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The Call of Duty Beta Has Turned Me Into a Knee-Shooting Maniac - And I Can't Go Back to Modern Warfare

Friday, September 6, 2024
It's been over a decade since dolphin diving was introduced in Call of Duty, and I've often wondered if it's done more harm than good. The urge to do something impulsively is usually stronger than waiting for the right moment. Hold a corner? Move quietly? Sure, great ideas if you care about trivial things like winning, but completely incompatible with my overwhelming impulse to flop prone in any situation. For every successful dolphin dive through enemy fire to capture a point, I've also flopped around corners and been riddled with bullets for my trouble. It's a habit I've been trying to curb for the last year, but playing the Black Ops 6 beta has tested my resolve like nothing else. Thanks to omnimovement – which boils down to being able to dive, slide, or sprint in any direction – I've completely submitted to my stupidest compulsion. Despite my obsession with diving and sliding, I've been very apprehensive of omnimovement. Partly because I don't trust myself to show some restraint, but largely because I struggle to keep up with Call of Duty when it gets too fast. I abandoned the series in favor of Battlefield when thrust jumps and jetpacks entered the equation, and didn't return until 2021's Vanguard. After spending a few days with Black Ops 6's beta, it's true that its pacing is lightning fast compared to last year's Modern Warfare – not so much in time-to-kill, which seems only a little quicker than usual, but because of the breakneck pace everyone moves at. Yet rather than it being overwhelming, it's such a blast that I've spent the entire beta eagerly trying to perfect my movement. Yes, you can smoothly slide from cover to cover, shooting all the while, but actually making it work is another matter. That mobility comes with big tradeoffs – heavy aim penalties mean you'll struggle to hit any target that isn't in near-touching distance while sliding or diving, and trying to shoot while moving that quickly is a feat in itself. But when you manage to slide around a corner and gun down two opponents before they have a chance to look down, it feels phenomenal. On the other side of things, shootouts are less predictable because whoever you're firing at can now throw themselves virtually anywhere. Even when I've tried to actively avoid flinging myself around as much, it's still much harder to hold a position or even stay alive for very long – the angles you're fighting from change very quickly, rewarding players that chase down kills and stay mobile over ones who prefer to hunker down and play reactively.
It's as chaotic as it sounds, but part of that will be due to the new-ness of everything. Each map flows weirdly right now, as in tandem with players sliding around at blinding speeds, nobody really knows where they're going. It doesn't help that they're quite dense. Skylight, for example, is a rooftop apartment complete with vents and a panic room to crawl around in. It's a small map, but verticality and massive windows in nearly every room make it hard to predict where you'll be attacked from. My personal favorite map is Rewind, a '90s shopping plaza complete with a shiny vinyl-floored video rental store. Besides its brilliant aesthetic, it's got a nice blend of open lanes and tight interiors, meaning it's perfect for trying out a wider range of the best Black Ops 6 loadouts. Speaking of which: It's all SMGs right now. As it stands, the Jackal PDW is so far ahead of the pack that it's barely a competition. That being said, the assault rifles on offer feel a million times better than the majority of Modern Warfare – the XM4 is light and snappy, while the AK-47, though dire at long range, will tear through people like paper when you inevitably careen into them at knee-height. There are areas I don't dig as much. I'm still on the fence as to whether time-to-kill is too fast, and worry that sniping as a playstyle will be doomed if these dominant SMGs and hyper-mobile tactics prove to be an accurate glimpse into the future. Neither am I sold on the deliberately messy flow of each map, but that may be a bit more palatable if those we're yet to play offer a bit more variety. But as a whole, Black Ops 6 feels damn good to play. In fact, a little too good: after slipping and sliding to my heart's content, Modern Warfare now feels too stiff in comparison. I'd love nothing more than to swoosh down the big chute on Rust like a big rusty waterslide, but rather than return to the last game, I'll probably play the ongoing beta to death then abstain from all things Call of Duty until launch. I'm very keen to see how the full game shapes up – and if Black Ops 6 zombies lets us slide-tackle the undead, you'll have to pry me away from the keyboard.

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