While some players may be starting to feel some burnout with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, it is undeniable that the title stands as one of the most successful that the franchise has ever seen. Although its presence as the first franchise title to appear as a day-one Xbox Game Pass release undoubtedly helped its early playership numbers, BO6 made many bold changes while paying great respect to the history of the Black Ops franchise, which has been echoed throughout its campaign, Zombies, and its core multiplayer mode.
The Zombies experience of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 arguably had the most pre-launch pressure placed on it. Zombies is such an iconic and defining element of the Black Ops sub-franchise, but it had lost its way in the opinion of many players. The core experience of CoD Zombies had changed drastically in the titles that preceded Black Ops 6, yet the game did well to take things back to basics while delivering on a lot of changes that fans had demanded for quite some time. Despite all the positive change that Black Ops 6 has brought to Zombies, the mode is still far from perfect, and the lack of achievements/trophies for DLC Zombies maps is one easily-rectifiable change that still has not been made.
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DLC Achievements/Trophies For Black Ops 6 Zombies Could Do Wonders For the Mode's Longevity
The Zombies mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 immediately drew a lot of hype thanks to its commitment to return to traditional round-based experiences, while also embracing classic Zombies elements such as a dedicated four-person cast of playable characters. This offered a big change from the previous Outbreak formula of Zombies that echoed in 2023's Modern Warfare 3, which saw massive open-world maps that went against the claustrophobic chaos of classic CoD Zombies.
The round-based launch experiences of Black Ops 6 also gave way to traditional perk and weapon systems, with Liberty Falls and Terminus offering a good start to Black Ops 6's ambitious Zombies plans. As expected, Treyarch also gave a lot of attention to small and large-scale Easter eggs for each Zombies map within BO6. The studio clearly wanted to incentivize people to engage with this aspect of Zombies more than ever before.
For example, Black Ops 6 features a Directed Mode for its Zombies maps which guides players through a given major Easter egg, with stages of more attractive rewards that players can earn for completing Easter eggs unassisted and closer to a map's initial release. These rewards can range from limited-time animated calling cards, operator skins, and weapon skins, giving more tangible reward to Easter egg completion than ever before. However, all this is counteracted by the lack of achievements/trophies that BO6's DLC Zombies maps feature.
The introduction of Directed Mode to Black Ops 6 Zombies appeared to double the number of players who were engaging with major Easter eggs.
Black Ops 6's Zombies DLC is Missing a Spark Without Fresh Achievements/Trophies
In terms of post-launch maps, Black Ops 6 has already released three major DLC maps in the form of Citadelle des Mort, The Tomb, and Shattered Veil. While these maps carry forward the in-game rewards tied to Easter eggs and beyond, none of Black Ops 6's DLC Zombies maps feature additional achievements or trophies that can be unlocked, being a big miss in terms of maintaining players and appealing to the traditions of CoD Zombies.
A fresh set of achievements/trophies has defined a lot of the best Zombies experiences of Call of Duty's past, with Easter egg achievements/trophies in particular acting as a badge of honor for dedicated Zombies players and achievement hunters. The lack of post-launch achievements is one deflating element of Black Ops 6 Zombies that is more important than ever now that the game's life-cycle is winding down, and the franchise should definitely look to change this going forward to fully emulate the best parts of Zombies' rich history.
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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
