The hype has continued to build around Black Ops 6 as early Call of Duty leaks detail what’s coming next. Focus has been on a supposed map list where, among several Black Ops classics like Nuketown and Firing Range, a battlefield from the era of “jetpack CoDs” has made an unlikely appearance.
CoD fans were quick to pick apart a list of suggested maps provided by dataminer “Betterthanalaix” as part of a round of Black Ops 6 leaks last weekend. Many fan favorites made the list, but many also noticed the mention of Fringe—a popular map from the bygone era of jetpacks and a focus on verticality in CoD.
Fringe is a map introduced in Black Ops 3 back in 2015. It’s set in a rural American farm town, with wheat silos, a farmhouse, and other buildings flanking a twisting road. Black Ops 3‘s aerial movement meant Fringe could be fought from many different angles, all adding to the complexity of the map. If true, Fringe would be the first ever remastered map from the “jetpack CoD” era which concluded with Infinite Warfare eight years ago.
Jetpack movement and the inclusion of advanced movement like wallrunning were seen as a massive risk by Activision back when the mechanics were introduced. While these techniques lasted just three CoD iterations, Black Ops 3‘s version was widely regarded as the best of the three—partially due to the map designs used in the jetpack-fuelled title.
The leaks don’t confirm whether Fringe would be available immediately or further down the line for Black Ops 6—or at all, they are still just leaks—but the idea that the CoD developers are looking at the better maps from this bygone era is exciting. I’d love to see Hunted return too; after all, we have seen underwater fighting in recent Modern Warfare titles.
We’ll know a little more about Fringe’s potential return as well as a heap of other info about Black Ops 6 later this month during the CoD Next conference.
