Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta

With the hype building at pace the latest iteration of Call of Duty will be with us October 25th and the lead up to the release has been one of the most hotly anticipated in years. After a few years of underwhelming titles BO6 looks to break the mould with more fluid movement, classic Treyarch map styling and improved weapon mechanics.

As has become the norm with CoD releases, players can access a pre-release beta, a limited version of the full product. Given four days to trial BO6 over the final weekend of August, the beta can be a base snapshot of what the next year can bring.

Omni movement

The big new bauble on the Codmas tree is omni movement, movement has been an issue in previous versions being either too stiff or with practise easy to exploit. Omni movement promises to maintain a reasonable skill gap while having fluid movement like Titanfall. In practise omni movement combines several elements seen separately in previous versions of CoD, the dropshot, the dolphin dive and a perk that allowed a player to slide around on his posterior post death for a short period of time called martyrdom (or the way you die in Warzone!). These three individual moves now amalgamated create a smooth, fun play style. This is something of a game changer particularly for sub-machinegun players who now have a distinct advantage with the lighter class set. Omni movement would give fun opportunities for longer or more unusual gunfights if the time to kill was a little longer. The beta TTK is very quick and if you are using the incredibly overpowered SMG “Jackal” you will be melting opponents.

The Guns

With a limited array of each gun to choose from, judgement may have to be reserved, however, there is one major talking point in the form of the SMG “Jackal”. Its already quick ADS (Aim down sights) speed and it’s vertical and horizontal stability, and the ability to kill over medium to long distances have made it a clear favourite of the beta. Lobbies are almost wall to wall Jackal. Never has a beta been quite as sweaty (everyone trying very hard) as the BO6 beta. Six stacks (six friends in the same lobby), all communicating, all using the Jackal, pre-firing corners and camping “god headies” (unplayable cover) has been the experience so far. The skill-based matchmaking (sbmm) is also very strong, meaning you will be placed in lobbies filled with players with very similar capabilities. To the outsider this may seem fair or ideal but trust me this can become very tiresome very quickly. When you are having to have competition-level concentration playing public matches the game can become boring quickly, especially as you get older where time and concentration are in inverse proportion. Because of the power of the Jackal it’s difficult to assess the worthiness of the other popular guns. Assault rifles just can’t compete presently, sniper rifles great over distance (who would have thought) but the popular practise of quick-scoping is compounded by the melting nature of the Jackal. I haven’t used a shotgun in any version of call of duty and I never will.

The Maps

Derelict

Probably my favourite map. Derelict is based around an abandoned railyard filled with decomposing rolling stock and a station house. It’s a tight fast paced map, heavy on interactions with plenty of scope for close quarter fighting, there are elevated sections, trains that can be climbed and a second floor to the station house. This map is difficult if you are a slower more methodical player, with little to no medium to long range sightlines at ground level ARs and snipers are more hampered on this map than the other three.

Scud

Second up, my least favourite of the available maps is the Numa Numa (I still have fevered nightmares of this map) of the beta. A squarish mish mash of buildings and a large off centre Satellite dish, leave this map with little focal point. The outlying buildings are non-descript and unless given an objective are often ignored. Most of the fighting tends around the upper and lower levels of the satellite dish as on the upper platform there is a very powerful birds-nest with sight lines across 60% of the map. While this gives a small advantage to the ARs and snipers there are covered routes that allow players to access the lower satellite area, this is what leads to most fights happening in and around the dish.

Rewind

An 80s themed outlet with a run of shops from a VHS store to a burger joint. This is a relatively well-balanced map even on non-objective based game modes like TDM. It’s a classic three Treyarch three lane map. The outer loading bay lane with containers and trucks gives snipers and ARs the chance to shine with the long lines of sight. The SMG thirst for close quarter combat is cured with the central run of a large VHS store. The inner lane being the car park/burger area which again satiates the AR/Sniper combo. This map is very good for TDM but I found Hardpoint had two really difficult “money hills” to break down against even mediocre opposition.

Skyline

Skyline is objectively the most balanced map. With multiple levels, vents, distinctive areas and open and closed lanes, Skyline is the only map from the pool of maps which could be used for competitive Call of Duty. Both ARs and SMGs can prosper although while the Jackal remains heavily overpowered the game is always at an imbalance. The make up of the map is more about levels than lanes and works really well, fighting tends to focus across three areas, the kitchen, the pool and the cat-walk. The map works great for objective game modes where the focus gives smart players a chance to prosper. Non-objective game modes play with the chaotic nature we have come to expect but suffer a little more on skyline due to its size and complexity.

The new addition to the game modes, Kill Order, sees a player from each team become a High Value Target, HVT. If you kill the HVT you get extra points that go towards an overall score and if you are the HVT (the role rotates as players die and respawn) you get extra points for both staying alive and killing opponents. The HVT gets armour plating and a moment of martyrdom (the perk, or the way you bleed out in warzone for the newer players) when killed, the HVT can be revived during this process.

Overall, the beta feels promising, Call of Duty has suffered due to its size and scope, with five distinct areas to accommodate, public multiplayer, ranked play, Zombies, a campaign mode and Warzone. The you have the competitive vs casual element to consider and this with Treyarch theatre mode make this franchise a heavy one to get right and there will always be a vocal element that can’t be satisfied. The beta is promising but there are still no jetpacks so boo.