Of note, I did a lot of work developing Troy Marshall and Jane Harrow, evolving rough-sketch early concepts of both. We knew we wanted to have a “rogue team” of ragtag operators—an eclectic cast with unique skillsets. Building up from established archetypes (tech expert, face/master of disguise), I created Felix Neumann and Sevati Dumas (seen below). And of course, did no shortage of writing for legacy characters like Frank Woods and Russell Adler. Even got to write a dialogue tree with a young Shepherd of Modern Warfare fame.

In addition to new characters, I had a heavy hand in authoring the overall story of Black Ops 6, a balancing act that required integrating the mission concepts with our story goals across a three-act structure while ensuring the character arcs had the necessary bandwidth to evolve across the campaign through short vignettes during safe house hub sequences.

As for the missions themselves, there’s no shortage of badass bombastic moments. Every character gets their time to shine. My favorites to work on can be found in the “Most Wanted” and “High Rollers” missions.

ACCOLADES

Metacritic - 83

IGN - 9/10

“Telling one of the most engaging stories the series has ever seen, Black Ops 6’s enticing variety and impressive scale provide a stellar return to form.”

“What is delivered is a constantly engaging spy thriller story as the exiled Woods, Adler, and a string of new faces go off the record to decipher the links between the CIA, Saddam Hussein, and The Pantheon.”

“It’s as good as a Call of Duty plot has been in a long, long time.”

“Packing a thoroughly engaging story that gets better the longer it goes on, it exceeds expectations regarding level design and creativity, showing that when given the time to craft them properly, CoD campaigns still have what it takes to be up there with the best first-person shooters.”

The Guardian - 4/5

“Black Ops 6 is the best title in the series for years.”

“I would happily play a whole game in which I could customise the flamboyant safe house to make it more comfortable for my cute little family of spec-ops sociopaths.”

GamesRadar+ - 4/5

“Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is one of the best offerings we've had in years. But I implore you not to skip the solo offering this time around. Not only is it too wild a ride to pass it up, it genuinely evolves what this series can be.”

VG247 - 5/5

“Black Ops 6 story's first obvious strength is the big refresh to its main cast of rogue operatives. They're a shady but younger bunch, almost effortlessly fleshed out over the course of the lively campaign with a number of well-placed character beats, distinct personalities and story arcs, and much-needed downtimes between missions inside a country safehouse that holds many secrets for the curious.”

“It was reasonable to expect great things from BO6's campaign after the extra time the developers have had to bake it real good, but it may very well be one of the year's biggest single-player surprises, and while some diehard fans might find some of its kookier swings a tad much, I was extremely happy to be blown away again by a Call of Duty campaign this late into the billion-dollar franchise's life cycle.”

Eurogamer - ‘Surprisingly Intimate PsyOp Thriller Is a Blast’

“Black Ops 6's is surprisingly personal. Ultimately, it's a tale of a small group of CIA cast-outs with personal vendettas of varying lengths and depths, facing off against an unnamed enemy who, equally, is revealed to have a deeply personal trauma informing their own motivations. Naturally most of these characters are larger-than-life, from the rogue Adler, through to the quietly murderous, mop-haired German tech wiz Felix and almost comically grizzled, bandana-sporting action veteran Woods. But newcomer Troy Marshall, for instance, is a firmly likeable moral throughline, effectively a supplanted protagonist for your own, strangely voiceless Case.

“Between them, via overheard conversations and lore tidbits dotted around the puzzle-laiden, surely-haunted mansion in the woods you make your hideout, it's easy to become surprisingly attached. I quite like this group of objectively immoral war criminals.”

GameSpot - 8/10

“…spending time with your team in one-on-one conversations makes for some of the best moments in the game, and Black Ops 6 gives you plenty of opportunities to do so in the safehouse.”

“In particular, new additions Sev and Felix are well-rounded characters, and I always found myself hoping for more of them.”

NME -5/5

“Let’s start with the campaign mode. It’s a flawless, Mission Impossible-style blockbuster filled with unique setpieces, a great ‘90s grunge-inspired soundtrack, stunning visuals and an engaging, exciting plot that knits neatly into the larger Black Ops timeline.”

Forbes - 10/10

“With a twisty-turny story that I won’t spoil here, plenty of secrets to unravel and puzzles to solve, and a healthy dose of action, there’s never a point in the story that I felt bored or letdown.”

“I think this is the most impressive military FPS I’ve played since Titanfall 2…”

DualShockers - 8/10

“The main ensemble of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 stands out by being primarily all-original, with old faces adapted nicely to the game's overall tone.

“The gang you roll with talks like normal people, skirting the forced "hard guy tone" that makes many COD campaigns difficult to endure.

“The more nuanced approach makes the situations where someone raises their voice much more impactful, and it helps you see these characters as humans.”

“The mix of skills and personalities in your Black Ops 6 crew makes you feel like you're part of a cooler version of The A-Team.

...allowing your teammates to shine rather than the ‘one-man army’ approach introduced with the very first Call of Duty campaign.”

TheSixthAxis - 10/10

“Although Call of Duty has its fair share of memorable characters, they rarely have as much depth as BO6’s ragtag band of rogue ops who are soon joined by the battle-scarred Adler as well as Felix, a pacifist expert engineer, and the wardrobe-swapping assassin, Sev. ”