Black Ops 6′ — Omnimovement, Zombies Mode And More

Post updated below.

I had a chance to visit Treyarch and preview the next Call Of Duty a few days ahead of the game’s big reveal this past week. Most of what I saw is being shown right after the Xbox Showcase Sunday. At the preview event I even got some hands-on time with several of the game’s maps. It was a pretty exciting reveal, and I had a pretty great time with the multiplayer (although actual detailed impressions will have to wait, unfortunately).

Check out the top trailers from today’s Xbox Showcase right here:

ForbesThe Top Video Game Trailers And Reveals From Today’s Epic Xbox Showcase From ‘Indiana Jones’ To A New ‘DOOM’ And ‘Gears Of War’By Eric Kain

After an in-depth look at what Treyarch and partner studio Raven have cooked up for the game, I’m pretty sure Call Of Duty fans, and especially fans of the Black Ops series, have a lot to look forward with Black Ops 6. It’s a pretty big change from the past three releases in the series (Vanguard, MWII and MWIII) and really, don’t you think it’s high-time we returned to Black Ops? Cold War released way back in 2020, which also means that Treyarch has had longer than usual to develop this entry.

While the game is built on the unified Call Of Duty Engine that’s used in Modern Warfare and other sub-franchises, there’s no doubt that this feels like a Black Ops Game, from its over-the-top spy-themed campaign to its fast-paced multiplayer and, of course, the Zombies mode that so many fans of this franchise have been dying to hear about.

First, here’s the trailer that debuted during today’s Xbox Showcase:

Alright, let’s take a look at everything you need to know about Black Ops 6.

1. The Campaign Is Set During The Gulf War

Tea Black Ops 6 campaign takes place in the early 1990s during the Gulf War, and is a direct sequel to both Cold War and the late-80s portions of Black Ops II. Not every character made it out of that game alive, but Frank Woods returns—now bound to a wheelchair—along with Russell Adler, who returns after having gone missing for months.

When Adler returns, he reveals that the CIA has been infiltrated by a clandestine force that now operates at the highest levels of government. Adler, along with new protagonist Troy Marshall and a rag-tag team of spies, assassins and various criminal elements, have to go rogue to save the world. That picture at the top of this post? It’s taken from a mission where you have to infiltrate a Bill Clinton fundraising gala, sneak into a secret CIA blacksite beneath the mansion, and then fight your way out guns-blazing.

Some missions are linear, some take place in open-world zones that look much, much larger than the open-world zones in Modern Warfare III, though I don’t know for sure how big they are. Missions range from the frozen Russian tundra to the deserts of the Middle-East, to Southern Europe and even a number of locations across the US.

Weapons and gadgets in the game all reflect the 1990s era that it’s set in, and a lot of them are DIY since the team is operating without support from the government.

Between missions, you can head back to the Safehouse—an abandoned mansion that once served as a KGB blacksite—where you can talk with allies, choose missions, solve puzzles and more.

2. Multiplayer Is Adding A New ‘Omnimovement’ System

This is by far the biggest change to the game, and will be featured in multiplayer, Zombies and the Campaign—although it’s unclear at this time what Black Ops 6 gameplay elements will make the leap to Warzone.

The Omnimovement system basically does this: You can now sprint, slide and dive in any direction. Whereas before you could only dive or slide forward and only sprint while running in a straight line, now you can do all those things to the left, the right, or even dive backwards onto your butt. And it’s omnidirectional, meaning there’s 360 degrees of movement, not just the four cardinal directions.

This should definitely change how the game feels and plays, giving you the ability to get out of sticky situations, backpedal at much greater speeds and so forth. There’s even a dynamic prone mechanism that allows you to go prone and then, as you aim one direction or the other, you’ll turn slowly in that direction. You can keep going until you’re laying on your back, and then continue in a full circle.

On top of this, Treyarch has added an auto-mantling system that, when toggled, allows you to simply run at walls and other obstacles and mantle over them without pressing a button. Small holes that you’d normally have to press a button to crouch through will also navigate seamlessly.

You can also now shoot doors open and hold enemies as hostages/human shields during combat.

3. Round-Based Zombies Returns, Picking Up After ‘Cold War’

Treyarch’s games have always had the best Zombies mode and for the first time in years we return to class Round-Based Zombies, with two maps for players to play through at launch.

The first is Liberty Falls, a small American town overrun with the undead. The other is Terminus, a prison island in a stormy sea. Both maps are quite different from one another, and should offer some exciting co-op play.

The four characters pictured above will be the default operators you take on missions, with dedicated cutscenes and voice-acting, but you can play with other operators as well.

4. Perks Will No Longer Be Gloves, Boots, Vests etc.

I actually really loved the changes to perks that Sledgehammer made in MWIII over MWII, which had pretty terrible perks overall. But that system—Gloves, Boots, Vests, Gear, etc.—is going away, though I hope it comes back for the next Modern Warfare.

Instead, we get classic Black Ops-style perks along with Wildcards. Perks are broken up into three categories: Enforcer, Recon and Strategist. You can mix-and-match these however you like, but if you pick all three from one category you get a special bonus perk. Wildcards allow you to tinker with various loadout options. One gives you an extra perk; another unlocks three extra attachments on your Primary weapon and so forth.

We’ll also see a number of new Field Upgrades, a bunch of new guns and more.

5. There Will Be A Dedicated Melee Slot Alongside The Primary/Secondary Guns

This is a pretty big deal even if there isn’t a ton to say about it. Throughout the history of Call of Duty, you’ve basically been stuck with two weapon slots (except for a brief time in Warzone when you could lug around another weapon in your backpack). That changed a bit with a recent update to Warzone and Modern Warfare III that gave all players a default pistol while swimming or climbing ladders.

Now, all players will have a third weapon slot dedicated to melee (knives, bats, etc.) that won’t take up your Primary or Secondary weapon slot. Pretty cool! (Of course, I wish we had a full weapon wheel where we could equip a Special (Sniper/Launcher), a Primary, a Secondary and a Melee, but I’ll take what I can get).

6. Twelve 6v6 Maps and 4 ‘Strike’ Maps For 2v2 Gunfight and 6v6 Faceoff

There will be 12 traditional 6v6 maps at launch and 4 ‘Strike Maps’. The latter are built with Gunfight in mind, but also with the frenetic 6v6 Faceoff mode.

The 6v6 maps they showed us have a ton of variety, from a train car graveyard to a rooftop hotel to a small-town America outdoor shopping area and much more. The entire philosophy here is to make each map feel as different as possible, with as many locations as possible.

The other design philosophy is to make these all small-to-medium sized (at least at launch, there will be a bunch more maps released with seasonal updates) with competitive play in mind. This is smart. I’ve argued for a long time that these games need a strong base of core 3-lane maps to build off of; a handful of larger maps later can flesh things out.

Treyarch said they wanted each map to feel like it had viable sniper lanes, close-quarters combat and lots of flanking opportunities.

7.Returning Features Like Classic Prestige and Theater Mode

Prestige has been tied to seasonal progression for many games now, but Black Ops 6 brings back the older version and makes a few changes. At Military Level 55, players will now have the option to take a Prestige track or not. Choosing to do so resets your level to 1 and then you begin the climb, and the climb goes very, very high. Once you complete all the “normal” Prestige levels you can enter the “Elder Game” and level up all the way to Prestige Master at Level 1000, with plenty of rewards along the way.

Theater Mode also returns, allowing players to replay past matches and plays. Other returning features include Play Of The Game (instead of Final Kill) and a Winner’s Circle that shows the top three players from the winning team (and whatever emotes and skins they have equipped).

One new feature is a highly-customizable HUD that allows you to really tinker with stuff like the minimap, positioning it in any corner (or removing it entirely) as well as all the other HUD info and icons.

8. Guns, Camos, Blueprints and Operators Only Carry Forward To ‘Warzone’

When Modern Warfare III launched, Activision made a big deal about how you could transfer all your guns and Operators and everything you’d earned in MWII to that game. Previously, you could only “carry forward” all that stuff to Warzone, and none of what you’d earned in MW2019, Cold War gold Vanguard transferred to the new Warzone.

It was chaos when every irritating Operator skin and every leveled up weapon from the last game were live out the gates in MWIII. I think it’s great to carry stuff forward into Warzone, but I really enjoy that short lull when a new game launches when everyone is leveling up guns together and nobody has a Snoop Dogg or Martha Stewart skin equipped. This time around, that’s how it will be again. Your inventory will carry forward to Warzone but not Black Ops 6, allowing it to be its very own game.

9. Treyarch Is Working On Improving The UI/UX and the Call Of Duty Launcher

They showed us very little of this, but it appears that Treyarch has really taken player complaints seriously and is working hard to clean up the messy menus and make the Call Of Duty Launcher less cumbersome. I don’t know how successful this will be, but I hope they make some major changes. One big change I’d like to see: When a party leader changes from one menu to the other, it shouldn’t drag the rest of the party with them!

10. ‘Black Ops 6’ Will Be The First ‘Call Of Duty’ Launching Free On Game Pass

This has been known for awhile now but not everyone has heard about it, so I’ll include it here. Black Ops 6 will be free with Xbox Game Pass. The game will still be sold to players on Xbox, PlayStation and PC (including PS4 and Xbox One) but if you have the subscription, you’re in.

As usual, there will be at least one beta prior to the game’s launch, and if you pre-order or have a Game Pass subscription, you’ll be in the early beta group. The beta dates have not yet been announced, but it’s usually a few weeks before release. Speaking of which. . .

Black Ops 6 Launches On October 25th on Steam, Battle.net, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4 and PS5—all at the exact same time.

And that’s all folks! I’ll update this post with any other information that may come up, as well as any other trailers or relevant images, charts, graphs and so forth. What do you think of Black Ops 6 so far? Let me know Twitter and Facebook.

Further Reading: