What to expect next for Call of Duty: Rumors, leaks, and discussion from a series veteran

It's going to be Black Ops 6; let's just come out and say it. It's Treyarch, and that's their bread and butter. Four years ago, we got our hands on Black Ops: Cold War. Now, the rumor mill has been winding its way through multiple sources over the past few months, which confirms it will likely be centered around the Gulf War.

What makes this launch even more interesting, especially to dedicated fans, is that this is the first Call of Duty ever to have a four-year development cycle. That's right, ever. For the 21st entry into the mainline series, we'll be getting, potentially, the most polished Call of Duty experience ever created. 

Ahead of the launch and full reveal, tons of details have been leaked, including weapons, killstreaks, perks, equipment, and even release dates for multiple components.

Here's the current-rumored roadmap of reveals and launches:

• Announcement - Mid May 
• Worldwide Reveal - Late May 
• Campaign Reveal - June 9th 
• Multiplayer Reveal - Early August 
• Zombies Reveal - Mid 
• August Multiplayer Beta - Early September 
• Campaign Early Access - Late September 
• Zombies Early Access - Early October 
• Launch - October 25th

Campaign having access over a month before multiplayer release would be crazy! Even crazier is seeing Zombies being released early as well. Let's just hope it doesn't cost the same as Star Wars Outlaws for early access!

To add fire to these rumors, this leak came out before the announcement of the Xbox event's date. June 9th is a very specific guess that the leaker got right. This, and other things Vondyispog has leaked, is why I'll be referencing him frequently throughout this article. Generally, he ends up being right.

What's more, is I'll be providing some insight behind some of these rumors. Guesswork, if you will, from the perspective of someone who's played every game in the series since they first arrived. From MLG events, to sponsored online tournaments ran by Machina, I've seen quite a lot of Call of Duty. So let's jump in!

Campaign - The numbers Mason?!

So far, story details are limited, but we have some leaked details containing spoilers from Black Ops: Cold War and a list of potential returning faces. For starters, here's the list of characters returning from Black Ops: Cold War:

• Kapano "Naga" Vang
• Owethu "Jackal" Mabuza
• Kaori "Kitsune" Tanaka
• Freya "Wraith" Helvig

All four were members of Perseus, a group of individuals who identify themselves all under the same moniker for protection. This group is and was led by none other than Perseus themselves. After the first Perseus passed away from cancer, Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin took over his mantle. After the events of Black Ops: Cold War, Stitch was executed by Russel Adler, leaving the Persues mantle open to one of its returning members.

Perseus is an international ring of undercover spies with connections to criminal organizations and terrorists worldwide. Its goal is to disassemble the West's power structure and make the Soviet Union the dominant superpower.

The game returns to an open-world single-player system that's similar to the Modern Warfare 2 system. It's also rumored that the campaign will feature the return of Adler, Woods, and Mason. How Mason's return will be portrayed is interesting, considering he was missing for around 30 years under the current cannon. Let's not forget that Black Ops 2 also covered various points in the 80s and 90s, the latter being the same period as the Gulf War. I imagine cameos would best suit these two characters.

We also have some information on new rumored roles, including characters named Ratcliffe, Marshal, Newman, and Felix. The first was leaked by Luke Stafford, the actor portraying said character. The others were leaked by various renowned Call of Duty X leakers.

Multiplayer

Here comes a long list of leaks, as well as some added commentary when it's needed. I'll be covering weapons, perks, equipment, killstreaks, and anything else pertaining to the multiplayer that I've uncovered thus far.

Weapons

As a long-time Call of Duty player, I was blown away by the sheer number of weapons rumored to be coming to the latest installment of the series. Even as a veteran, I found myself amazed by the variety and depth of the arsenal. It's an extensive list that mirrors the last few years of entries. We've really been spoiled lately.

A good note to make, as mentioned by one of the main sourced leakers I'm using for this list, many of these names are subject to change.

With the rumor that the MW2/MW3 weapon system would be returning in some fashion to Black Ops: Gulf War, many of these weapons could potentially unlock attachments or parts for other guns. 

It's impressive to note that the current number of weapons available in the latest version of the game is greater than what was available at launch for MWII, but slightly less than what was available for MWIII, which mainly included guns from MWII. Compared to Black Ops: Cold War, it has almost double the number of weapons. This abundance of firearms seems to be the new quota for the Call of Duty series, as that has been the standard over the past few entries. It seems we can expect 50+ weapons from here on out.

A noticeable exemption from the list, one that makes me shudder, is the Riot Shield. I cannot stand that thing. I know there is a crowd that loves to use it, and I want you to know that I personally despise you and everything you stand for. At the same time, I admire the courage it takes to be such a stain on the Call of Duty community. Here's to hoping they never add to another game ever again!

Another interesting tidbit is that loadouts could potentially feature a third weapon slot that would house the melee weapon. This would be the first Call of Duty to feature a tertiary weapon slot. What this could mean in terms of gameplay is unclear at the moment, even if true.

Perks

For those unfamiliar with Perks, these are the assignable abilities you can give your character. You can freely swap them between games and load-outs. They range from the ability to pick up ammo from defeated foes, hide from enemy streaks, or even give a player a second chance at life.

Generally, Perks come in three categories, and you are allowed to pick one per type. I don't have any leaked information pertaining to what categories these will belong to, so instead, I'm going to break them up into two categories. For the first, I'll list perks seen in other games, or that had no significant changes.

For the second list, I'm going to pull out Perks that are entirely new or have added a new twist. A few here raised an eyebrow or two from my perspective, almost to Dwayne Johnson levels.

I've seen a few of these lists that note some name differences, but overall, they seem to be similar perks. With that in mind, let's dive in.

Here's a breakdown of every new Perk or Perk change and how they could potentially change gameplay.

• Grave Robber: At first glance, it seems to be your typical Scavenger perk, but attachments? There are two possibilities with this Perk. If the systems in play are similar to previous entries in the series, where you can put upwards of five attachments or more on a weapon, then I don't see this being significant. However, this Perk would become huge for skill-focused players if we were to get something like the old Pick-Ten system, where attachments counted toward your overall loadout cost. Choosing to start with more perks over attachments while being able to earn those attachments would be game-changing.
• Quick Fix: Not only does a kill count toward health regeneration, but capturing and holding objectives increases your health regeneration rate! What an excellent addition. I wish more perks rewarded objective gameplay. Something like this grants an incentive to those players who join domination games to get super high killstreaks.
• Survivor:  Insert GIF of Michael Scott screaming no over and over. Why bring this back? Better yet, why add the ability for players to self-revive? It was one thing to put this in Warzone, but regular multiplayer matches? Perks need a dislike button.
• Operative: Wall hacks in Call of Duty is nothing new as an ability. I've seen specialists with this and other sorts. That's not the worst part. I get that players need some help at times. It's the addition of HUD pulses for any enemy outside of your view that gets me. The ability to be pinged when an enemy is aiming at you has been in many Call of Duty games, but I've never seen one that pings enemies not in your sight when they're not even pointing at you. I hope this doesn't work as described and instead sticks to the standard formula we've seen in previous entries.
• Flex: This is a buffed version of my favorite Gear in MWIII, Bone Conduction Headset. Not only does it reduce combat noise, but it also adds an incentive for players to push enemy entry points without having to worry about three to four different claymores.
• Primed/Focus: I don't understand their choice to break these two apart. Focus, by itself, is a tremendous perk that tons of pros and skill-focused players use. Primed seems to be a meme pick. Who cares about improved jump accuracy by itself? Maybe other players will see it differently; I understand the desire to continuously improve the movement meta surrounding Call of Duty. I don't see this Perk providing enough reason to be a sustainable pick.
• Bounty Hunter: Staying on the meme train, mixing this with Ante Up provides the same utility Hardline used to. I don't see the need to nerf Hardline into two different Perks and entirely remove its primary use, which is to decrease Killstreak/Scorestreak costs.
• Ninja: I stopped playing when Dead Silence was replaced as a Field Upgrade in Modern Warfare 2019. I cannot stand being able to hear my own footsteps in Call of Duty; it's something I've grown too accustomed to. I know the removal of Ninja/Dead Silence gives more creativity to loadouts, but I didn't personally like the choice. To see Ninja back (I know Dead Silence was back in MWIII) and to witness it gain the ability to reduce Intel Perks? Yes!
• Heavy Metal/Huntmaster: These don't have descriptions, so we can only guess what they do. Let us know your guess in the comment section below or somewhere on social media!

It's still unclear if we'll see traditional perks return, or something similar from MWIII, where things were attached to boots, helmets, etc. I'd be cool with either, but I'd personally like to see an expansion of the latest feature set. 

Equipment and Field Upgrades

Here's the list of leaked equipment and Field Upgrades that could come to Call of Duty: Gulf War. There's not much to discuss for Lethal and Tactical Equipment, as most of the items are what you'd expect. I will dive into one particular tactical item, but it's the Field Upgrades that interest me the most.

Tactical Insertions are back as Tactical Equipment? I hope this isn't the case, and if it is and David Vonderhaar is reading this, please change it back to a Field Upgrade! For the love of Call of Duty, I don't want to go back to the first iterations of Modern Warfare, where Tactical Insertion boosting was a thing.

Rally sounds like it could completely change how objective game modes are played. It just takes one player to flank the B objective in Domination, and suddenly, the whole team is spawning by it? That's insane to me. Stack this on a few people, and you could see players getting advantageous spawns every minute or so. 

Revive Gun, on the other hand, is difficult to gauge. On the one hand, if it only works for players running Survivor, then it's far too niche to use. If it works for everyone, this becomes a de facto Field Upgrade. I'd rather not see something like this in Call of Duty, but maybe taking a little bit from Battlefield and making the game a little more cooperative with its competitiveness isn't a bad idea, either.

Scoretreaks

Remember when the only killstreaks were Radar, Airstrikes, and Helicopters? I do, but that probably puts my age out for everyone to see. Killstreaks changed the fundamentals of online gameplay. They were revolutionary and still are to this day. Multiple games have attempted to copy their system, and very few have had any sort of success. None equal to that of Call of Duty.

So, what's new with Call of Duty: Gulf War? First, they've removed killstreaks and replaced them with scorestreaks. This system is often juggled between games, with some featuring one or the other, sometimes both. Scorestreaks are frequently trumpeted as the go-to system, as they promote objective gameplay over kill-hogging. 

First of all, having 22 score streaks is bonkers. That's a lot, even when you consider War Machine and Handcannon are just reskins of the old Call of Duty specialists who used the same abilities. I loved them—especially the Handcannon, which is one of the most satisfying abilities to use. Getting the scorestreak is one thing, but popping off while using it is a satisfaction only Call of Duty players will understand.

As for the rest of them, it's your standard affair. A few stand out amongst the crowd. Calling in sniper helicopters sounds like some definitive gamer fun. Since Call of Duty is now a first-party title under Microsoft, could you imagine if they used the sniper sound from Halo? 

Then there's the Nuke. It's back, baby! The question I have is, what counts towards the killstreak? They haven't for quite a while, but it would be interesting if that mechanic returned. Back in the original Modern Warfare 2, I once earned a Nuke early in a game I was playing with a bunch of friends. They didn't want me to call it in right away, but by the time I could, I had another Nuke. Unfortunately, I couldn't call them both at the same time.

Zombies

Vondyispog, a renowned Call of Duty leaker, informed the community that five resource stations would make their way into CoD 2024. These were:

• Perk Machines + Der Wunderfizz: I love that perks are coming back. A staple to the franchise.
• Pack-a-Punch: Can't leave without this! It's a small thing to note, but the knuckle-cracking animation is back. This animation prevents users from using a weapon, meaning players aren't safe when depositing weapons in the Pack-a-Punch.
• Tool Grinder: Another item that's infrequently used, but it's back! This allows for upgrading the base gun damage of weapons. Think of it as a tier system from common to legendary status.
• Crafting table: This allows for the crafting of killstreaks, equipment, etc.

Loadouts are also rumored to be returning, as the entire experience will be closer to later iterations of zombies, like those in MWIII. The older experiences are no longer, which I'm okay with, honestly. Loadouts provide a sense of security when entering maps and give those early rounds better replayability.

A Radio pack is coming, too. It's not known what this is or what it'll do, but it's there! I hypothesize it's either a simple cosmetic or it'll have some sort of in-game feature like zombie radar.

Earlier leaks suggest two new maps will be coming on launch day: one city-themed and the other on an island. Said island will also come with a potential arrow trap of sorts. Maybe we can also expect a trap that is better themed for the city, too!

Rumors also suggest that we could see reward rifts and the aether extractor return from MWZ. As well as Manglers coming back. New items, like a weapon that bubbles the skin of enemies and a new dog variant with tentacles, could also be part of the slew of Zombie features players can look forward to.

Warzone

The rumor is that Warzone will continue to be part of the current MWII and MWIII iterations. The map for season one's integration for Call of Duty: Gulf War will be Verdansk. It's not known what will carry over. Still, it's a safe assumption, at least for now, that players will continue their journey in the current Warzone system, similar to the jump from MWII to MWIII.

Outside of that, there isn't any new information to share. I'm sorry this is the least exciting reveal!