Aside from its high-octane multiplayer and Zombies experiences,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6belongs to a sub-franchise that has always impressed fans with its mind-bending single-player narratives and themes. The widerBlack Opsfranchise has never shied away from intertwining its stories and characters with real-world events and people, giving an edge to its campaigns that has always shined within the wider context ofCall of Duty.
Alongside its new characters and factions,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6has the huge benefit of being able to pull from its previous five mainline titles for its single-player story, with the originalBlack Ops,Black Ops 2, andBlack Ops Cold Warshaping a huge amount of the recently released title’s narrative. One of the stars of the game is franchise veteran Frank Woods, who has had a long and storied presence at the forefront of theBlack Opsseries' overall story. While Woods has always been a fan-favorite figure across all ofCall of Duty,Black Ops 6opens up a level of depth to Woods that further proves he is an all-time character for the longstanding IP.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Takes Frank Woods to Another Level
Frank Woods has been a huge part of theBlack Opsfranchise ever since its first releasein 2010, fighting alongside the game’s protagonist Alex Mason throughout the Vietnam War and a range of secret government operations. Woods would later appear as the deuteragonist ofBlack Ops 2, cementing him as one of the most important and largely focused figures of the mainBlack Opsstoryline.
Throughout the games, Woods is renowned for his mental and physical resilience, having spent over six months in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp and being at the heart oftheBlack Opsfranchise’s most explosive events. Despite the massive level of trauma and combat that Woods has seen throughout these titles, he remained a second-to-none field operative, completely dedicated to whatever mission was at hand.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6takes place after the events ofBlack Ops 2andCold War, with the title boldly choosing to canonize elements ofBlack Ops 2’s branching narrative that puts an entirely new spin on Woods' character. The most glaring example of this is howBlack Ops 6makes it official that Woods was the one to assassinate his longtime friend and teammate Alex Mason, with the true identity of the hooded Mason being unknown to Woods at the time.
Black Ops 6 Gives a New Direction to Woods' Later Life
This offers a clear avenue for guilt and regret that is now a core part of Woods' character as an older man, with the injuries that Woods sustained following the killing of Mason also leaving him in permanent need of a wheelchair. InBlack Ops 6, we see Woods having to wrestle with the emotional and physical trauma that these past events have caused, withWoods being pulled off of the front-lines into an intelligence-based role instead.
As a man who had spent his entire military career in firm control of the plots unfolding around him, seeing Woods much more reliant on the work of others opens up a fresh aspect of his character, withthe canonized guilt of Mason’s deathgiving even more depth to him than ever before. Despite these setbacks, Woods still possesses the same grit, gallows humor, and determination that fans revere him for, makingBlack Ops 6an excellent way to flesh out the already excellent personality and mindset of such an iconic character.
