Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Ends the 3-Year Scourge of the Riot Shield

The Call of Duty riot shield has been a source of much debate within the community for years. This primary weapon replacement — a huge shield that lets you deflect bullets from enemy weapons — has sparked as much frustration as it has devilish delight, with critics claiming the riot shield encourages frustrating turtle tactics that are hard to counter, and fans saying, essentially, get good.

Over the last few Call of Duty games, the riot shield has met with consistent calls for it to be either nerfed or pulled from the game. It’s a particular favorite of the Modern Warfare sub-brand, appearing in last year’s Modern Warfare 3, 2022’s Modern Warfare 2, and 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard. Black Ops developer Treyarch, however, isn’t a fan; the only Treyarch game to have a riot shield as a weapon was 2012’s Black Ops 2.

And so, when Activision published a blog post confirming all the Black Ops 6 launch weapons, fans were quick to scan for the riot shield. Lo and behold, it is nowhere to be found; cue rapturous applause from (most) fans who are now looking forward to straight up gun fights in their gun game.

Seeing the full Black Ops 6 weapon list without a Riot Shield on it… pic.twitter.com/XMHznKUOXL

— James – JGOD (@JGODYT) October 20, 2024

There’s this thing called shooting your gun. You guys should try it! https://t.co/98eH1p4O9g

— Hope (@TheGhostOfHope) October 21, 2024

no riot shield https://t.co/tdtQ9Xnnqa pic.twitter.com/F1wazKCASJ

— curt (@chvsm) October 21, 2024

With Black Ops 6, players won’t need to worry about having to change their strategy to cope with riot shield opponents, which means no need to save that explosive just in case or scan for those hard to hit weak spots. In truth, the riot shield and its slower, more defensive gameplay probably wasn’t the best fit for the fast-paced Black Ops 6 and its new Omnimovement mechanic anyway.

We’re nearing the October 25 release date for Black Ops 6 and so we have plenty of information on what to expect. We’ve got confirmation of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s launch Multiplayer maps, modes, and Operators, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s preload and global launch times. Activision has also said it wants to catch and remove Call of Duty cheaters within one hour of them being in their first match.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].