There is simply too much going on in Black Ops 6 Season 1

In terms of volume of stuff, I’m not sure any games beat Call of Duty’s seasonal updates. Black Ops 6 Season 1 is kicking off next week, November 14, and the blog post breaking it all down is so long that I had to read it over two sittings. The density of information makes more sense when you consider that Activison is lumping together both Black Ops 6 and Warzone, the latter of which is getting fully integrated with BLOPS 6’s guns, perks, classes, Omnimovement control changes, and gaining a new small-sized map called Area 99.

I’m happy for you Warzone folks, but it’s the Black Ops 6 additions catching my eye on the Season 1 roadmap:

• Five new guns: Two at season start, three mid-season
• Five new maps: Three 6v6 maps at season start, one 2v2 and another 6v6 between November and April
• One new perk: Shadow, which I’m guessing makes you immune to proximity gadgets
• One new scorestreak: A Hand Cannon, presumably a one-shot-kill super gun with limited ammo
• Three modes: Ransack, Prop Hunt, and MP Ranked
• One new Zombies map (mid-season)
• Three new Zombies Gobblegums
• Two mid-season events
• A bunch of ugly skins

Black Ops 6’s map pool is one of the few underwhelming aspects of an otherwise strong year for CoD, so injecting more 6v6 maps into the mix ASAP is a good sign. I hope those new guns have more personality than the majority of the launch ones: The AMR Mod 4, an intimidating one-shot-kill sniper rifle, is the spitting image of the Barrett .50cal from Call of Duty 4, and that foldable pocket SMG being a secondary weapon is intriguing. Unfortunately, both of those guns are arriving later in the season, either in an update or as an event reward. The full weapon list:

• Krig C (Assault Rifle, battle pass page 3)
• Saug (SMG, battle pass page 3)
• Maelstrom (Shotgun, mid-season event)
• AMR Mod 4 (Mid-season)
• Sirin 9mm (Secondary SMG, in-season event reward)
• Power Drill (Melee, in-season event reward)
• Cleaver (Melee, in-season event reward)

BLOPS is also getting post-release attachments, which is a bit surprising. Two guns, the XM4 and Kompakt 92, are getting new burst-fire conversion mods, which sound sorta like the “conversion kit” aftermarket parts from Modern Warfare 3 that let you create some truly deranged Gunsmith abominations. Making a gun burst-fire is nowhere near as transformative as a barrel that turns a revolver into a sniper rifle, but it’s a step in the direction of making Black Ops 6 loadouts more interesting.

Also coming back from MW3 is Armory Unlocks, a system which lets you unlock guns and attachments from previous battle passes by completing challenges. The implementation of the Armory system was really confusing when it was first introduced, but it turned out to be a convenient alternate progression path for those who couldn’t care less about battle passes or Prestige. It’s nice to still unlock the occasional gameplay-relevant item long after reaching level 55.

Those are the highlights, but check out the whole blog post enchilada for a comprehensive accounting of Black Ops 6/Warzone Season 1.