about every other launcher). Even when I did finally click the Black Ops 6 campaign option, I thought it crashed the launcher.
It closed the launcher abruptly and without warning, then opened a new launcher for Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Upon loading up, I saw another update notification and had to restart again. It’s just weird not being able to load directly into the campaign and have the game update before loading the whole menu.
A bit of a pain, but then I was in and it was worth the weight.
Call of Duty Meet Operation Desert Storm
Right from the intro, it felt like Black Ops 6 on Game Pass was meant for me. The Netflix series style intro cruised from Reagan with his “tear down this wall” speech to George Bush talking about Operation Desert Storm. It was a complete nostalgia trip from a memorable part of my childhood.
I remember the announcement in our school lunchroom that we were going to war. As a kid not understanding all the details it was both a scary and exciting time. The game jumped into a CIA debrief with a pissed off Lou Diamond Philips (playing Livingstone) barking at the protagonist’s team. I immediately recognized him and it was another nostalgia trip (Young Guns 2 is from the same period as the game).
That little debrief led right into a flashback to serve as a quick tutorial. The vision of burning oil fields in Kuwait and then a F-117 Stealth Bomber dropping laser guided bombs flashed me back to the 90s. People died and war is not great, but as a kid back then, the American superiority of that stealth tech was like a comforting blanket.
The actual gunplay and movement is always good in Call of Duty, but this felt especially good. Gun sway, omni-movement and the crunch of the bullets hitting the enemies is very satisfying. After capturing the HVT (High Value Target) in the intro mission only for him to take a bullet to the head, it was off to the races.
COD rarely disappoints with it’s action movie style gameplay. That first bit was standard Call of Duty fair, but the setting really hit with me. The later missions though, surprised me with how different they felt from the old games I remember.
The Rook Safehouse in Call of Duty Black Ops 6
With my spy team going rogue after the Kuwait debrief, I was introduced to our safehouse, The Rook. It was an ex-KGB safehouse that our spy friend Adler found. It was a great place to talk to the other characters to get more bits of story and intel.
There were also options to add upgrade benches for weapons, items and training. Each cost cash that could be found in missions or in the house. Unlocking each then provides various perks for cash. It gives a bit more purpose to the safehouse and a reason to explore. It’s weird for me to say explore in Call of Duty game, but I’m glad times have changed.
There’s also an interesting set of KGB puzzles inside the house. I’d use a black light, signal finder, keypads and more to solve the various puzzles in the house. I especially enjoyed using the black light to find finger prints on keypad codes, then using the hacker to confirm which numbers are used versus not and whether the position is correct.
I took my time to solve all the puzzles and it rewarded me with plenty of cash and an achievement. It made me almost forget I was playing a Call of Duty game. Maybe other games in the series have things like this, but I’ve missed out on so many over the years. Once I was ready, the evidence board was my entrance to the next mission.
The whole safehouse was a nice break from the action.
The Cloak and Dagger of Black Ops 6 on Game Pass is Special
After my stint in the Rook safehouse, I was off to collect new members of my team. In order to recruit them I agreed to eliminating some targets of their choosing. That took me sneaking up a tower to take a shot with a sniper rifle, before running and evading enemies on my way to the exfil van, Mission Impossible style.
The next set of targets presented me with a choice of what path to take via some intel in the covert van. I could go in loud or choose other more sneaky means inside. It was my choice to sneak through the kitchen and quickly dispatch enemies in silence. Unfortunately, I blew my cover and all hell started to break loose.
It was refreshing that I did not instantly fail the mission. Instead, I made my way to the safe room and played along with getting captured. Sev, my desired recruit, and I killed most of the guards inside before chasing after our last targets.
We had a nice action packed fire fight through a market and European style streets. This was more classic Call of Duty stuff, but the cloak dagger before hand was a nice change.
Governor Clinton’s Fundraiser
Things took an even more Mission Impossible style turn when I sneaked into Governor Bill Clinton’s fundraiser for president. That’s right, that guy. Posing as a photographer, my goal was to get a picture of a Senator’s retina for the secret bunker downstairs.
COD Blacks Ops 6, again, provided me with a choice on how to accomplish the task. There were leads for ties to a mob boss, out bidding the Senator on a clock or investigating issues with his wife. I chose to chat up his wife.
That led me down a path of uncovering an affair with the Senator’s aid and fetching blackmail material from another aid’s car. Providing that to the Senator’s wife scored me my closeup photo request. With that retinal scan acquired, I snuck to a backroom to access the hidden elevator shaft.
All that led us down to the secret facility where we’d collect our next team member, Adler. That whole section was another choice between going loud or quiet. I chose to try to protect hostages and went quiet. I was even introduced to the RC XD toy car bomb. That was fun to play around with.
Our escape involved a typical Call of Duty firefight, but the dirt bike escape to the streets was nice icing on the cake. It was complete with chase, firefight and jump to the escape van. Sure there’s been things like that in several action movies, but still so much fun.
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 on Game Pass is so good early on, that I’m excited to see what comes next. I don’t recognize the series from the more action/linear focus of the old ones I played, but that’s refreshing. The balance of puzzles, stealth, spy craft and then action, is fantastic.
My son already completed the entire campaign and is anxious for me to reach the next missions. Apparently things get even better and crazier. Crazy this is on Game Pass too.