After Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Firing Range Revival, Its Remaster Strategy Seems Clear (2025)

Like most games in the modern franchise, the post-launch content of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a massively important element of the title, with its in-game seasons, events, and rewards bringing consistent waves of fresh additions to the project. While these seasons bring updates to things like Zombies and Warzone, the changes that they bring to Black Ops 6's core multiplayer are often the most discussed, with things like weapons, modes, maps, and customization options often being some big highlights of a given season.

A lot of player discussion has been focused on the maps of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 since the game launched in October 2024, with a lot of pressure being placed on post-launch maps due to the perceived lack of size variety and traditional structure of the game's launch map pool. While plenty of original maps have been added to Black Ops 6 in the months following its release, some of the most high-profile post-launch additions have been remasters of previous Black Ops maps. With maps having already been re-introduced from the original Black Ops, Black Ops 2, and Black Ops 4, the future map remaster approach for BO6 seems clear.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Future Map Remaster Inspiration Might Be Obvious

The Call of Duty franchise has developed quite a divisive relationship with the concept of map remasters over the past few years, with 2023's Modern Warfare 3 drawing a lot of criticism for how it relied entirely on map remasters at launch. While most Call of Duty fans would prefer entirely original maps within recent titles, the massive franchise seemingly cannot escape the shadow of its most iconic experiences, with the shaky reception of Black Ops 6's launch maps being steadied by a range of remasters.

As expected, Black Ops 6 continued the tradition of featuring Nuketown within its launch map pool, but the title has already gone on to add a range of other remastered maps from a range of past games in the sub-franchise. Season One Reloaded for Black Ops 6 saw the introduction of BO4's Hacienda, for example, with Black Ops 2's Grind map also being added to the game as a remaster with Season Two Reloaded. The most recently remastered map for Black Ops 6 is the iconic Firing Range, which first appeared in the sub-franchise's debut 2010 title.

While Firing Range's latest remaster has drawn some criticism due to its visual changes from the original, it has become a staple of Black Ops 6's third season, with Treyarch's affinity for remastered experiences showing no sign of slowing down. Rumors suggest that 2025's CoD release will be a direct sequel to Black Ops 2, potentially relying on remasters in the same way that 2023's MW3 did at launch, but there is still some room for Black Ops 6 to introduce future remasters from its currently ignored predecessors, like Black Ops 3 and even Cold War.

Black Ops 3 and Cold War Are Yet to Make Remaster Appearances in Black Ops 6

While many potential Black Ops 3 remasters would have to be tweaked to match the more grounded movement mechanics of Black Ops 6, fan-favorite maps from the title, such as Evac and Hunted, could be repurposed for a future Black Ops 6 season. Although Black Ops Cold War is not the most celebrated entry to Treyarch's IP, many of its more popular maps would be much more transferable to Black Ops 6, with the likes of Armada or Garisson being good candidates for their own dedicated seasons.

Of course, Black Ops 6 should focus on original content for future seasons first and foremost, though the game's focus on tradition seems to lend itself well to celebrations of past entries to the Call of Duty franchise. With so many past Black Ops titles already receiving love in the way of remasters within Black Ops 6, it seems more than likely that Black Ops 3 and Cold War will have their own renewed stints in the spotlight for the next steps of BO6's post-launch content.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

FPS

Systems

9/10

171 7.4/10

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Avg: 83/100 Critics Rec: 92%

Released

October 25, 2024

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

Developer(s)

Treyarch, Raven Software

Publisher(s)

Activision

Engine

IW 9.0

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Where to play

Close

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION

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DIGITAL

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PHYSICAL

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Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op

Cross-Platform Play

Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC

Cross Save

Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC

Prequel(s)

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War

Franchise

Call of Duty

Number of Players

1-4

Split Screen Orientation

Vertical or Horizontal

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown

PC Release Date

October 25, 2024

Xbox Series X|S Release Date

October 25, 2024

PS5 Release Date

October 25, 2024

Platform(s)

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players

How Long To Beat

8 Hours

X|S Optimized

Yes

File Size Xbox Series

216 GB (October 2024)

PS Plus Availability

N/A

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