If you’re a fan of the Call of Duty franchise, you may have already purchased the recently released Black Ops 6 and gunned your way through hordes of NPCs and online players alike. The game, which was released on Oct. 25, offers a number of play-styles suitable for gamers of all stripes, including the usual online matchmaking, zombies mode and a surprisingly comprehensive campaign that has all over the globe players raving about its narrative. For many years now, Call of Duty games have been known to have weaker campaigns since the development team tends to shift their focus onto the more popular online platform, so many gamers may have made the decision to skip Black Ops 6‘s campaign entirely. Fortunately, the story mode offers a few key surprises, which make it a refreshing change of pace for die-hard fans.
Whether you’ve played your way through the campaign or not, we’ve got you covered, with a thorough breakdown of the plot, narrative and characters, plus an in-depth analysis of the game’s conclusion. Obviously, there will be heavy spoilers ahead, so be sure to proceed with caution if you’re planning to gun your way through the first-person shooter without knowing what’s around each and every corner. With no further preamble, let’s dive right in, and see what we can learn about the shocking and mysterious ending of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
What Happens in the ‘Black Ops 6’ Campaign?
Like many Call of Duty outings, Black Ops 6 features fictional characters traversing a number of real-world geopolitical conflicts and war zones, in an equal parts exciting and educational display of historical warfare. The narrative of Black Ops 6 specifically opens during the events of Operation Desert Storm, which saw the United States leading a coalition of dozens of nations in an effort to pepper Iraq with bombs, culminating in the violent liberation of Kuwait. As the game kicks off, we are introduced to a pair of CIA operatives named Troy Marshall and Jane Harrow, as they ferry the playable character, William “Case” Calderon, to the Iraq-Kuwait border. Once the trio are dropped off and the dust settles, we learn that the Iraqi Minister of Defense is being targeted by a mysterious organization known only as Pantheon.
After mowing down a good handful of Pantheon attackers, you’re led to believe that the Defense Minister is safe, only to see him killed in action by a rogue CIA agent named Russell Adler. Once the assassination has concluded, Adler surrenders himself, and relays a cryptic message to the higher-ups at the government agency. When asked about his motives for the assassination, he simply responds “Bishop takes Rook.” Though there was little Case and his partners could do to prevent the assassination, the trio are held accountable for the slip-up by their Deputy Director, and ultimately suspended from the organization pending further investigation. Those at the top of the CIA also seem to pay no heed to Adler’s cryptic message. While suspended from duty, Case, Marshall and Harrow decide to surreptitiously dig further into the SNAFU, by recruiting Adler’s former partner Frank Woods.
Who Is Pantheon, and Who Do They Work For?
Woods ultimately agrees to help Marshall and Case figure out what’s going on, after revealing the fact that Adler was falsely implicated in a CIA mission gone awry in Nicaragua years earlier. In order to learn the true scope of corruption within the organization however, the gang would need to speak to Adler in person. Unfortunately, your character arrives to extract Adler from his incarceration in a CIA holding cell just in time to cross paths with Pantheon terrorists, who mount a full-on assault on the Washington, D.C. locale. Needless to say, Case and company are framed for the attack, making them full-on enemies of the state. After freeing Adler from his cell, the fugitive reveals the true nature of Pantheon, which will leave new Call Of Duty players shocked, and seasoned veterans of the series fully locked in.
Apparently, Pantheon are an international cabal of mercenaries funded and employed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, comprised of former CIA operatives who were cut loose by the agency back in the 1970s. The agents, who operated on a highly secretive basis, were let go after their development of a super-soldier drug went off the rails, resulting in a performance enhancer that causes bouts of uncontrollable rage. The drug, known only as “Cradle,” seems to originate from a Central Intelligence biolab in the American Midwest. To make matters worse, Case and company eventually learn that Jane Harrow is in cahoots with Pantheon, and that she plans to use terrorist forces to mount a false flag assault on the Capitol Building, in order to seize control of the CIA from Deputy Director Daniel Livingstone.
How Does the ‘Black Ops 6’ Campaign End?
After investigating the lab where Cradle is manufactured, Case accidentally inhales some of the powerful gas. This causes the player character to enter into a state of uncontrollable rage, destroying everyone and everything in his path. While under the influence of the drug, Case has vivid hallucinations of undead creatures, as well as auditory hallucinations that illuminate the details of Cradle’s origins. During this process, we come to learn that Case was actually a human test subject for Cradle, before Pantheon forces pivoted to using the drug as a biological weapon. Later, when Case and his gang of misfit protagonists chase down Harrow, another package of Cradle is opened up, causing the playable protagonist to lose his mind and destroy Harrow’s helicopter as it evacuates the Capitol. Luckily, Case neutralizes Harrow and thwarts the terrorist attack, though he ultimately goes down with the helicopter, and is presumed dead.
With the playable character missing in action, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 concludes with a cutscene that establishes the future of the franchise. Deputy Director Livingstone enlists the help of Marshall, Adler and the rest of the core group to continue rooting out and taking down Pantheon operatives. In doing so, Livingstone essentially authorizes the crew to work with carte blanche, and gives them access to anything they need to get the job done. Since this does little to conclude the threat of Pantheon at this time, it seems clear that rogue agents with the disbanded organization will be a primary threat in future Call of Duty outings. Just before the game cuts to its closing credits, we see a mysterious man infiltrating Livingstone’s office, and downloading a series of encrypted files from the Deputy Director’s computer.
Unanswered Questions From the Campaign
Though many fans agree that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s campaign is fun to play and narratively interesting, the story ends with a number of unresolved issues. For starters, we never see Case’s head roll, meaning he could theoretically still be alive. Though he goes down in a hail of glory with the helicopter crash, Case was still under the influence of more Cradle than anyone has ever taken before. We still don’t have a complete understanding of what the drug does to boost resistance to physical damage, leaving some fans to wonder if a crazed drugged-out Case could serve as a future antagonist in the Call of Duty franchise.
Furthermore, there are many questions regarding the man who broke into Livingstone’s office. While his identity is ultimately revealed to be Jackson Caine, the character barely operates as more than a tertiary inclusion to the overall plot of Black Ops 6. Maybe he’ll become an important character down the line, but for now, his role in the story leaves more questions than answers. One of the largest questions left by the entire game, however, is whether or not Daniel Livingstone himself is a part of Pantheon operations. Livingstone’s unwillingness to investigate Adler during the game’s first act, coupled with his past as an overseer of the Pantheon project, makes him quite suspicious. Perhaps he himself hired Caine to compromise his computer, so that Adler and Marshall don’t discover his ties to the terrorists once they start doing some serious digging.
While there’s no way to answer any of these questions definitively at this time, many fans have alluded to Activision’s propensity for continuing storylines through the Warzone battle royale game. The company has made a habit out of introducing Call of Duty plot developments and characters into the latest seasons of Warzone, meaning Case, Livingstone, and others may appear to conclude their respective arcs in season 7 of Warzone and beyond.
