Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the 21st installment in the Call of Duty series. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is codenamed “Cerberus.” Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is more or less a prequel and/or sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Black Ops 6 was known as “Gulf War” before the official announcement was made. All the leaks were calling the game “Gulf War,” because that’s where the storyline takes place. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is scheduled to be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S & X, and PC via Steam & Battle.net on October 25, 2024.

I have reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I have gotten my hands on impression of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Multiplayer Open Beta. I reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. I went hands on with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Open Beta. Today, I’ll talk about my first impressions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 with my playthrough of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Beta. I’m playing the PlayStation 5 version of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Beta.

Gameplay

For the most part, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 plays like a fast-moving first person shooter, akin to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Many players dislike Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II from 2022 for how much different it is from every other Call of Duty title, including the speed. You’d be hard pressed to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and have any kind of fun.

I’ll talk about omnimovement in the “Controls” section. Again, for the most part, gameplay is similar to previous games. Your movement around the map is smoother now, you can go backwards, you can go sideways, you can – and it’s because of Omnimovement. The strafing around the map has been part of Call of Duty for years, but this has been smoothened out. The biggest innovation from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the ability to go up behind a player and hold them hostage. I have experienced this from both sides. I’ve held players up, and I’ve been held up by player(s). You can speak to the player holding you, and/or the player can talk to you, too.

Controls

For the most part, controls are similar to previous games, and familiar to returning Call of Duty players. With Omnimovement, Treyarch – who is the lead developer on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – polished the controls for Omnimovement over the last 4 years of development (not my words, it’s Activision’s official communication.) While I was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 for the first time, I tried out the Omnimovement first before everything else. Embedded below is my first Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in the training mode.

[This is just the training mode. The rest of the gameplay can be seen in a playlist.]

Okay, so as polished as Omnimovement is, there are problems with Omnimovement. Strafing left and right is smooth, and easily controlled, but …but, when you are about to jump sideways, or dive sideways, it feels clunky. It feels less than polished. For example, I moved my analogue stick to the right, and holding the button, too – to activate the Omni jumps, or Omni dives. It doesn’t activate like intended. Or maybe I’m missing something.

My favorite moment of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Open Beta, is when I dived, and stayed in laying on your back position like an action hero of the 1990’s. Yes, you can play “dead” in Black Ops 6. People in the match will assume you “died.” I enjoyed this position, it immerses you into the game like an action star.

Graphics

I played Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on PlayStation 5. I think that for the most part, the graphics are nice for what it offers. I’m sorry, but as it sits, in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Beta, Black Ops 6 is not the showcase title for next generation consoles. The campaign may have better graphics than multiplayer, but I gotta be honest – multiplayer has never been the highlight from graphical standpoint. That said, the best map in the game to showcase the graphics of Black Ops 6 is “Skyline.”

Online Connectivity

The online connection to servers is more or less good or bad. It’s spotty at best. I was able to play a lot of the beta on the 2nd weekend, but that’s not to say there aren’t issues. There’s the usual lag spikes, lagging issues, weird, oddball glitches here and there. There are some hit detection issues, but issues that can be pushed to the side. I’ll explain more in “Misc Feedback.”

Music & Sound

Music loops throughout the beta, as per usual. It’s basically techno music, mixed with some kind of epic music, I guess. But sounds are pretty cool, loud, punchy, and whatnot. I think that campaign is where the music and sound will shine the best.

Misc Feedback

Let me start off with the good news first: The User Interface is a huge improvement of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. No more complicated menus as you load up the game. Black Ops 6’s menus are reminiscent of the old Call of Duty menus. The bad news? There is STILL an algorithm in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. And it’s obvious as you play the game. The lag spikes, and the hit detection are small and big details that are part of the issue with the algorithm known as EOMM/SBMM. EOMM is known as “Engagement Optimized Matchmaking,” and SBMM is known as “Skill Based Matchmaking.” Both are different algorithms that interchange mechanics to resolve the end result of that mechanic. When we’re talking about EOMM, we’re also talking about SBMM. Activision is stubborn on this, and will not change.

The thing is, these algorithm is activated during matchmaking menu, and follows you throughout the Call of Duty servers. The algorithm is watching you as you play the game. In fact, as a test, Activision released a new patch update that was pretty controversial. Modern Warfare III received an update that deals with texture streaming – in the new Modern Warfare III Season 5 Reloaded update, you can no longer turn off texture streaming. You are given two options – Optimized, or Minimal. In Activision’s implementation of texture streaming, when you load a match, when the game loads all the assets in the game, it manifests the minimum texture of the game for the time being until it manifests the real texture. That’s just one example of a computer trying to do something in the game itself. In 2019’s Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward introduced their “Netcode” algorithm. This is more of the server-side algorithm. With the Predictive “Netcode,” the server predicts what you’re going to do in that particular server. This is not disputed. It was explained by Infinity Ward in a uploaded video to YouTube for the sole purpose of explaining what these predictive matches do. That’s three systems running in the background as you play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III currently. This is not going to change with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. I think the lag spikes and other glaring issues in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Multiplayer Beta is from all of these algorithms running at the same time. This goes double on previous generation consoles (PlayStation 4/Xbox One).

During the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Beta, I saw a lot of “Black Screen of Death.” When this happens, the screen is obviously black, but I can use the controller as usual. I can shoot the weapon, and the sounds would manifest. If I click off, by pressing the “option” button on the PlayStation 5 console. The “social” menu, is brought up, and you can see it. Each time, I do, I can leave the match. I don’t know if Activision fixed this issue, and if they don’t… “Black Screen of Death” is going to be a pop culture meme or at least viral.

Replay Value

If you love first person shooters, then you will get a lot of replay value out of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. However, to add to this replay value, Treyarch designed most of the multiplayer beta maps to be small maps for a 6v6 match. It continues this arcade streak for Call of Duty, and I applaud it. I also applaud the new innovation(s) introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 that adds to the gameplay. The only thing that ruins the replay value is like I mentioned before; SBMM.

In Conclusion

The arcade Call of Duty gameplay fans loved is back, and with a polished innovation that converts Call of Duty into an action first person shooter game. The controls are smooth, and responsive to your action. You can walk or run to your designation without hinderance. Omnimovement is an innovation that is flawed in implementation, but in practice, there are some fitting ideas. Being able to “play dead” by jumping on your back like an action hero is a really cool mechanic in a Video Game. However, Omnimovement for other mechanics is clunky, like the ability to jump to your side or to dive to the side. The online connectivity is marred by the usual lag issues, the flickering, glitches, and frame skipping. It would have been solved if Activision would just remove SBMM, but they won’t. Will the final game be the saving grace for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6? I guess we’ll have to see on October 25, 2024.