First impressions and what you need to know about the upcoming 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 6'
Attention, gamers: A new Call of Duty game is releasing this October.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 recently opened early access beta, giving users a feel of how the upcoming title will play and a glimpse of its environments.
Open beta for all users begins on Sept. 7, while the game is set to officially launch on October 26.
Here's what you need to know about the 21st game in the shooter franchise. Additionally, PhilSTAR L!fe got to play the early access open beta and we're sharing some of our first impressions on the new title.
New ways to move
In a previous showcase, it was unveiled that the new title will bring new changes like "Omnimovement," which allows you to chain combat maneuvers together—you will be able to sprint, slide, and then dive in any direction.
You can learn the basics of this through the tutorial as the training course will have you sprinting off a building and diving to shoot an enemy situated behind you.
Aside from Omnimovement, the game also introduces "Intelligent Movement," wherein players can customize how their Operators will traverse the map. You can toggle on Sprint Assist, Mantle Assist, Crouch Assist, and Corner Slice to improve your gameplay.
Additionally, the new game now lets users use their opponent as a human shield during fights. This works by sneaking behind a player and double-tapping the Melee button to take your enemy hostage. If they have their proximity chat on, you can communicate and trash talk with them.
A more approachable Gunsmith
BO6 gets a new Loadout that's easier to navigate. Here, you'll be able to choose from different unlockable weapon attachments and see the different bonuses that come with them. At the bottom right of the screen, you'll see statistics for Firepower, ACcuracy, Handling, and Mobility.
Optic attachments are also shared across all weapons classes so if you unlock the Red Dot Sight for SMG, you can equip it to other SMGs.
Weapons are also customizable with camos unlockable through challenges.
Campaigns and maps
There will be a number of campaigns you can play in BO6, the single-player campaign set in the 1990s described to be a spy thriller, a Zombies mode, and Multiplayer.
We got to try out the Multiplayer campaign which features 16 new maps including Derelict, a train graveyard deep in the Appalachian Mountains; Rewind, a rundown shopping plaza; Scud, a desert military outpost; Skyline, a luxury resort with a breathtaking view; among others.
Multiplayer games to play include the classic Team Deathmatch where you earn score points for your team by eliminating enemies, Domination where you capture, hold, and defend objectives, Hardpoint where you capture and hold a rotating zone to earn points, Kill Order where you target enemies with High Value Targets, and Face Off where you fight players with Scorestreaks disabled.
Meanwhie, Zombies is a cooperative round-based mode where you kill flesh-eating monsters in the small West Virginian town of Liberty Falls.
First impressions
We've been playing the early access beta for CoD:BO6 for a couple of days on the ASUS ROG Strix G16 and so far have loved the graphics and the music on this game. The environments look (strangely) beautiful, especially on the Skyline map.
Learning the Omnimovement can be tricky at first but practice helps get the hang of it (a non-shooter game player like me took a few minutes to master the sprint and dive). Pro tip for beginners: If you're having trouble using a keyboard and mouse, try playing the game with a controller.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision, will launch on October 26.