Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is drawing increasingly heavy criticism from its community for pretty much instantly dropping the somewhat serious nature of its multiplayer skins for the absurd, unrealistic cosmetics that dropped yesterday with Season 1. Instead of standard military men and women seen in the campaign, Treyarch has released a new set of skins that can dress you up as a black and green dragon, a monster out of a horror movie, or give you a sort of orange crystal as your face.
This is a complaint some parts of the community have expressed for years now, with previous entries letting you dress up as the likes of Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, and even Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. However, given there's been such a quick turnaround from the serious set of launch skins in Black Ops 6 to yesterday's Season 1 release, the outcry has been exponentially louder.
Here are three of the skins that fans are taking issue with most:
Much of the game's Reddit page is covered with criticisms for the new skins, with some fans even asking Treyarch for a toggle that removes them from the game. The Blackcell skin — which is a purchasble extra on top of the new Battle Pass — is even being compared to the outfit soldiers wore in the infamous PS3 game Haze.
Other posts on the Reddit page with hundreds of upvotes complain about the "horrendous" skins, each of which cost in the double digits. Perhaps the best post of all inserts the worst skin of them all into a historic military picture, reading: "One from the history books. Gulf War circa 1991."
The thinking at Treyarch and Activision will presumably be that standard military outfits won't sell very well, so they have to get creative in order to catch a potential buyer's eye. The response from the game's hardcore community is that the developer is instantly ruining any sense of realism in online matches, as every other part of the experience takes itself pretty seriously.
What do you make of these new Black Ops 6 skins? Would you ever buy one of them? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 49
Take Haze’s name out of your GODDAMN MOUTH
The disparity between the tone of the game I want to play and the visual gibberish COD promotes actively got me to give up on the series. They tricked me with the MW2 hype/reviews being decent, but I got annoyed by this visual attack (amongst other issues) and I'm simply done with the series for good.
If I want to play a military shooter, I don't want aaaaaaaaaaaany of that stuff in my game. None of it. It's not cool. It's not funny. It's all like a massive middle finger to the tone and atmosphere of the game. It's like skins are designed for people who want to visually troll others. And that's just not a community I need to partake in.
Ah yes, "Call of Duty" and "realism" in the same sentence, now the weekend can finally start.
And yet we don’t have Master Chief or Doom Guy… or Tracer… or Crash Bandicoot or Spyro yet? Where’s the first party support on these skins from Xbox? If you’re going this direction with skins, at least make it the Xbox Mario Party.
@somnambulance It’s heavily rumoured that Doom Guy and Master Chief will be skins in Black Ops 6 at some point.
I always remember seeing the cover of Haze in the local game store back in 2010 but never picked it up
Kinda surreal seeing it again all these years later lol
Maybe they are doing this so they can sell these awful skins to those who want them, then for everyone else, they'll sell you an option for you to be able to turn them off and not see them
Lol. COD hasn't feigned realism for about ten years at least. It certainly isn't going to start now that Fortnite has proven how successful this model is.
Did anyone really buy the game thinking "hmmmm they've been doing these wacky skins since 2014's AW, but THIS is the year where they'll stop"? Why bother being angry about this? These skins ultimately still sell and get attention, as proven by this news article. This is just the reality of many modern PvP live services, you either accept it or vote with your wallet.
@extragood Before it starts, those of us complaining about these skins aren't wanting CoD to PLAY realistically, its not about it playing like a mil-sim. We want CoD gameplay without it looking infested by clown skins and ***** like minaj and snoop dogg. Military aesthetic, Arcade gameplay. It's not too much to ask for.
I mean it's not a war sim its an arcadey shooter, but it is going a bit far. It's a great cod this year and seeing orange lava flying at you from kids with daddy's credit card, does jar a little haha!
I'm really enjoying Black Ops 6 a lot but yeah these skins are pretty atrocious. A toggle would definitely be much appreciated.
It still kind of blows my mind how one of the original goals of COD was to create a realistic representation of WWII. I'd love to show my young self playing COD2 on 360 what the character models will look like in future COD games. 😂
I always really liked Haze.
No video game store was safe from surplus amounts of second hand copies of Haze clogging up the shelves.
completely forgot about that game, but yeah it was terrible!
Even without the season 1 stuff, you have ridiculous skins like the zombie skins and numbers mason. It just feels weird and if this is the future black ops 6 faces, then I won't be part of it. Thanks gamepass for the neat trial.
The fortnite effect been took over this franchise. I dunno why some cod fans just now seeing how bad it's become when it's been this bad for years.
This game was awful? I enjoyed it, it was far from awful. What you smoking?
Yeah because the way the guns and movement are is so realistic lol
CoD is trying way too hard to be like Fortnite's competitor lol
The more articles I read about the state of CoD, the more I side with the Battlefield franchise. Say what you will about 2042's failings, at least it always remained (somewhat) grounded in its setting with its skins.
@JB_Whiting So far.
Why so serious?
@LiamCroft That… I wouldn’t mind. I had no idea it was rumored, very interesting.
I wish the skins would impact the base game's design, go more colorful and fantastical from the get-go.
Stupid skins or trophies/achievements are the only reason I change the default skins. I would never pay for them though.
Haze definitely wasn't awful, it just didn't live up to the hype. The only thing that was awful was it meant we didn't get any more Timesplitters games.
I actually quite liked Haze- yeah it was a bit janky and the story was a bit basic. But it was fun to play. Shame it killed the studio though, I wanted more Timesplitters
@kungfumongoose gotta go back to black ops 2 and before if you want that
I’m a big fan of COD but even so I’ve never understood the inclusion of non-military things in a game that’s rooted in military operations and combat. This goes for the ridiculous and absurd skins of the past few years in MP and Includes zombies. I enjoy zombies but I’ve always thought it should be its own game / package / offering / whatever. In it’s place I’d prefer to see the inclusion of the original style of Spec Ops we had back in the original MW2 & 3. I think that would make for a much more solid and overall ’military’ offering. Just ny 2 cents worth….
After a long cod hiatus, being very disappointed with black ops 2 I wanted to give it another shot. The campaign again can't hold a candle to the original bo. Multiplayer is the usual.
Is it just me or is the trippy/dream/nightmare mission the cardinal sin of story and level design!? It's practically to 3d games what water levels are to 2d games and I don't nearly feel as annoyed by water levels. I've been hating trippy levels since the original max Payne and I've yet to see any that don't bring the fun to a complete halt.
This is why I started to give up on it when I got through some of MW2022's Battle pass and haven't bought another cod since. MW1 reboot was the best it got.
Is this for real? No wonder I haven’t played a CoD game in over 10 years! Horrendous skins!
I have good memories of playing Haze with my flatmate at the time and laughing at the repeated quotes the NPC would say every 5 seconds. "Remember your promise to Merino! Remember your promise to Merino! Remember your promise to Merino!"
Oh wow Haze i thought id blocked that game from my memory and here you guys are bringing it back 🤣. It was defo one of the worst games i played on ps3, i remember reading about it the first time in the playstation mag and it looked amazing i was so hyped about it bought it day 1, finished the campaign and played a bit online, was so disapointed with that game 😪
I have to agree. If nothing else they are easier to spot
CoD is unrealistic, because otherwise nobody would play it. Sitting in a wet trench or ruin for hours and sh*tting your pants because of permanent artillery shelling, this is the daily experience of special forces these days. CoD is a weird power fantasy, born in weird American action movies. Green glowing aliens and human sharks even probably help to open the eyes of those CoD teens out there.
These look like the characters out of touch market teams put on energy drinks and doritos bags to try to appeal to gamers so that checks out lol.
That spiky green ***** is giving real "redeem code for 2000xp in-game" energy something bad.
But is this anything new? I know one of these ***** shooters has Nikki Minaj or some lady pop star as a playable character and I'm not thinking of Fornite. Seems like integrity to the war setting went out the window a long time ago, why expect CoD of all things to make it suddenly return?
People buy them and/or the Battle Pass - not just for MP but Zombies and Warzone too, but then EVERYONE benefits from 'Free' Content - like new Maps, weapons, perks etc that otherwise would likely have been behind a DLC paywall...
It's a different way of monetising that extra content - Multi-player has several new maps and weapons for everyone - whether they choose to buy Cosmetic Bundles or the Battle Pass every few months or so...
It's an arcade Shooter - it always has been, even if the campaign tells a gritty 'war' story - its always been Blockbuster movie style though LOL It's also what makes it 'fun' and why people love playing it.
For as long as I can remember, people have been running round with snipers quick/no scoping like its effortless, doing jump 360 no scopes across the map, They've also had some crazy cosmetics since Black Ops 2 (if not earlier) with different camo's, reticles etc that were not realistic at all...
It is what it is I guess - its always the 'optional' stuff and doesn't take anything away from the rest - if anything benefits them with free content, why not? Don't like/want, don't buy - it makes them easier to see though...
@__jamiie Me too, it wasn’t the greatest but it was still fun to play and the story although cheesy was memorable. One of the more memorable games from that gen for me
Not really surprising that BO6 is releasing goofy operator skins since the previous COD titles have done exactly the same. So hearing that season 1 launched with these skins (and there's going to be even more in the next patches) didn't really faze me since it was bound to happen.
@LordFunkalot Agreed. It was destined to get ridiculed though when people kept saying it was a 'Halo Killer' before it even launched.
Haze was the best game on PS3 and was ahead of its time
One big gripe I have with COD now is not only are they realeasing skins for cringe crap I don't care to be in the game but also its most certaintly taking up a large chunk of the install size.
Only ones complaining about the skins are the ones dropping money on it. Next time know what your getting into when you drop money on something. But most are probably using their parents credit card lol.
I paid money for Haze. I wouldn't pay money for this.
I had no idea cod was now just fortnite. I thought it was still a historical fiction American military series with Jerry Bruckheimer presentation. Not shark men shooting glowing aliens. No wonder it's a kids game. Desert Storm didn't make sense to my for modern kids but it really is just a cartoon apparently now?
@nessisonett so "infamous" I had to look it up now... and none of the info/footage is cueing me on where to be aghast. If anything, my interest has been somewhat piqued, although the game apparently canned its PC plans, and I'm not holding my breath for such stuff to be a manageable RPCS3 gig yet. Seemingly nowhere in PS+ Catalogue either. Anyhoo, sounds like the umpteenth fandom "don't hyperbolize your boredom over a fiction piece to apocalyptic proportions" challenge (impossible). ¯(ツ)/¯
@nhSnork It’s janky but I’ve played worse, a LOT worse.
Hardcore community? More like crybaby community. Zany costumes are funny. Plus they want that Fortnite money.
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