Xbox Showcase Review part 2: A Call to Greatness with Caution

After the hour-long showcase at Microsoft’s incredible barrage of new games and new info on existing games, comes another hour depicting its biggest game of 2024: Call of Duty Black Ops 6. This at Microsoft’s event comes fresh out of Microsoft’s historically expensive buyout of Activision/Blizzard of 75 Billion dollars back in late 2023, and they’re showing off what's next for this long-lasting franchise by returning to one of its better timelines filled with iconic characters of the Black Ops campaigns.

With its cryptic messaging through its pre-reveal marketing of “the truth lies”, Black Ops 6 showcases the missions set in the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, fresh from the intense missions of Black Ops Cold War, leaning straight to the war in Iraq, and might cover the immediate fallout of the 9/11 attacks. Trust nobody, always look behind you, and don’t let anyone stand in the way of your mission, and not everything is as it seems to be.

The multiplayer, the mode everyone usually goes for, returns to its roots of 6v6 battles off and online worldwide, featuring 14 brand new maps for people to play their matches on, and another 4 new maps for people wanting to do 2v2 matches in. Beyond this, there will be more additional maps coming post-launch, both brand-new experiences and returning favorites sure to make seasoned COD players happy in the long run. While it’s making a name for itself, Activision has confirmed that this will NOT connect with MW2 and MW3’s inventories, which means all the skins and weapons previously bought will not transfer over.

The legendary zombies mode is back in its prime, featuring turn-based matches previously played in earlier games, like BO1, 2, and 3. Combining the past playstyle with the new showcases of modern Activision, they're sure to have a win on their hands considering the past 5 or so years of more or less recycled gimmicks that made the new games feel like slop.

While they are making sure some stuff remains the same, they are going to implement new gimmicks, like the upcoming omnidirectional movements. This means that they're going to make traversing obstacles, both under and over, easier so you aren't distracted by them, which gives you more time to shoot or to do whatever you need to do to win the game, and This goes with full 360 degrees as well.

With all these new additions, theres bound to be some breaks here and there, which the fans have expected at this point from modern day Activision, but hopefully that when they do get called out, they fix them as soon as they can and not sit on them, causing comments to rise and people hearing about the game through this negative feedback as free advertising. I know a few people who are extremely exited about this game, and considering the letdowns of the last few years with this franchise, they expect this game to come out on top.