I don’t play much Call Of Duty anymore. My feelings about the series have shifted from a smug anger at Pentagon-backed warmongering to a quieter, more regretful sense that maybe there are enough Call Of Duty games that it would be nice if we could just fill that famous late October/early November release window with, I dunno, games about witches, or maybe make it a bank holiday and spend the week lying on a mattress staring at the ceiling. Still: I’ve skinned and filleted enough COD in my time that I know Black Ops 6’s new “omnimovement” system will ruffle as many feathers as it soothes. The short version is that it turns you into Max Payne.
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As the clunky moniker suggests, omnimovement is all about 360-degree responsiveness. It lets you run, dive, and slide in any direction when a shell casing is dropped, and it also lets you turn freely while prone. It's alongside some new assists – you can set your character to automatically mantle and run, and there's a new “corner-cutting” trick that lets you automatically peek around surfaces while aiming.
The idea, Activision claims, is to make the game look and feel more “fluid,” rather than just speeding up the pace. “With Omnimovement, it was never about just doing things fast,” associate design director Matt Scronce told Comicbook.com in June. “It's not the fastest Call of Duty game. Our average speeds — because you can run in all directions, and you're probably running a little bit more on average — are a little bit faster. But it was never about doing things fast.” Maybe not, but it does seem to give some players an advantage at close range. Possibilities include jumping out of windows and spinning around when you land, shooting the poor sucker in the head when they think they're ambushing you.
The development build of Black Ops 6 leaked this week, and the unscrupulous types who get their hands on the goods are pouring in with decisions and images. I won’t share any of that filth here, as Activision’s lawyers are always careful, but I will briefly summarize the reactions I’ve read, which cover the expected spectrum. Some are calling it the second coming of the exoskeletons introduced in Advanced Warfare . Some are comparing it favorably to Quake . Others are comparing it unfavorably to Quake .
There are the usual concerns that the new moveset will either reinforce or negate community-favorite playstyles or techniques: for example, omnimovement appears to lead to the despicable end of slide cancelling, but that could just be a limitation of the development structure. There are suggestions that omnimovement will create a new skill gap – omnimovement certainly seems made for show-offy pros and their stream audiences. Almost everyone I've read agrees that it'll take time to get used to, perhaps more time than usual for a new COD quirk. I'm curious to see what the RPS commentators think of this sort of thing. We'll have more to say later in the month, or even before – the Black Ops 6 beta starts for select players on Friday, August 30th.