Weeks after the Black Ops 6 Beta, the marketing for the latest Call of Duty entry has been flamed to start again, and this time, we have a launch trailer. There are a lot of details in this 1-minute video, however, one, in particular, shows a zombie and the introduction of a bioweapon in the Campaign story mode of Black Ops 6.
The trailer starts with the head of the CIA talking to Frank Woods and Troy Marshall, which looks like the early part of the story where they’re trying to hunt down Russel Adler. In a later scene, Troy is trying to capture Adler with the assistance of Helen Park, which, judging by the surroundings, takes place in Kuwait or Iraq.
Now we know that Marshall is later joined by the rogue CIA agents to free Adler and fight the real mole called the Pantheon, which explains the set-up of the narrative. We have to deal with the Gulf War and Saddam Hussain first, and then we’ll be hunting down the CIA mole by teaming up with Frank Woods and the rest of the group. But what is that bioweapon that we’re shown in the Black Ops 6 launch trailer?
A voice tells either Frank Woods or Troy Marshall, “Is that your friend?” and then we’re treated with a video in which a man inside a cell is being tested with a biological weapon, which we assume results in killing him. This scene is very familiar to the ones that have played Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, where, on a mission, the Nova-6 gas is tested on Reznov and his friends, killing World at War‘s main character, Dimitri Petrenko.
But Nova-6 was never said to turn people into zombies, as in the next shot of the Black Ops 6 launch trailer we witness the undead charging towards the screen. Now there are many assumptions here. One is that this isn’t from the Black Ops 6 Campaign and it actually belongs to the Zombies part of the game. Another is that this is an MKUltra type of thing that happens inside the heads of our characters.
However, the Zombies story of the rebooted Modern Warfare and Black Ops games known as the Dark Aether takes place in the same universe as the Campaign part of things. So, yes, that zombie in the Black Ops 6 launch trailer could in fact be real.
We’ve seen zombies joining the Call of Duty stories in Black Ops 4 and Cold War before, but they all were inside the minds of certain characters. Which I think is the best to have, because of the nature of zombies against the military type of story that Call of Duty tends to deliver with its Campaign narratives.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is due to release on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on October 25, 2024.
