Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 releases October 25 and the anticipation is high in the community. Did developer Treyarch manage to instill new blood in the franchise? Has the four year development cycle been worth it?
I had the opportunity to play the Early Access Black Ops 6 Beta and I can tell you I had loads of fun, but there are plenty of challenges left for Treyarch to address. Black Ops 6 is an incremental improvement of the formula, although it still plays it safe. If you are a fan or newcomer to Call of Duty, you will appreciate the new Omnimovement mechanics. If you prefer tactical gunplay, then Black Ops 6 may not fully satisfy you. I’ll cut to the chase and summarize the good and the fixable aspects of this run-and-gun behemoth.
The Good
• The new Omnimovement mechanic is not a gimmick. The variety and flexibility of sprinting, diving, and sliding in all directions updates Call of Duty’s movement mechanics, addressing previous jank. This new mechanic is already making way for some metas and its diving is the most I felt like Max Payne in a while. The movement feels tight and responsive and that is something fans have been hoping for.
• The sprinting coupled with Omnimovement make Black Ops 6 a fast run-and-gun experience. This means there is little downtime to your fights. Expect more Modern Warfare than Black Ops in terms of speed and how you can approach gunplay. For some, this may be a negative especially since there is little left for tactical gameplay.
• The new Kill Order mode where two teams compete to outscore each other by targeting High Value Targets (HVTs) is a great new addition that combines fast gunplay with a more tactical edge. You hunt the opposite HVT and you have to protect your own at the same time. This leads to some fun chases and close calls.
• Weapon loadouts now allow you to customize your guns without worrying that you are missing out by not meta investing in certain overpowered stats like Accuracy and Firepower. In summary, you are no longer punished by your choices and you can enjoy playing with your preferred weapon loadout, making a variety of loadouts viable.
The Fixable
• Omnimovement comes with its challenges. Everyone in the Beta turned into a combination of Usain Bolt plus an Olympic diver. This means that the action becomes frantic and the mayhem of diving and sliding leads to some hysterical random kills. Diving backwards especially needs some balancing work since players seem to pull off some supernatural moves that would make Neo jealous.
• The gun balance needs addressing. SMGs like the Jackal are currently overpowered in terms of range, speed, and accuracy to the point that you will see 95% of the server use the same gun. Assault Rifles become redundant as a result. Sniper guns receive little love due to the smaller maps in the Beta and the fast and close quarter combat of Black Ops 6. Shotguns lack the firepower and spread they are usually known for even at close range, while the rate of fire is slower than expected.
• Besides Skyline, the other three Beta maps (Derelict, Rewind, and Scud) are decent but nothing to write home about. The challenge here is the shorter scale of these maps and the fact that they provide next to no variety of gameplay. For example, Derelict takes place in an abandoned train yard. However, it still feels too small and claustrophobic, prioritizing SMGs and short range weapons. We haven’t yet seen most of the Black Ops 6 maps, although I hope for more variety of map design than what the Beta gives us.
• Footsteps audio is now drowned out by the action. This may be a bug. However, it is very difficult to judge where the enemy players are in relation to you based on sound. In fact, I was misled a couple of times thinking that an enemy was farther away than in actuality.
• The general gunplay performance on the Xbox Series X running on a 120hz display was good. Nonetheless, server-side issues persisted. Servers encountered frequent packet losses, lag, strange respawn points, and even cheaters! Treyarch has a lot of work to do in dealing with these.
• The camera movement when running, aiming, and diving is exaggerated to the point that you feel in a Paul Greengrass movie. This leads to aiming difficulty (and maybe even motion sickness) that I hope gets addressed. Luckily, the settings allowed me to tone down the shaky camera and head bopping.
• The graphics look good for the most part, although texture pop-ins and low ground textures persist. The maps have a discolored tint to them for no apparent reason, making enemies blend into the environment and being more difficult to discern. I felt I had to go into the settings, change the image filters, and brightly color my world view to stand a chance and make my experience more visually appealing.
Should you dive in?
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer may not be the radical change many were hoping, judging by the first round of Beta. Nonetheless, there is promise and potential here especially regarding Omnimovement, although Treyarch has its work cut out in addressing gun balance, server, and other issues. Remember, we still haven’t tried the single-player Campaign and Zombies mode, so there will be more to look forward to (and judge Black Ops 6 by) than just the multiplayer!
Luckily, this is the first round of Beta. Nonetheless, an open Beta launches September 6 through September 9. This open Beta will be available to everyone, unlike the first round which was limited to those who have pre-ordered the game and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Should you dive in? I think Black Ops 6 deserves a fair chance and with the open Beta coming up, it is a great time to find out if you are truly cut out for this.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Early Access Beta was played on the Xbox Series X. Black Ops 6 releases October 25 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. It will be available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on release day.
