The massive early success of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was definitely aided by its core multiplayer, which stands out as one of the better online modes to come from the Activision franchise in recent years. Despite the record-breaking playership that Black Ops 6 boasted closer to its launch, the game is reaching the point in its life-cycle where it needs to pull out all the stops to maintain its audience, at least until it's time for 2025's Call of Duty project.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 did well to get the ball rolling quickly in terms of the scale of content its multiplayer offered at launch, with the early inclusion of the Gunfight mode being a decision that immediately garnered a lot of positive attention from fans. Gunfight has gone on to play quite a large role in Black Ops 6 and its approach to map design, yet the continued absence of Gunfight Tournaments, as seen in Black Ops Cold War, is one element that needs to change sooner rather than later.
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Gunfight Tournaments Would Be Right at Home in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Gunfight was introduced to Call of Duty by 2019's Modern Warfare, and it quickly grew to become a mainstay fan-favorite and one of the most successful recent entries to the longstanding franchise. At its core, Gunfight is a tense and tactical 2v2 round-based experience with no health regeneration and shared identical loadouts between players, taking place in purpose-built small and claustrophobic maps.
The addictive pace and necessary strategy of Gunfight appeals directly to the competitiveness of Call of Duty multiplayer. The mode's popularity saw it additionally appear in Cold War, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 6, and even Call of Duty: Mobile. Unlike some of its predecessors which controversially waited before adding Gunfight as a post-launch mode, Black Ops 6 smartly included the mode from the outset, while designating its smaller 2v2-minded maps as Strike Maps.
The current Strike Maps for Black Ops 6 are Gala, Pit, Stakeout, Warhead, Heirloom, Racket, Lifeline, Bullet, and Signal.
These Strike Maps can even be used in 6v6 game modes within certain playlists, making Gunfight more important than ever, though the mode has still not reached the full potential of its past iterations. Black Ops Cold War did well to capitalize on Gunfight by expanding what it could offer players; it found a lot of success with the concept of Gunfight Tournaments. These limited-time playlists would see teams of players compete in brackets, with each stage of progression providing its own unique in-game reward that culminates in a lucrative first-place prize.
Tournaments Are the Last Big Change Black Ops 6's Gunfight Needs to Near Perfection
Gunfight Tournaments pushed the required teamwork and strategy of the mode to their absolute limits, with players addictively entering each tournament to get their hands on whatever first-place might be on offer. Despite the massive focus that Black Ops 6 has placed on Gunfight since it launched, Gunfight Tournaments are still nowhere to be seen within the title, despite BO6's massive range of customization options being perfect for potential rewards.
Through its post-launch seasons, Black Ops 6 now has one of the most expansive Gunfight map pools that CoD has ever seen, and it is not too late for the game to finally make the most of this by re-introducing Cold War's Tournament approach. While Black Ops 6 has not been without criticism, its approach to Gunfight so far has been a breath of fresh air for the franchise, and the addition of Gunfight Tournaments would set a high bar for future CoD releases to aspire to in their own portrayals of the mode.
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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
- Genre(s)
- FPS
