Black Ops 6: Omni Movement – Revolutionizing Gameplay

HHere’s a fact I’m not entirely proud of: I’ve played every Call of Duty game since the series launched in 2003. I’ve experienced the very good (Call of Duty 4) and the very not so good (Call of Duty: Roads to Victory). There have been times when I was put off by narrative decisions, the mindless bigotry pervasive in online multiplayer servers, and the series-wide “America is the best!” mentality, but I’ve always come back to the games.

In that time, I’ve seen a lot of attempts to tweak the core feel of the game, from perks to jetpacks (thanks, Advanced Warfare!), but after spending a weekend testing the multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, I think developer Treyarch may have stumbled upon their best thing yet: something called Omni-Movement.

In essence, this seemingly minor addition allows players to sprint and dive in any direction, not just forward, and also allows for a degree of aftertouch, so you can glide around corners and change direction in the air. Being able to run sideways and jump backwards over couches isn’t all that important in a fast-paced game anyway, but this seems to have really changed the game. The beta test only features three of the full version’s 16 online multiplayer maps and a small selection of online game modes, but it’s already ridiculously fun.

There are always people flying around during the game. AnywhereIn the Skyline map, players dive through windows, run across hallways, and leap off the balconies of a ridiculously luxurious modern penthouse. In the Rewind map, they slide on their backs across the polished floors of a video rental store, pounce on each other from various heights, and dodge gunfire and remote-controlled bomb cars at the last moment. At critical moments, it feels like a giant John Woo shootout, with equal parts balletic choreography and bloodshed.

But rather than feeling chaotic and unbalanced like jetpack-era titles Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare, it actually seems to bring more depth and variety to the moment-to-moment experience. The ability to slip under gunfire gives you a way out of encounters that were previously deadly, and it also lets you move very quickly to different cover positions, which is extremely useful in modes like Domination and Hardpoint, where you have to capture and defend specific areas. I like the longer durations between spawns, which allows you to think in more spatially interesting ways.

Why did it take so long? A recent interview with gaming site VGCTreyarch associate design director Matt Scronce and production director Yale Miller said the game’s unusual four-year development cycle (CoD games are typically two-years max) allowed the team to experiment with fundamental elements and refine new features. Omni Movement was born out of that process; the team even read a white paper from the Air Force Academy about how fast a human could run backwards.

Otherwise, the game feels more solid than innovative. Skyline is the most fun map, with sleek multi-storey interiors and hidden ventilation ducts, while Squad is a standard Middle Eastern CoD map with sandy trenches, caves and a destroyed radar station. Rewind is a deserted shopping mall with store interiors, fast food joints, parking lots and extremely long sightlines along storefronts that could be called Sniper’s Avenue. The new game mode, Kill Order, is a familiar old-school FPS staple. One player on each team is designated as a high-value target, and the opponent must eliminate that target to score. This leads to very dense skirmishes and a ton of chases around the map, with HVTs trying to hide in little nooks and crannies. It’s like a Benny Hill sketch, but with high-end military weaponry.

There are also some new weapons, such as the Ames 85, a fully automatic assault rifle similar to the M16, and the Crazy Jackal PDW, a small Scorpion-esque machine pistol like the ones Ernie used in 1980s action movies. The latter has an incredible rate of fire, but is also highly accurate at long range, making it a devastating force in beta matches. It will most likely be significantly nerfed before the game is released. Perhaps the most controversial addition is the body shield. This is a new ability that allows you to sneak up behind an enemy player and take them hostage by double tapping the melee attack button. The victim can then be used as a human shield for a few seconds, and Treyarch says you’ll be able to actually talk to the hostage via the headset’s microphone. This will inevitably lead to the most offensive homophobic trolling imaginable. It’s exactly what Call of Duty needs.

Black Ops 6 looks set to be a strong addition to the series, at least in terms of multiplayer. I’m not proud of the fact that I spent an entire weekend happily recreating my favorite scenes from Hard Boiled, darting sideways through modern interiors and firing shiny fetish rifles at strangers. But I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and for some reason, I have no plans to stop just yet.