Black Ops 6 is going to release soon and I wanted to get some first impressions from the multiplayer beta for our readers. Pretty funny that I’m doing another first impressions article so soon, but that’s just how packed this time of year can be for game releases. I personally haven’t played Call of Duty regularly since Modern Warfare (2019), which was five years ago and makes me feel really old. BO6 is a pretty hyped game, the community is hoping that this will redeem COD from the overwhelmingly negative sentiment of last year’s release. They are also excited because this game presumably had a much cleaner development cycle than the last Black Ops entry due to not being interrupted by COVID.
Jumping right in, the big selling point of the game is “omnimovement”. That means you can run, slide, or dive in any direction. As weird as it sounds, you can run moving left, right, or even backwards. You can also turn 360 degrees during slides and dives, so imagine diving towards the right but spinning backwards. As cool as it looks, omnimovement doesn’t really seem that impactful for now. It’s hard to take advantage of all these movement options mid-battle due to tactical sprint being a thing (delay in having your gun ready after sprinting). This means that lightweight and fast firing weapons like SMGS are the only weapons that really compliment the system due to these weapons going the fastest from sprinting to being ready so you actually have time to pull off some moves. Their fast fire rate also means that you can kill someone mid movement or quickly after. I tried to use a LMG and a slower fire rate AR, but they were too clunky. Either I wouldn’t be prepared for a fight due to the readying taking forever, or I would do something like a sideways dive and it wouldn’t kill the enemy fast enough and leave me in a vulnerable position. Despite not getting much use out of it in combat I do think that it creates a good mixture between the slower pace of older titles while giving us some of the movement we had during the jetpack era of the series. (A note to readers, I believe that there were perks that alleviated some of the woes of omnimovement but I didn’t really get a chance to play with them).
All the weapons that I used during the beta feel good from an immersion perspective as they sound really powerful and look good when being shot. Gameplay wise I am glad to report that the weapons you start with are actually pretty solid. The XM4 assault rifle felt like the most well-rounded weapon in the game having low recoil and a fast fire rate but not crazy damage (very much like the MTAR to my Black Ops 2 fans). The C9 (first SMG) and Marine SP (first shotgun) felt balanced as they melted people up close but struggled with anything further than that. The SVD felt good with its ability to take down opponents with one shot to the upper body. Unfortunately the slower fire rate weapons like the LMG and the Swat 5.56 burst rifle felt like they didn’t do enough damage to compensate for their slow speed and their inability to take advantage of omnimovement.
Then there is also the new body shield mechanic where you sneak up behind someone and have the option to capture them and use them as a body shield for a certain amount of time. While covered, you are still able to shoot and can choose to execute them quickly or through a violent and drawn out animation. You can also talk to them through in-game voice chat. While it can be a cool move to pull off, I feel like that it was the wrong call to include this feature as it introduces too much toxicity. It feels horrible to be on the receiving end and isn’t that useful if you’re the one grabbing them. I think modern games miss the point of what made the executions from the Battlefield series special, as in those games, executions were simply a quick stab and taking their dog tags. It was cool to do in quick succession to multiple enemies and efficient. The dog tags gave some added depth as you would build up a collection of other people’s dog tags and could even use them yourself.
Moving on to some brief commentary on various aspects of the game, scorestreaks resetting upon death felt good as it reduced the crazy levels of spam from past games. Another nice change is the return of map votes, getting to choose what map you play on next is always nice. The new gamemode Kill Order makes one person on each team a VIP that builds up points for their team for as long as they are alive. Once they are killed, a new player becomes a VIP. It could be really fun but I hope when it releases it doesn’t just devolve into both teams camping and neither moving to attack.
Now to some things that I did not enjoy about the beta. The first is the sleeper agent field upgrade which lets you disguise yourself as someone on the enemy team. It created way too much anxiety in a game that was already pretty fast-paced as you have to worry about getting gunned down by someone you think is your teammate. This ability was way too powerful and I believe it should be a scorestreak rather than a field upgrade. Another thing I did not enjoy about the game is the spawns, it felt like they were switched too easily. As soon as you started taking ground on the enemies turf, the spawns would start swapping and you’d get shot from the back. I’m sure they can adjust spawn issues by launch though. Then another is that the maps in general felt too open as it didn’t feel like there was enough cover. There were too many stretches of openness to cross to get somewhere, which left you very vulnerable.
And finally moving to a spiritual connection, since this is a multiplayer beta, there isn’t really much story to commentate on yet but I’ll go out on a limb and say that just like the omnimovement we should always be on the move towards God. In the gospels Jesus always talks about having a spirit of alertness to the things of God. Bishop Barron says that we should be like Mary, quick to answer the call of God, such as when she went to visit her cousin Elizebeth to help her in her old age. We always want to be ready for God because we will never know when our time is up. Consider the words of our Lord in Matthew 25:13 when he says “therefore keep watch because you know neither the day or hour”.
Scoring: 70%
Gameplay: 3/5
Art and Graphics: 3/5
Music/SFX 4/5
Controls: 4/5 (Played on a controller)
Morality/Parental Warnings
Violence: The game features you shooting real looking weapons at other players. When someone is shot they scream and have a decent amount of blood come out of them. The new body shield mechanic could be seen as a glorification of violence as you use another person to take shots for you and can trash talk to them through in-game voice chat. There are also executions which are drawn out ways to violently kill someone. The ESRB description for the game states that there are weapons that can cause others to explode into “chunks of flesh” but I don’t personally remember there being any though (there will be in the zombies mode when the game fully releases).
Sex/Nudity: All the characters you can play as are all modestly dressed given they are soldiers but there might be more revealing skins at launch. The ESRB description states that there will be player banners and icons for your in-game profile that feature sexualization.
Drugs: Some player banners or icons might contain glorification of substances such as marijuana.
Language: The game has a fair amount of foul language from the characters you play as. There is also in-game chat so you might hear people say some really mean things to you.
Wrath: As I warn in my other shooter reviews, be careful playing this if you struggle with anger. You’re going to lose a lot and if you feel you can’t handle that, you should probably stay away. You might get driven to hatred of people on the enemy team.
