Summary
An observant player has spotted an easy-to-miss historical inaccuracy inCall of Duty: Black Ops 6. The anachronism in the single-player story campaign sparked discussion of other potential inaccuracies in other parts ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 6and throughout the series.
TheCall of Duty: Black Opsfranchise has long been the home ofCall of Duty’s more inventive storytelling gambits. This is thanks to the “black ops” premise, which heavily emphasizes the idea of secret histories and conspiracy theories behind otherwise well-known historical events and figures. The original game dug deep into cold war-era espionage missions, while other entries embraced branching narratives and choice-based consequences. The latest entry in the series appears to be keeping with the tradition, with theBlack Ops 6campaign praised by celebrities like Ice Tand in reviews.
Praise isn’t perfection, though, and one detail-orientedBlack Ops 6player highlighted a funny historical inaccuracy they noticed in the campaign. Reddit user critlvcritlvcritlv shared a screenshot of what they said was a Ford Transit van seen in the campaign with theBlack Ops 6community. The problem was that the vehicle’s design appears reminiscent of the 2018 Ford Transit, while the mission itself takes place in 1991, nearly 27 years earlier.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Player Finds Time-Traveling Van in the Campaign
The screenshot was taken from theBlack Ops 6campaign mission"Blood Feud," which involves the characters Case and Sev investigating a lead in Avalon on the Medditerranean Coast in 1991. Sev meets Case in a large, disguised spy van, and it’s this van that appears to be anachronistic. In addition to its resemblance to a much more modern Ford van, the van appears to include high-intensity headlights. Such headlights (also known as xenon headlights) were not common until the late 1990s, and would thus be unlikely to feature on a van intended to look inconspicuous.
FellowBlack Ops 6players joked about the admittedly minor anachronism, claiming thatBlack Ops 6was now “literally unplayable,” and acknowledged that the vast majority of players are unlikely to notice or care. Some theorized that the van model is a stock asset reused from a different modernCall of Dutygame, like theModern Warfare 3campaign, which is set in the 2020s. Other players disputed the assertion that the van in the screenshot is a Ford Transit, suggesting instead that it’s a Fiat Ducato, though even in that case, the design would still be ahead of its time compared to 1991.
Minor, if noticeable, issues like asset reuse highlight the ongoing debate around the practice in games. Reusing high-quality assets is a valuable cost-saving measure for game developers, but excessive reuse can leave players thinking that a game looks “cheap” or “lazy.” Some series get around the issue, like when, like whenLike A Dragongames reuse assets elegantly, taking advantage of familiar sights to give players a sense of familiarity.
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.
