Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War: Inside Black Ops 6

Call of Duty Black Ops Gulf War is how a lot of people refer to Black Ops 6, because the Gulf War is the backdrop the whole campaign hangs on.

The setting

Black Ops 6 is set in 1991, during the phase of the conflict known as Operation Desert Storm — which ran from 17 January to 28 February 1991. That places it after the 1981 events of Black Ops Cold War and before the 2025 half of Black Ops II, filling a decade the series had largely skipped.

The story

The campaign follows Troy Marshall and returning series veteran Frank Woods as rogue CIA operatives assembling a team to chase Pantheon, a paramilitary outfit with covert ties back to the agency itself. The Gulf War is the setting rather than the plot: this is a black-ops story running alongside the official war, not a re-enactment of it.

The Kuwait ban

Kuwait blocked the game's release in October 2024, ahead of the 25 October launch. Reporting at the time linked the decision to the game's depiction of Saddam Hussein and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait — subject matter that is recent history rather than distant history in the country that lived through it.

What it plays like

Black Ops 6 introduced Omnimovement, which lets you sprint, slide and dive in any direction rather than only forwards. It also shipped into Game Pass on day one, a first for the series after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision. The 1991 setting shows up mostly in weapon selection and mission design — this is a period well before drones and thermal optics became standard issue.