The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is just around the corner, with the recent Closed and Open Betas for the title finally completing fans' early impressions of its campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies experiences. The core multiplayer for the title is a particular point of interest, introducing a wide variety of new mechanics that offer a different feel to what fans have become accustomed to throughout the recently rebooted Modern Warfare titles.
While many of these changes for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 involve the movement mechanics for the game, there are a few brand-new perks, killstreaks, and field upgrades to complement the title's unique weapons and equipment. One field upgrade in particular, Sleeper Agent, is the center of a lot of debate following the trial-run of Black Ops 6's multiplayer, and despite its unusual premise, it injects the game with a level of fun and unpredictability that Call of Duty desperately needs.
Call of Duty has become renowned for the high-octane nature of its core multiplayer experience in more recent years, with the franchise leaning further into mechanics like faster movement and gunplay. This seems to have only grown with the multiplayer of Black Ops 6, with the recent Beta events for the title giving fans a great glimpse into the pacing and fresh feel of the game.
While Black Ops 6 has tried to take things back to basics with other modes like Zombies, as seen with its decision to focus more on traditional round-based gameplay, it seems that the core multiplayer of the release is aiming to take a lot of brand-new creative liberties. This is most evident in the new Omnimovement system for Black Ops 6, which allows for sprinting and diving in any direction, evolving CoD's identity as a movement shooter even further.
The amount of attention being placed on movement still remains quite a controversial element of Call of Duty, however, with the playerbase being divided over how these new movement systems can be exploited and overpowering at higher levels. With the longstanding backdrop of other modern CoD elements such as skill-based matchmaking, the franchise has developed a reputation as hyper-competitive despite its fast-paced premise, but some fresh Black Ops 6 additions actually serve to counter this.
Players of the Black Ops 6 Beta were able to try out a brand-new field upgrade for the game, Sleeper Agent, which allows players to briefly disguise as an enemy, with successful kills extending its activation time. This adds an element of confusion and deception that is a perfect match for Black Ops 6's neck-break multiplayer speed, while allowing for some hilarious moments that bring back the more casual fun that past CoD games were known for.
While the unusual nature of this field upgrade has already drawn criticism, things like UAVs and gunfire will still alert enemies of an impostor, with the game announcer also alerting a team of a Sleeper Agent's presence. The concept of Sleeper Agent also fits perfectly into the wider themes of the Black Ops franchise, making the field upgrade feel like a logical inclusion and not just a gimmick that has only been introduced to shake things up. Of course, CoD has to remain balanced and competitive at its core, but mechanics like Sleeper Agent do very well to add exciting gameplay elements that are entirely removed from the likes of movement and meta weapon builds.
Over the last couple of COD releases, Activision has served up a campaign early access period for pre-orders, but that will not be the case for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. In a statement provided to CharlieIntel, the Xbox developer says it "is fully focused on October 25th" as the team opts for a one-date launch for all aspects of this year's COD game.
Given that we've not heard any rumblings of campaign early access in recent weeks, we're not totally surprised by this, but it's nice to have some sort of confirmation nonetheless. Here's the team's full statement:
"The team is fully focused on October 25th. We are excited about all the game has to offer across Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies. This year, we made the decision to ensure the community gets to dig in to any and all modes that they want at the same time, so we are back to one massive global launch moment October 25th. As such, there is no Early Access beat this year for Black Ops 6, just the countdown to launch."
Speaking of early access to the game, a massive two-weekend beta just wrapped up for the multiplayer portion of Black Ops 6 - a beta that developer Treyarch now says is "the biggest Call of Duty beta ever". We're not surprised by that, given that the whole thing was playable on Xbox Game Pass; even the early access portion.
If you'd like to read up on our thoughts on this multiplayer beta, feel free to check out the link below, and in the meantime, eager COD fans will have to wait until October 25th to play Black Ops 6 once again.
Black Ops 6 Beta - A Look at the New Features
As a long time player of the Call of Duty series, I am always excited to find out what the latest title has to offer. It’s great that Activision lets players dive into the multiplayer action for a few weekends and then uses that feedback to improve their games before they officially launch them. So, let’s see what the Black Ops 6 beta has to offer those who enjoy multiplayer, and how everything differs from Modern Warfare III.
Gameplay & Mechanics
The gameplay hasn’t changed in any extreme manner from last year’s Modern Warfare III. There are still changes and I’ll be sure to cover them here, but know that at least in terms of the beta, not everything is a really positive change. That is to be expected in a beta, so hopefully many of the problems will be fixed before the final rollout.
Let’s start with some really good changes that should have gamers excited to try out Black Ops 6 once the full game releases. One huge new advantage is that every player now has the ability to equip a knife in addition to a secondary weapon. Because melee weapons offer one hit kills, and the fact that you can easily get to your knife by holding down the melee button, this can be a perfect go-to move whenever you close with an enemy. Players who like fast movement or maybe stealth should get a lot of use out equipping a knife.
And those who master movement will also undoubtedly be able to make better use of that knife, which brings us to the new and revolutionary Omni-movement system. That is a really good change as it really does make the gameplay different. Those who are really skilled with mouse and keyboard player sprinting, or with sliding or diving in any direction will be able to really give themselves an advantage in combat.
It’s a good new feature but frankly being able to dive to the right or left won’t matter much to most players in multiplayer because doing so makes it incredibly hard to shoot. That said, those who really master keyboard and mouse gameplay, like elite e-sports teams, will surely turn this into a superpower in multiplayer matches. It will be interesting to see just how big of an impact this will have outside of those professional competitions, or once we get access to the single-player campaign.
One of the more questionable changes in the beta that’s at the top of my list is how the guns are configured and used. For example, the Tac-Stance, or Tactical Stance, is no longer an option for any gun without specific laser attachments, which is a really bad decision. Tac-Stance was a great middle ground between the modern aiming down the sights required for any real accuracy that most FPS use these days compared with the purely firing from the hip method used in titles like Halo. So, this change seems unnecessary given that the Tac-Stance was already pretty unique for the Call of Duty series.
In general, all of the guns in the beta seemed just a little bit off from Modern Warfare III. They were not quite as smooth and seemed to be pretty nerfed in terms of damage. Maybe because players could not mod their guns much in the beta, it made them seem underpowered. However, while most weapon mod benefits we could access were somewhat nerfed, there were little to no downsides to most of those mod attachments, so that kind of balanced things. You won’t get any major benefits from those mods, but also no drawbacks from using them. Given that, there is no reason not to mod even though it probably won’t be too game-changing.
Another issue I had with the mods and attachments is the amount of utter tedium we had to endure to unlock every gun’s full attachment list because most guns now have nearly doubled the level requirements. For example, the basic assault rifle has more than 40 levels compared to the 27 we saw in the previous title. That’s a lot of grinding if things don’t change post-beta.
New Game Modes
But overall, Black Ops 6 still is a Call of Duty game, so there’s still plenty of things players will surely enjoy. I for one enjoyed the new Kill Order game mode I played on day 3 of the first weekend of the beta. It’s a mode where each team has a player that becomes the VIP (HVT or high value target) and you are tasked with going after them. Where it differs compared to other similar modes is that eliminating the VIP is only worth a few more points towards your victory versus other team members. The person designated as the HVT does get some perks to help out, which is nice. For example, they gain the automatic ability to be downed rather than dying immediately, so theoretically a skilled team could prevent extra points slipping away by helping to revive their VIP.
Final Thoughts
In total, the beta did a good job of showing players some of the new changes they can expect from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. For me, I was honestly more excited about Modern Warfare III following the really excellent beta testing of that title, which turned out to be a great indication of a stellar game. The beta for Black Ops 6 was a bit less polished, although it did demonstrate some of the new and unique features in action. Perhaps it has a bigger hill to climb to match Modern Warfare III, but it definitely has a shot at achieving that level of greatness with a few key changes from the beta. And I am very much looking forward to how it all plays out after the October launch.
Is the Lack of Campaign Early Access a Bad Thing?
While the lack of a campaign early access might seem like a bummer for some, it could actually be a good thing for the game's overall launch. By releasing all aspects of the game on the same date, Activision might be aiming for a bigger bang, attracting more players from day one and making the launch day experience more lively and engaging.
This approach also eliminates the potential for the game's campaign to get overshadowed by the multiplayer, as players who might have only been interested in the campaign would have already experienced it before the multiplayer launched. By releasing everything at once, Activision is essentially ensuring that all aspects of the game get equal attention and can thrive together.
Ultimately, the lack of campaign early access could potentially benefit both the players and the game itself, creating a more unified and exciting launch for Black Ops 6.
