You all wanted a new Call Of Duty, and I mean a new one, not a freaking yearly sequel. Yes, Black Ops 6 beta has arrived, and boy I hate the fact that I had to use the COD launcher, wait for a bit before launching the main game. Who thought this was a good idea?
Now for MW fans that are expecting fine-tuned mechanics, and hyper paced combat, not every aspect of that is here. But yeah, it's similar to those games but with the ability to dodge like a 90s action hero. Bad Boys, The Rock, Matrix? Yeah, a mechanic references so many action film cheese. It's yet telling if it's a gimmick or deployment truly changes the outcome of every encounter.
There's still the level of fluidity of the gunplay, like it makes the newly introduced mechanics not only work but fun to experiment and screw around with. I like the changes brought into the new BO entry, it's still a fun game to try. But obviously, trying something doesn't always net great results.
One of the things I wish they fixed after Microsoft merger, is the launcher, find another way to launch the BO6 title without the need for Call Of Duty app for Steam. It takes a lot of my time loading up, and for some reason, in the process, I've dealt with bugs I should have with.
Then there's the license agreements, code of conduct, and we're in. P.S: if game does crash, just validate the files and check if it works again. After getting it to start, I picked Moshpit which features Team Deathmatch, Kill Order, and the Face Off variants of those. For those who don't know, Face Off means smaller maps for quicker playtimes. They're very hectic.
If there's one reason I played a CoD game, it's because of how the shooting feels. One of the earliest FPS to release in the years, it didn't evolve much till 2019. That's when the franchise had changed drastically. Heck, I played the absolute hell out of Warzone during the pandemic.
Treyarch didn't make the best of it afterward, I wasn't super into Cold War. But it seems that could change with BO6. To start with, is the heavily promoted feature; Omnimovement. Diving basically, just sprint, and press the prone button to dive around anywhere. This works great due to its flexibility, aiming anywhere while just laying on the ground. The character animation reciprocates.
Alas, sliding is also here, and getting to adjust aim to anyone around 1–2 feet close is insanely hard, leaving me closer to death. Which is still kind of an issue with CoD in general, but it's like the game is super balanced to make sure you don't die super easy. You will, there's a lot going on. Diving into glass ceilings, holes, straight flanking enemies, like it's easy to spam all this. I played XDefiant, and I thought the bunny hovering was bad, slip sliding, jumping, and diving. Insanity.
The respawn points are still mixed bags, especially in the Face Off modes. I died immediately after respawning because enemies were invading our zones quickly. Never easy to keep the KDA good enough. Also, guns sounds great, but on impact to body, sounds like I'm shooting a water balloon.
Arcade-ish nature to Treyarch's games are also well known trait when it comes to every CoD they make. But the real questions are does this work? Are the modes fun? Is there anything really standing out? Amazing gameplay? Worth putting time into? Yes, and no. It's hard to put it in words, since with various factors, people are going to be very picky. I don't think this is the big one.
That being said, I kind of had a blast. Gameplay is super flexible, in its frantic nature, it still allowed me try approaches to playstyles. Kill time is a tadbit higher, but for good reasons, and balancing can be done easily for the final product since there aren't much to pick up on. Also, objective based modes, teammates don't just go around shooting, by design we did cooperate.
There's a mode called Kill Order where teammates of both teams are picked as high value targets (HVT). They have increased health, and can be revived. Objective is to kill enemy HVT and make ours survive longer. Domination had worked out as well, we coordinated the crap out of it alright.
The other reason to CoD, are the weapons, of course, if you like shooting guns with unrealistically low recoil, then yeah. Yet there's something to be discerned about, and it's about its pick 12 system. No pick 10, which was perfect for all the prior games. Gunsmith on other hand, amazing though.
Gunsmith lets you do multiple builds per weapon, that's simple and best to use. What my issues with pick 12 is, I have 3 calling cards, and a wild card. Attachments, 5 for primary, 3 for secondary. It's great, especially a game that wants me to go way further with my playstyles, but it feels a little too cluttered the same time. Though, I'm willing to give this a second chance in launch.
All the maps are new, with some inspiration and borrowed designs from the old, but these were different. Saying that, though, not going to be the hallmark in every best map known in the series. These allow traversal, flanking, choke points, and multiple approaches for all various modes. I have heard people complaining about CoD maps before, this might change that stigma.
Gameplay features definitely should keep an eye on are Meatshields, and Sleeper Agents. Oh, these are fun alright, you know what, I take back what I said about gimmicks in here. I like the shotguns too, plenty damage. They're brutal. Killstreaks are less spammable as well.
But there's one thing that needs to be talked about, and it's the graphics engine. I'm seeing the same visual style since 2019. It hasn't changed much since. You're running on the latest gen consoles, and PCs, you can't even put a little bit RTX in there? I don't think this game runs terribly, like performance wise, it is superbly optimized. Only through close inspection, they look terribly dated.
If they want this to do well, bring the grit back. Don't make it super comical, don't try to fit into small demands. Let this be as dark as you can make it, I didn't get to play zombies. If that becomes the case, I'll definitely try it out. Plus, let me know about my sniper streak here.
I think the reason behind this is to make sure that the game is smooth across all platforms at launch. I mean they can buff up the graphics for PC but that would mean a lot more work and a lot of complaining from console players.
That aint going to happen. Activision/Blizzard are a full DEI company now. They wont do anything that is too risky because they are too afraid too. Its why the No Russian mission was cut from MW2 and instead of happening in an airport it happens on a plane through a 5-minute "mission".
This game runs on an old engine. Sure it's optimized, but when the issue is that the visual design doesn't look that different, it leads to being fundamental issues. Biggest AAA game, and not even the slightest RTX. Least do it for the single-player campaign.
Oh, we're cooking alright