The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer beta weekend is over, but I’m still a little shell-shocked from it. The sixth installment in the long-running Activision sub-franchise is faster than ever before, and full of players who have already gotten the brand-new omnimovement system down to a science, which means every match goes one of two ways: fun or frustrating. Luckily, most of my time spent playing Black Ops 6 this weekend was fun, though I worry that as more and more people get a chance to go hands-on with the shooter ahead of its October 25 release, the worst parts of Call of Duty multiplayer will take over.
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 multiplayer beta impressions
Ahead of the Black Ops 6 beta, everyone was geeking out over omnimovement, a brand new system developer Treyarch developed that allows players to move in a full 360 degrees at any time—sliding and diving in any direction, or rotating completely around while jumping off a ledge to fire off a few shots at an enemy on their tail (yes, like Max Payne). All of this is done without any involved or laborious animation, and trust me, you’ll notice how fast and seamless this is—after going through a quick tutorial on the movement system, I found myself sliding and diving all over my first match with ease, as if I’d been doing it for years. The fact that omnimovement feels naturally baked in already is a testament to Treyarch’s tremendous work—it’s hard to imagine any future Call of Duty game without it.
Unfortunately, omnimovement also means that the most annoying kinds of Call of Duty gamers are thriving. From the moment I booted up the beta (a day late as I was visiting family), those who had already spent 24 hours with it were absolutely waxing my ass, moving around with jerky, twitchy movements that are almost impossible to predict. Nearly every close-quarters firefight is a diving, sliding shoot-out, with players dropping prone or supine all over the map—it’s absolute chaos. If you just go with the flow, you’ll have a blast, but if you’re actively trying to get good at this game, prepare to be frustrated: nearly every match is full of some hyped-up teenage streamer flopping and jerking all over the map.
Though the Black Ops 6 beta only featured four maps, they offer a pretty clear picture of what to expect from the game when it launches in a month or so. Two of them got old pretty fast: Derelict, an abandoned, three-lane train yard that’s far too small; and Scud, a larger map set on a recently bombed military outpost that’s laid out real weird, making it hard to find enemies. But the other two maps, Skyline and Rewind, were a delight—I could play those two on an endless rotation and never get sick of them. Skyline is set on the rooftop of a resort, so there’s tons of breakable glass windows and nooks and crannies to explore, while Rewind is a strip mall straight out of Long Island, complete with several storefronts you can run through, the largest of which is an abandoned video store.
The four maps available during the limited beta showcase Call of Duty’s strengths and weaknesses: three-lane maps can get old fast if they’re too small, but more kitschy, innovative layouts and themes are a blast.
The last thing I noticed while playing the beta this weekend was the dangerous combination of features Black Ops 6 offers: proximity chat and a new ability to pick up downed players and use them as human shields. Five minutes into my first match, my operator’s body is picked up by an enemy player and repeatedly humped against a wall. Luckily, prox chat wasn’t on, so I didn’t have to listen to whatever sweet nothings they were undoubtedly shouting in their headset, but I got the point anyway. Activision does warn you that they’re recording voice chat ahead of every match, so hopefully this will dissuade bad actors, but any woman who has ever played an online multiplayer game knows you can’t stop assholes from being assholes.
Between the prox chat, human shields, and lightning fast movement that can easily be abused by high-level players and young kids hopped up on Baja Blasts, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 runs the risk of highlighting the worst aspects of the franchise. Though I enjoyed my time with it this weekend, I’m wary of how the experience will be when it launches in October—it could be too fast, too frenetic, too twitchy and toxic, or it could just be an absolute blast. We shall see.
Black Ops 6 drops on October 25 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. An open beta will take place from September 6 to 9.
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