The beta weekend for “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” revealed a multiplayer experience that’s both fast-paced and fun, but if you were expecting some major change to the tried-and-true military shooter, you may be disappointed.
The new installment of the beloved franchise was developed by Treyarch, the Activision Blizzard subsidiary behind eight of “Call of Duty’s” 23 games and all of the “Black Ops” series. The series has run for 21 years and is a juggernaut among first-person shooters, and the “Black Ops” series in particular has proven a hit for the gaming company, with two of the games selling more than 24 million copies each. The “Black Ops” games span a 100-year timeline, from 1960 to 2065, filled with political intrigue, set-piece battles and real-world leaders such as Ronald Reagan.
It’s worth noting that the campaign story of “Black Ops 6” was not part of the beta weekend that ran from Sept. 6-8, so we don’t know yet what new “Call of Duty” lore will be revealed in the newest installment of the franchise. Trailers and a mission demo earlier this year revealed that “Black Ops” characters like Russell Adler and Frank Woods would return, and that representations of political leaders like Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher and Saddam Hussein would all make appearances (the beloved zombie mode was also excluded from the beta). Instead, participants went up against each other in a variety of maps and game styles in multiplayer mode.
The biggest story to come out of the beta is easily omnimovement, a change to “Call of Duty” mechanics that gives players the ability to sprint or leap in any direction (obviously, running backward or laterally is slower than sprinting forward).
This change affects multiplayer gameplay by making the game into even more of an esports experience and even less of a “true” military experience than previous “Call of Duty” installments. Characters are capable of many superhuman feats, and success is decided more by your mouse control than planning and tactics. I was lucky enough during my time in the U.S. military to witness special operations training multiple times, and I've never seen anyone take a shot while literally leaping around a corner. I imagine that even hardened operators would struggle with accuracy in that maneuver. In other words: “Black Ops 6” is less “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” and more “the quick and the dead.”
One somewhat realistic facet of omnimovement, though, is that it allows players to fire in a pretty broad arc while lying on the ground. It was often frustrating in games that, when prone and engaged from a ledge, you had to stand up and then raise your weapon to engage. Omnimovement fixes that problem nicely. Players who pre-ordered the “Black Ops 6” got extra time to grind experience and test tactics before the rest of us got in, and they used that access to figure out how to use the supine and prone positions to hide among dead bodies. It’s vital in this new game to quickly identify whether a body lying on the ground is actually dead.
Other than omnimovement, the new maps -- such as Skyline, Scud and Derelict -- were quite enjoyable, with multiple areas where fights broke out consistently, making it easy to return to the action after a respawn. But players should take care not to enter every flashpoint from a consistent avenue. Players only needed a few minutes with each map to learn where to watch for reinforcements entering the fray, allowing enemy players to set up ambushes.
In the ever-important domain of weapons balance, one weapon became a clear favorite almost immediately. The Jackal PDW, a 9mm submachine gun that appears similar to a Sig Sauer MPX K, garnered so much fanfare that “Call of Duty” studio Treyarch nerfed it after that first beta weekend, reducing many of its stats to balance it out. But the reduction seemed well-done, with it remaining a comfortable and effective choice in September.
Most other weapons remained the same or got slight buffs, so it’s clear that Treyarch is approaching balance with a bit of nuance, trying to entice players to try different builds rather than simply punishing those who use a popular weapon.
For players who are interested in “Call of Duty” but are coming off a long sabbatical from the series or have never previously gotten into it, a new entry is always a great time to jump in. But be warned: The game is close enough to current hit “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” that those players will definitely have an advantage when “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” goes live on Oct. 25, 2024. Pre-orders are open now.
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