Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the first Call of Duty in years with a truly stellar campaign. After some lackluster attempts to revitalize the Modern Warfare series and a few releases being multiplayer only, Black Ops 6 offers a robust campaign with variety and fun. The Black Ops series has always had some of the better campaigns in the series, but Black Ops 6 surpasses its predecessors in almost every way.

There’s a mission structure that will be familiar to any Call of Duty fan. A big house with a mission board and various upgrades scattered throughout the world. But it’s the variety of missions served here that allows Black Ops 6 to rise above its peers. What Raven has done here with the campaign feels novel, but it’s really what Marvel has been doing with cinema for years. Taking beloved genre pieces and adding their signature flair to them.

Genre in the MCU

The best MCU movies and TV shows are the ones that take a distinct genre and put their Marvel flair on it. Shows like Agatha All Along or Shang-Chi feel like genre films that have been given the Marvel shine. Black Widow and Captain America Winter Soldier may not be the best spy thrillers, but they retain the qualities of great spy movies while adding that Marvel charm.

The MCU has been doing this for years and it’s turned out to be a great business for them. We occasionally get the big team-up movies, but in between, we get horror flicks, kung-fu movies, and even sitcom-style TV. It’s now a tried and true formula and one that results in the highest quality Marvel products. The MCU works better in these restraints than when we get just another Superhero movie. Call of Duty has taken this same premise with their campaign and the game is better for it.

The Call of Duty Problem

Much like the MCU, Call of Duty has become a behemoth franchise. The series is one of the few in gaming that still maintains an annual release cadence. A cadence they have been able to maintain since 2005. The downside of this aggressive release strategy is that inevitably some aspects of each release fare worse than others. And often times it’s the single-player campaign that suffers.

Last year’s Modern Warfare 3, not to be confused with the game of the same name that came out in 2011, had an abysmal campaign. While the game still sold well, its parsley four-hour campaign was lambasted by critics and many wondered what was even the point of a campaign in Call of Duty anymore. Just one year later though with the release of Black Ops 6, Activision has made good and delivered a campaign that’s both well-reviewed and has been loved by fans. The secret is a strategy utilized by Disney and the MCU.

Black Ops 6 is Flatter by Imitation

Black Ops 6’s story is more or less standard spy movie fodder. The Black Ops series has always leaned more towards espionage than war, and Black Ops 6 is no exception. The game at times feels closer to a Mission Impossible movie than a modern war flick. But it’s the genre subversion that stands out most and makes the game feel so special.

Early on in the game, your character is tasked with infiltrating a campaign dinner for then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. Your task is to retrieve an eye scan from a prominent politician to unlock a security system. Not only does this mission slow down the breakneck first-person shooting action, but it also allows you several ways to obtain this eye scan. You can chat up a shady event worker, blackmail the politician, or scheme with his scorned wife. Each option contains dialogue trees and the potential to lose that thread if the wrong choice is made. It’s not exactly Baulders Gate 3 levels of choice, but it’s a great start for a Call of Duty game.

Call of Duty Fary Cry Bio Shock

The mission directly proceeding this one is an open-world search and destroy mission. You’re given a vehicle, a small team, and numerous optional side missions. The level plays close to a mini version of a large open-world Ubisoft game. Typically Call of Duty games love to put you in straight corridor shootouts but here the combat is more robust and more player-focused. Instead of moving from one on-rails set piece to the next, you’re given the freedom to choose your own adventure.

After you complete that mission, you’re thrown into what can only be described as a horror game level inspired by Bio Shock and Prey. It’s a crazy turn for the game and a clear standout not just for Black Ops 6, but the whole series. Black Ops 6 isn’t the best game to do these genres. Far from it. But they are all done expertly well here with a certain level of Call of Duty shine to them.

Black Ops 6 Learns the MCU Lesson

What the Black Ops 6 campaign does that’s so special is take these genre games and put them in Call of Duty. Call of Duty is a massive franchise with millions of players around the world. They earned their place in gaming by creating a series with slick visuals, fast gunplay, and near-infinite replayability. By taking these other genres of games and putting them into the Call of Duty formula, Black Ops 6 has created a game that closely resembles the best the MCU has to offer.

None of these levels are the best in the genre. But they are cool additions that retain the Call of Duty fun. The franchise will never be able to create something as unique as Alan Wake 2 or as massive as Far Cry. But the fact they were able to make these bite-sized adventures with the Call of Duty combat is something to respect. The campaign holds up on its own and feels much more like homage than cheap ripoffs.

The Future of Call of Duty

Call of Duty will inevitably release another new game next year and whether that campaign is any good is still to be determined. But for now, my hopes are high. If they can pull off so many different unique games inside of one campaign, the possibilities are potentially endless for them.

This isn’t exactly new territory for the series either. They took the Call of Duty combat and shoehorned it into an endless zombie game years ago. They created a battle royal game, a mobile game, and even some fantastic hidden twin-stick shooters. These all play great and feel like Call of Duty. Black Ops 6 takes this same idea with its single-player campaign. They use inspiration from some of the best single-player games, add Call of Duty combat, and combine them to make something special. The Black Ops 6 campaign is a fantastic achievement for the team and a huge surprise for gamers who don’t normally gel with Call of Duty.