Like most COD games, multiplayer is the real meat and potatoes of the experience - it's where lots of us will be spending months and months shooting each other digitally over the internet. And, the good news here is that Black Ops 6 MP is really, really good - in fact, we reckon this is the best PvP COD since Activision effectively rebooted the franchise with 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare .
Black Ops 6 multiplayer is packed with actual new content, which feels super refreshing when stacked up against how Modern Warfare 3 launched last year. We've got 16 new maps here, before the arrival of Nuketown later this week , across both 6v6 and 2v2 playlists. There's some nice visual variety on show as well — from the snowy cells of Vorkuta to the sunset-soaked football stadium in Red Card — and we can't express how much simply having a fresh batch of all-original maps helps the multiplayer experience this year.
As for the quality of these maps, we really like the variety that developer Treyarch has gone with here. Yes, not every map is a tiny three-lane spawn-fest that nets maximum XP per minute, but we kind of like that. The aforementioned Red Card has been a controversial map so far, but how about just slowing things down a tad and cracking out a longer-range weapon for a match? We don't want to sound like we're attacking COD's very vocal community here, but not everything has to be instant gratification - although that's likely to come with a Nuketown 24/7 playlist in the very near future anyway.
We have a few favourite maps emerging already though, with Payback, Lowtown and Vault coming top of the pile for us at the moment. Payback is our small-map pick of the bunch - with Lowtown and Vault offering some nice variety; both allow pretty much any weapon build on most game modes. Treyarch has seemingly tried to accommodate lots of different playstyles per map in Black Ops 6, and although the jury's still out on their longevity, we're having lots of fun on most of them so far.
Our praise of the overall gun feel from campaign definitely carries over to multiplayer too - taking down enemies just feels fantastic in this game. There's a nice marrying of classic Black Ops weaponry with the new COD engine that feels slick and satisfying in pretty much any scenario. Time-to-kill is just about bang on as well - it felt too long in Black Ops Cold War and often feels a bit short in the Modern Warfare games, but Black Ops 6 gets it just right. We have to give a strange shoutout to the hitmarker audio here as well (the noise made when your bullets connect with an enemy) - something about that sound just adds to the satisfaction of taking down foes in multiplayer.
We do want to address omni-movement for a moment here before we move on to Zombies. During our hands-on time with the Beta , we thought this new mechanic could become an issue, especially in the hands of more experienced players. However, so far we've found the mechanic much less of an issue in the full release. Maybe we're getting used to it, maybe it's the more casual mix of players that Game Pass brings, or maybe Treyarch has tweaked it to be better balanced. Honestly, we're not quite sure, and we know that this could all vary depending on how the game's skill-based matchmaking treats you. Just know that we've had much less of an issue with omni-movement in the full release, to the point where it's not really affecting our overall multiplayer experience.
Right, Zombies. This being a Treyarch game, Zombies mode of course returns in full this year, with two experiences at launch - Terminus and Liberty Falls. Zombies mode definitely follows on from Cold War's variant back in 2020, so if you like the team's 'newer' style of Zombies experience, you'll likely get on well with the Black Ops 6 version.
Terminus is the main experience here - this one feels like the 'proper' Zombies level with its spooky atmosphere, labyrinth-like design and s**t ton of easter eggs packed into it. We must admit we haven't gone too deep into this mode yet (it takes a while to go deep with COD Zombies these days) but that's kind of the beauty of it. You can still play Black Ops 6 Zombies pretty casually by just treating it like a wave-based survival mode, but then there's lots more to dig into if you want to fully immerse yourself in the experience. Zombies nuts, have at it.
Speaking of playing the mode more casually, it definitely feels like Liberty Falls is designed for that sort of experience. Set in broad daylight with a more simplified design, this small-town map is fun to get stuck into and feels like it's built more with replayability in mind. That's to say, it might not scratch that same itch for hardcore Zombies players, but we're glad this map is present - it's a solid option to mix things up from Terminus.
As we mentioned before, gameplay-wise, Zombies is on a similar wavelength to how the mode played in Black Ops Cold War. You've got loads of playable operators to choose from, custom weapon loadouts, chargeable abilities and more - all mixed in with classic COD Zombies mechanics like perk machines, the mystery box and pack-a-punch. To be honest, we prefer the way Zombies used to feel back in the older Call of Duty games with its more simplistic approach and a focus on subtle storytelling, but the new version is still a lot of fun - and a great alternative to online PvP once you've blasted through the campaign.
Conclusion
Overall, then, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a massive success for Xbox. This year's COD is packed with content across its three main modes, and Game Pass players will be able to enjoy this one for months - especially when additional seasonal content starts to release. Raven Software's campaign mode is a blast, multiplayer is the best it's been in years, and while Zombies isn't what it once was in our book, it's still a fun third mode to mess around with. If Call of Duty can continue to remain this high-quality each year, Microsoft has a winner on its hands, but for now let's just enjoy Black Ops 6 for what it is - a cracking COD game and a fine example of a console FPS.
All three main modes feel packed with content Campaign is varied and a blast to play Multiplayer feels fresh with plenty of brand-new maps Gameplay is super tight on the new COD engine Top notch visuals and performance on Xbox Series X We prefer the older style of COD Zombies Iraq campaign level feels out of place
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
