A new Call of Duty game is about to take over our lives as Activision Blizzard is gearing up to unleash Black Ops 6.
Set during the first Gulf War, the shooter pits players against a shadowy organisation that has infiltrated the highest levels of the CIA.
While the storyline cribs from Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and the satirical heist movie Three Kings, it’s mainly about shooting as many people as possible. The same goes for the multiplayer mode which, let’s face it, is the main reason most gamers purchase Call of Duty.
To drum up anticipation ahead of its Friday, October 25 release, Activision has shared two new Black Ops 6 trailers, along with a series of promotional clips featuring John Wick actor Peter Stormare.
The first offers a quick rundown of the Black Ops 6 timeline, making it ideal for newcomers and those too young to have experienced the older games.
For the unfamiliar, Black Ops developer Treyarch has built an entire universe of characters and narrative branches since the release of the first game in 2010. The series plays out like a conspiracy theorist’s fever dream, taking players from covert operations during the Vietnam War to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the eighties.
The new clip reintroduces series regulars Frank Woods, Alex Mason and Jason Hudson, three CIA agents on the hunt for sleeper cells and Soviet spies hellbent on destroying the West in the sixties and seventies.
Joined by anti-hero Russell Adler (think Robert Redford with facial scars), they later manage to subvert a deadly neutron bomb attack on Europe. A new manhunt is sparked in the eighties, as our team of heroes chase down arms-dealer-turned-terrorist Raul Menendez. Double-crosses ensue, leaving Alex Mason dead and Frank Woods maimed.
Now, a wheelchair-bound Woods and silver-haired Adler are back in Black Ops 6, which sounds more like a legacy sequel (with a new team of operatives) than a reboot.
Meanwhile, the second trailer is a highlights reel of the game’s biggest cinematic set pieces, from a tank shooting down an airplane to a dream-like sequence featuring floating islands. There are plenty of slo-mo dives, heads getting smashed against computers, and a glimpse at the game’s zombies, which are returning in their own dedicated mode.
It all looks as OTT as ever, and will surely be lapped up by fans. Notably, this will be the first Black Ops game to come to Game Pass, where it will be available to subscribers at launch, following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Roll on October 25.
