Summary
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold Warcontroversially swapped outthe handcrafted Zombies crewsfor Operators. Instead of being randomly assigned characters like Richtofen or Misty at the start of each match, you would fight back hordes of the undead with more generic multiplayer andWarzonecharacters. Unfortunately, this meant less dynamic dialogue, and less interactivity with the story.
Black Ops 6mixes the two approaches. You can still play as Operators from other modes, but there’s a designated crew made up of Weaver, Elizabeth, Carver, and Maya, who have more banter and involvement in the Easter Eggs. But according toInsider Gaming, next year’s Call of Duty might just bring the OG crew completely.
Dempsey, Takeo, And Nikolai Reportedly Featured In Playtests
Allegedly, Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai featured in the 2025 playtests, and are set to be involved directly in the still-unravelling story.
What version of the characters they’ll be is the lingering question. If you’re not up to date on the incredibly confusing and complex (but amazing) Zombies story, there are two major timelines for the core four — Ultimis and Primis. The former is the original crew from World at War and Black Ops, but Black Ops 3 introduced younger versions of them from an alternate dimension, i.e. Primis.
The main map will also reportedly be Tranzit-inspired.
Primis killed the Ultimis crew, so the returning characters can’t be Ultimis. And the Primis universe doesn’t really exist anymore. Richtofen is however a key part of the new Aether story, but playtesters claim that the rest of the squad appears older than the Primis versions in Call of Duty 2025. Whether they’re somehow Primis (but older), a new version of the team entirely, or ‘somehow Ultimis has returned’, we’ll have to wait and see.
Whatever the story ends up being, it looks like the fan-favourite squad is set to return next year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.
