Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year, fueled in part by a hefty marketing campaign. After the acquisition of Activision/Blizzard by Microsoft, no expense has been spared in the advertising for Black Ops 6, drumming up more hype than most other COD titles in recent memory. To sweeten the deal, for the first time ever, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available on launch day for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers, opening up the franchise to many players who would’ve otherwise passed it up. Recently, co-developers Treyarch and Raven Software offered an open, multiplayer-only beta to give players a small taste of what to expect from the full game. Based on our time with this beta, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is shaping up to be an excellent FPS.
Welcome to the World of Omni-movement
If there’s one standout feature that differentiates Black Ops 6 from the rest of its Call of Duty brethren, it’s the omni-movement system. This fancy new movement tech essentially grants wider control over your sprinting, diving, and sliding, allowing you to perform said actions in any direction. Instead of simply sliding forward, you can now dolphin dive from left to right, sprint backward, and much more. It’s remarkably cool to use at first, and after a bit of practice, you’ll be moving around a map with both style and speed.
Due to the omni-movement system, gunplay is now much faster and practically feels like an action movie come to life. Having good aim has always been an important factor in Call of Duty, but your precision will be put to the test more so than ever before, as you try to track nimble and evasive enemies. It’s common to see opponents dolphin-dive around corners to get the drop on you, or slide to the side and throw off your aim. Some players have already gotten ridiculously good with omni-movement already, showing off just how drastically the system can alter mid-range firefights. It’ll be interesting to see how omni-movement impacts competitive play over time, but for now, it’s seriously cool and one of the best parts of Black Ops 6.
The Good, Bad, and Ugly of the Black Ops 6 Beta
There’s a lot to discuss with the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta, so I’ll touch on the good, bad, and ugly things that I experienced during my 20+ hours of online play. Firstly, the selection of multiplayer maps was both varied and of high quality, featuring no remade maps but an abundance of inspired originals. As mentioned before, the gunplay and movement are consistently fun, but some new gameplay mechanics make things even more exciting. You can now grapple opponents from behind and use them as a body shield, which opens up proximity chat, letting you talk smack to your new hostage. The selection of weapons is also pretty nice, and it’s fun to experiment with different classes, while fresh perks provide even more gameplay nuance.
That said, not everything in the Black Ops 6 beta was a win. Although the guns are fun to use, some are simply overpowered due to the fast-paced nature of the omni-movement system. SMGs, fast-firing rifles, or one-hit-kill snipers are currently reigning supreme, while semi-autos and shotguns simply can’t hold up. Additionally, the gunsmith system remains obtuse for new players, and it’s tedious to try and find recently unlocked attachments. Hopefully, these issues will be fixed with some balancing tweaks, short tutorials, and item markers.
There are also some glaring issues that simply need to be addressed before the full launch of the game. During the beta period, spawn locations were atrocious, regardless of what side of the map you started on. It was easy to get overrun and spawn-camped depending on the map, and it’s also common to spawn directly in front of or behind an enemy. Even worse, the network connection quality during multiplayer matches often fluctuated between perfectly fine and horrendous. Otherwise enjoyable matches were marred by packet burst issues and significant frame drops, leading to frequent annoyance. Hopefully, this stuff will be cleaned up before the full launch, but seeing as how these problems plague the multiplayer experience of other Call of Duty games, we’re not holding our breath.
More to Come in October
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer beta was just a small selection of the full game experience, which will contain a total of 16 original maps, the full arsenal of firearms, brand new perks, and much more. The return of prestige ranking and weapon skins have us eager to return to the grind, which is saying a lot, having already spent over 20 hours in the beta. It’s also important to remember that Black Ops 6 will also contain a hefty story campaign, as well as the return of the ever-popular zombies mode, offering even more FPS fun.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is currently scheduled for release on October 25, 2024, and will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC. Standard and “Vault” deluxe editions are available for purchase, and as mentioned, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play it on day one. Even if you’ve fallen off the Call of Duty train in recent years, we recommend that you check out Black Ops 6. The multiplayer beta was impressive, and at the very least, this is an exciting FPS with some exceptionally cool movement tech.
Short author bio:
Matt Owen
As a lifelong gamer and overall media fiend, Matt gets his hands on every new game and watches an unhealthy amount of movies and TV: action, horror, mystery, and sci-fi in particular. When not bingeing on entertainment, he enjoys reading and writing short stories, cooking, and producing video and podcast content.