Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Drops to ‘Mixed’ Reviews on Steam

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Drops to 'Mixed' Reviews on Steam

Key Takeaways

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has dropped to “Mixed” reviews on Steam.
  • Its mediocre user scores appear to stem from a variety of reasons, ranging from technical issues and Zombies mode-related grievances to complaints about Call of Duty HQ.
  • Black Ops 6 journalist reviews are still MIA, as Activision appears to have significantly limited the number of review copies it sent out.

As a long-time Call of Duty enthusiast with over two decades of gaming under my belt, I can’t help but feel a mix of anticipation and apprehension regarding Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The game’s drop to “Mixed” reviews on Steam is certainly concerning, especially given its meteoric rise to the top of Steam’s Top Sellers chart before release.


The sixth installment of Call of Duty: Black Oops has received a mix of reviews from users on Steam. Although numerous players have criticized the game via their Steam reviews due to technical glitches, no specific issue seems to comprehensively explain the lackluster user ratings for this shooter on Valve’s platform.

On October 25th, the release date, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was already leading Steam’s Top Sellers list. It has remained in this top position since then, up to and including October 26th.

Despite the fact that Black Ops 6 has been a massive success on Steam initially, it’s important to note that not all early player feedback has been favorable. This is evident in the game’s shift from positive reviews to “Mixed” on the platform. This change isn’t due to review-bombing, as the shooter’s negative user ratings on Steam reveal a diverse range of problems.

Black Ops 6 Steam Players Complain About Technical Issues, COD HQ, and More

Critics of Call of Duty HQ have pointed out issues that players have been voicing since its release in 2022. One major concern is the treatment of Black Ops 6 as a DLC for CoD HQ, which means it shares the same playtime with games like Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3. This makes it impossible to get an automatic refund from Steam within their two-hour grace period, leading some players to claim that this is a deliberate tactic to bypass Steam’s refund policies. Additionally, users have expressed dissatisfaction with the overall user experience of CoD HQ, stating that it takes several minutes just to launch Black Ops 6, let alone begin playing the game.

Users are expressing concerns about multiple technical issues related to Call of Duty: HQ, such as performance problems, network glitches, and even instances where the game fails to launch, or the server crashes at startup. Furthermore, a section of these negative reviews have targeted the Zombies mode in Black Ops 6, calling it dull and superficial, and criticizing its map selection. Some users have gone so far as to speculate that Activision might release the Zombies maps from Black Ops and Black Ops 2 as downloadable content later on, suggesting that the current map selection is deliberately subpar.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Journalist Reviews Are Still MIA

At present, it remains unclear if the Steam user reviews correspond with the game’s overall critical acclaim, as professional reviews are still scarce at this time. It seems that Activision has reduced the number of Black Ops 6 review copies distributed to a minimum, resulting in only four reviews being compiled by OpenCritic so far. This is an unusually low number for a game anticipated to be among the major releases of 2024.

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2024-10-26 21:24