One may argue that Call of Duty multiplayer feels so wonderful because of speed. As a franchise, the CoD games are excellent at putting you right into the action. Opponents usually fall quickly when you shoot them, and you can return to the battle in a split second after you die. Treyarch embraces the franchise’s speed in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in almost every way, from making significant changes to the movement systems to creating maps that ensure you’re never far from your next barrage of bullets. While those quick and fierce encounters are usually a lot of fun, Black Ops 6’s design tweaks also make it feel like there are fewer options for the types of combat you’ll likely encounter.
Call of Duty Gameplay
The Omni-movement system, the main change Black Ops 6 makes to the series, is a great one, at least in terms of how the game feels to play. The annoying inherent limits of a human leg pair are eliminated by omni-movement. Whatever direction you’re facing or where your momentum would lead you, you can run, sprint, slide, and dive. It’s similar to a tank turret’s independence from the vehicle underneath it in that it can spin in any direction to confront threats, but it’s faster and far more impressive.
An extremely high degree of fluidity is produced by omni-movement. It is simple to swiftly browse maps and turn to confront threats because you can travel at full speed in any direction at any time. The game never restricts your movement, and when combined with the speed at which an attacker can shut you down or shot you down if you react fast enough, Omni-movement is a great way to increase your total sensitivity. Omni-movement increases your range of motion in every situation, which enhances the twitchiness of this game, which is all about quick reflexes and precise aim.
The most enjoyable parts, however, are the diving and sliding. In addition to producing breathtakingly dramatic scenes where you totally surprise someone by swerving around a corner or belly-flopping over a railing, sliding and diving in any direction allows you to lie on the ground and target threats on either side of you in a manner that was previously unthinkable. Additionally, while the moves in Black Ops 6 are great whether you use them or they are used against you, they don’t usually make you indestructible or even very difficult to kill.
Since you are not Max Payne, you are as fragile as ever and will likely die before you touch the ground if you recklessly plunge through a doorway. Creative mobility is just another tool in your toolbox. Although omni-movement is a very video-game-like innovation to a first-person shooter, it is indisputable that it feels just as wonderful and fits in well with the gameplay of Call of Duty.
Drawbacks of this game
Omni-movement has a disadvantage, too, in that it has the potential to make Black Ops 6 an even more flop-heavy hop-fest than Call of Duty was before. If you’re like me, you may be wishing for the Call of Duty days when teamwork and the use of strategy and tactics seemed to be just as crucial to a multiplayer battle as having the twitchiest trigger finger and the most dependable hand for headshots. There will be moments when you’re in a match full of players flying through windows and around corners to blast you with shotguns.
Additionally, Black Ops 6’s map design tends to favor many of these fast-paced, close-range clashes. There are two types of maps: four smaller Strike maps for hectic 6-on-6 Face Off battles or 2-on-2 variants like Gun Game, and 12 normal maps that are larger and appear in your Quickplay and Hardcore game modes. You’re never far from an opponent because none of the 12 maps that appear in the majority of game variants are particularly big. They can also be traversed fast and efficiently, allowing you to rapidly back up teammates in a battle or run around for a flanking position.
Whether you’re navigating an abandoned factory or sneaking in and out of hangars containing stealth bombers, each one is unique and creative, offering a combination of interior and external settings as well as a decent bit of verticality.
Map Design
With a great deal of variation in how players may encounter each other and how you must approach a space to defeat an opponent, Black Ops 6’s map designs make the locations fascinating to battle in. There are usually pieces of debris or stacks of cargo that give you a height advantage or cut up lines of sight, thus spaces are rarely entirely open or level. This provides for many strategically fascinating confrontations. Maps usually lead you scuttling through rotting rail wagons, like in Derelict, or in and out of strip mall buildings, like in Rewind. It’s really uncommon to locate a sight line good enough to set up with a long-range weapon, like a sniper rifle.
This means that you need truly consider your opponents’ positions and their movements as you enter any given location, in addition to your own. You end up with a plethora of possible approaches to any given gunfight because there is rarely much symmetry or simple forms and there is always a lot of cover and flanking angles. Because of this, Black Ops 6’s maps are entertaining and engaging, offering a multitude of choices as opposed to a small number of lanes or focal points where all the action takes place.
Similar to mobility, Black Ops 6 adds a few significant changes to progression and loadouts that enhance the overall sense of playstyle choice in multiplayer. Because Black Ops 6 places a strong emphasis on cross-progression across all modes, you can always acquire anything no matter where you play. This makes it simple to rapidly accumulate a base of unique alternatives for various multiplayer gameplay strategies.
The game has some new Scorestreaks that provide entertaining possibilities for your rewards, such as the Watchdog helicopter that tags enemies and shoots at them, like a lethal unmanned aerial vehicle, and the guided Archangel missile that you may fire and then control to fly directly into enemies. You can select to add a specific gameplay change to your loadout, such as the ability to equip two primary weapons simultaneously or additional tactical equipment like flashbangs, thanks to the return of the Wildcard system from prior Black Ops titles.
Enforcer, Strategist, and Recon are the three categories into which perks fall. If you equip three of the same group, you will receive an additional benefit that complements the other perk types. Kills in Enforcer give you a temporary boost in health regeneration and movement speed; Strategists can see enemy deployables through walls and receive a bonus toward their Scorestreaks if they destroy enemy equipment or finish objectives; and Recon gives you the ability to see enemies through walls for a brief period of time when you spawn and removes the death skulls from players you kill from the minimap.
They all give you a way to customize your gameplay style and promote various ways of thinking about the advantages you bring to matches. The specialization maximizes your unique style of gameplay while giving you the impression that you’re playing a part on a team, especially when you’re going out with friends.
Conclusion
Black Ops 6 has a lot of minor tweaks that work well with the core Call of Duty concept without significantly altering it, such as omni-movement, level design, and additional loadout options. Playing with Black Ops 6’s new movement system creates some amazing action moments and heart-pounding gunfights, but those changes frequently do tend to favor one style of play over another—the bunny hopping, dolphin diving, and in-your-face aggressive approach.
Smaller battlefields and omni-movement tend to limit what can be done in Black Ops 6 multiplayer at times, but with well-designed maps, fast traversal, powerful weapons, and intriguing loadout options and rewards, the game’s strong points are still a lot of fun.
