The return of Black Ops 6 Zombies mode Grief is messy, but it's being improved

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Season 4 is finally here, and it brought with it a true blast from the past. More than a decade after it first appeared in Black Ops 2, the bizarre multiplayer and Zombies lovechild known as Grief is back. Pitting two teams of four players against each other and a horde of the undead all at once, the goal is to survive the longest while sabotaging the enemy as much as possible. You can't directly harm your opponents, but you can make their lives a living hell instead. I for one am incredibly glad to see Grief return, but that doesn't mean the mode hasn't been without its problems. Luckily for us, then, Treyarch has already taken aim at some of the new game mode's biggest issues, with more changes on the way.

Grief's competitive spin on Zombies is something the wave-based game mode has needed for a long time. It's been nearly 13 years since we jumped into the unique brand of chaos with friends in BO2, and I'm very happy to see it return in Black Ops 6. That said, the experience definitely needs some work. Between an overbearing melee meta and a lack of truly effective grief abilities, the multiplayer game's nostalgia-driven mode isn't quite where it needs to be. That's why Treyarch has already made some big changes, with even more to come.

"First up: melee spam. We want melee attacks to stay relevant as a mechanic to mess with enemy players, but it shouldn't be the meta. We're taking our first steps to address this by reducing the amount of flinch when hit by enemy player melee attacks, and making sure melee attacks from the same weapon won't apply a new stun and slow until previous stun and slow effects are over," Treyarch writes.

"Next: match length. Our target ceiling is around 30 minutes and we're seeing some matches last well over an hour (or two!), so we've got some updates. Today, we've increased the number of kills required to charge Aether Shroud and Healing Aura so they'll be less reliable as get-out-of-jail-free options when your team's in trouble, and we have other changes in testing to make later rounds deadlier. We're also planning to reduce the amount of Salvage in play to prevent Support stacking, as well as ways to prevent Gobblegum spam and further limit the number of craftable Self-Revives.

"Third: we want to make all Griefs feel impactful. We're working on the best ways to increase their 'griefiness' so that Weapon Carousel isn't the only one you're afraid of, and to incentivize more players to capture those zones. Look for those changes in a future update."

As of a new patch on Friday June 6, some of the above changes have already been made to Grief. The flinch effect has been reduced, and repeated melee attacks from the same weapon no longer add a new stun until the previous one is over. It now takes 240 kills to charge Healing Aura and 180 for Aether Shroud, as well.

With this, Grief should already feel quite a lot better to play. Matches will hopefully not go on for nearly as long, and those pesky melee spammers shouldn't be getting a massively unfair advantage either. I'd love to see this version of Grief stick around, so hopefully Treyarch's newest patch sticks the landing.

We've also got everything you need to know about the current Black Ops 6 events and rewards, alongside the best Black Ops 6 weapons for the meta right now.

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