There are a ton of different mission types in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's campaign, ranging from high-speed vehicle chases, to chopper gunner sequences, to classic run-and-gun missions that have been a staple of the franchise for decades. But while Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hearkens back to the golden era of Call of Duty campaigns, it isn't afraid to experiment with some all-new mission types, some of which strive for a tone that Call of Duty isn't often known for.
Throughout Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's 6-8-hour campaign, players will be presented with a handful of surprisingly intense moments of horror. There's one mission in particular that puts psychological horror at the forefront of the experience, and it's the perfect short burst of terror to play this Halloween.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Review
With a fun campaign, incredible multiplayer, and the return of round-based Zombies, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the best Call of Duty game in years.
Why Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's 'Separation Anxiety' Is a Must-Play This Halloween
'Separation Anxiety' Has Some Surprisingly Scary Moments
The penultimate mission in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's campaign, 'Separation Anxiety' sees Frank Woods and the rest of his rogue black ops team interrogating former CIA handler Jane Harrow in an attempt to find the location of The Pantheon's first bioweapon attack. To do so, the team injects Harrow with a psychoactive drug that fractures her mind, splitting her personality in two.
Players control Harrow as she makes her way through her unconscious mind, battling her evil self at every turn. The player's goal is to collect three pieces of a shattered mirror, with each one restoring part of Harrow's repressed memory and feeding that information to Woods and his team.
This premise paves the way for some very trippy visuals, and within just a few short minutes, things take a turn for the spooky. After embarking on a mind-bending scavenger hunt, Harrow tries to obtain the second mirror shard but falls into a pitch-black basement in the process. Players are tasked with turning on several generators strewn across the utterly dark room, initially armed with only a trusty torch.
Upon activating the first generator, players will begin to hear some guttural, zombie-like noises all around them. Suddenly, the player is swarmed by a mob of pale imitations of Harrow, stumbling toward them with animations seemingly ripped from Black Ops 6's Zombies mode. Though this sequence isn't lengthy, its rapid build-up, dark lighting, tense atmosphere, and visceral payoff make it an incredibly memorable one, and one worth playing this spooky season.
'Separation Anxiety' Ends In a Spectacular Zombie-Slaying Set Piece
After this initial wave of Harrow-zombies, 'Separation Anxiety' ups the ante significantly. As Harrow's evil self tries to regain control of her mind, an army of those same zombie-like enemies is thrown at the player, but unlike in the basement, they have the proper means to defend themselves. What follows is a cathartic sequence of zombie-slaying action, with players blasting away countless foes with a powerful shotgun, an LMG, and akimbo pistols.
This sequence culminates in a bombastic set piece that sees the player dangling from a helicopter, blasting away at more Harrow-zombies on the highrise buildings around them. While this set piece will feel very familiar to long-time Call of Duty fans, its horror twist goes a long way in distinguishing it from what came before.
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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
- 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
- File Size Xbox Series
- 216 GB (October 2024)
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
