With six main games bearingthe Black Ops subtitle, we can just imagine how hard it is to keep track of all the narrative threads and characters dating back to 2010.Black Ops 6stands on its own as a story, but a lot of characters from prior games show up and they bring up events from the past.
With this complicated lore in mind, we cannot blame the writers for the things about it that don’t make sense that we detail below. Besides, these leaps in logic do little to detract from the fast-paced campaign and absurd multiplayer action.
While Black Ops technically started in 2010, 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War is also a part of the same timeline.
6Why Does Pantheon Want Control Of The CIA?
The CIA Still Feels Like The Other Side Of The Same Coin
Pantheon wants to take over the CIA, but to what end? The simple explanation is they are seen as a relic of the past and put out to pasture for their extreme methods, but the CIA still seems pretty unhinged in the early 1990s setting. This is a plotline seen in many spy thrillers.
1996’s Mission: Impossible comes to mind off the top of our heads. With the number of wars going on in the early 1990s, it seems like Pantheon probably still would have had plenty of opportunities to get their hands dirty even if the spy games of the Cold War were not as prominent.
5The Spy Cam
It’s Cool, But How Does It Work Exactly?
Don’t get us wrong, the Spy Cam is a cool mechanic for stealth missions. Take it out and zoom in on enemies to mark them. The game then automatically tracks their movements to help you know where they are and stay undetected. In the real world, the technology of the device doesn’t make sense.
It’s not like Case has some optical chip that marks the enemies in his vision through walls. While an invaluable tool, there’s no way to justify it in the game world. Maybe they could chalk it up to it being a symptom of the Cradle experiments.
4Concealing A Public Terrorist Attack In Washington DC
They Can’t Keep A Lid On An Attack That Big
The mission Most Wanted seesyou and the team break Russell Adlerout of a CIA facility by first infiltrating a campaign dinner by then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. The mission ends with Pantheon breaking into the facility and attacking the dinner. Pantheon somehow manages to pin the blame on you and the team.
Even so, an attack of that scale would have almost as profound an effect on the country as Pantheon’s ultimate plan to release Cradle into the Capital. Presidential candidates have been attacked and assassinated in real-world history, but a massive attack that spills into the streets like the one in Most Wanted would have shaken the country to its core just in the way Pantheon wanted.
3Harrow’s Alliance To Pantheon
She Might Double Guess Them If She Thought Twice About Them
During the last two campaign missionswe finally learn why Jane Harrow is aligned with Pantheon. She blames the CIA for the death of her parents and seeks revenge on the agency. The CIA’s ruthless methods during the Cold War likely caused her mom and dad’s death.
Pantheon in the early 1990s is out to take over the CIA after being exiled from the agency because their ruthlessness was considered obsolete at the start of the decade. So, if the CIA’s old ruthlessness was what caused Harrow her grief, why would she ally herself with a group whose methods knew no bounds? Perhaps it shows just how blinded by revenge Harrow was.
2Jane Harrow Helping Out The Team
It Feels Like She Got Herself Caught
The game starts with Case and the team being suspended from the CIA and going rogue. They set up shop at an abandoned KGB safehouse in Bulgaria. Jane Harrow is aware of this, yet doesn’t immediately sic pantheon on the safehouse to end their investigation. At the very least, she could plant evidence somewhere in the CIA to reveal the team’s location to the agency to let them take care of the team.
The only reason we can see for her not doing this is to keep placing the blame for Pantheon’s action on the team to let the rogue agency run amok. There were probably better ways to do this, especially since not bringing them into custody ultimately led to Harrow’s plan failing spectacularly.
1An Entire Army Crossing The Russian Border
Pantheon Agents Aren’t Literally Invisible
It’s no secret that the Soviet Union was pretty weak and in disarray in the early 1990s. It was just inches from collapse, after all. Still, it’s difficult to believe that a paramilitary group as big as Pantheon could bring a ton of troops across their border. That’s either an epic sneaking operation or a lot of bribes they had to pay.
A few agents or a small squad is believable, but Pantheon really made themselves at home in the Vorkuta prison in Siberia, bringing not only soldiers but tons of military equipment. The Soviet government should have noticed this. If they didn’t immediately point the finger at the US, they would have at least phoned them up and asked some questions.
Fans of the Black Ops series will recognize Vorkuta as the prison Alex Mason escaped from in the first Black Ops game from 2010.
