Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 marked a new low point for the franchise, with its extremely short campaign, its lack of any original 6v6 multiplayer maps on launch, and its lackluster open-world Zombies mode. A lot of pressure was on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to raise the Call of Duty franchise back to the critical heights it once knew, and against all odds, it managed to do just that.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was packed with content on launch, coming with a full-length campaign, 16 original 6v6 multiplayer maps, and two round-based Zombies maps. What's more impressive is that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has managed to keep that ball rolling, with Season 1 of its post-launch content adding a handful of new multiplayer maps, one new Zombies map, and a plethora of quality-of-life improvements. While the last few Call of Duty entries have quickly stumbled on the first step of their post-launch journey, Black Ops 6 is thriving, and that's set to continue with Season 2's launch on January 28, which seems to finally be breaking one pattern that's been a growing point of worry for some years.
Call of Duty's Back-to-Back Black Ops Games Will Live or Die By One Mode
It's rumored that 2025's Call of Duty entry will be another Black Ops game, and if that's true, it could live or die by the treatment of one mode.
Call of Duty: Warzone Is Not a Major Part of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2
Warzone Has Often Taken Up a Large Portion of The Seasonal Roadmap
Over the last few years, there's been a point of contention among Call of Duty fans that's been slowly growing with the release of each new season of post-launch content. Since its debut in 2020, Call of Duty: Warzone has had a prominent spot on each season's roadmap, often equaling the size of the multiplayer section, and frequently dwarfing the size of the Zombies section.
Call of Duty: Warzone is an incredibly popular game, and it's great to see it receive so much new content over the years. But when Warzone's portion of the seasonal roadmap is consistently greater than any other component of the franchise, it's hard for fans to not feel as though the annual entry they've just purchased is not a priority for Activision.
This trend was particularly prominent with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's post-launch cycle, with the Warzone portion of the seasonal roadmap often being around three times the size of its Zombies section. MW3's Zombies mode already felt like a bit of an afterthought on release, and its post-launch roadmaps continued to cement this feeling every few months.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Has Broken This Controversial Pattern
But with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Season 2 roadmap, it seems as though this controversial trend has come to an end, at least temporarily. Black Ops 6's Season 2 roadmap gives its Zombies and multiplayer modes equal billing, while Warzone is relegated to just a tiny three-panel portion at the top of the roadmap.
Why Warzone Has Taken a Step Back in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2
But there's a reason for Call of Duty: Warzone's much smaller stake in Black Ops 6's Season 2 roadmap. On January 17, Activision confirmed in an official blog post that it had "made the decision to prioritize focus on gameplay tuning, adding more quality of life, and addressing ongoing bugs," and that any "new [Warzone] content originally planned for Season 02 has been shifted to create bandwidth to address foundational issues."
Some of the Warzone improvements releasing throughout Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 will be:
- Reduced penalty when sprint-to-fire jumping and increased ADS speed
- Faster reload speeds for all weapons
- Faster weapon swap speed for all weapons
- Reduced reverb effects to improve directional audio
- Mountaineer is replacing Dexterity
- Munitions Satchels will only provide one additional item
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- October 25, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Treyarch, Raven Software
- Publisher(s)
- Activision
- Engine
- IW 9.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC
WHERE TO PLAY
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.
The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.
In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.
Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.
- Cross Save
- Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC
- Prequel(s)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War
- Franchise
- Call of Duty
- Number of Players
- 1-4
- Split Screen Orientation
- Vertical or Horizontal
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- PS5 Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
- Genre(s)
- FPS
- How Long To Beat
- 8 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- File Size Xbox Series
- 216 GB (October 2024)
- Local Co-Op Support
- 1-2 Players
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
