Black Ops 6 Beta Review: A True Beta or A Sigma?
I'm gonna place my unc card on the table to start this review:
This is the 16th Call of Duty game I have ever played... (first one being WaW back in 2008....)
But I have seen some blessed games and some horrific, god-awful, putrid games (Vanguard this is for you). I wanted to give BO6 a shot given its new mechanics, beta offerings, and all the fun little shenanigans that it can get involved in.
The Good:
Let's start with a very big point: I love the omni-movement mechanic. I genuinely wish that this was added much sooner into COD (the technology has existed since 2015 with MGS V) because this would have made some games like Advanced Warfare or even BO3 feel much nicer to play and maneuver. The movement overall feels very light, responsive, and makes me genuinely feel like a true action hero without the clunkiness associated with most AAA game titles on launch nowadays...
I also grew to appreciate the maps. While it's not groundbreaking map layout or design, it's classic enough that an old CoD fan can jump in and get the flow of things without having to watch a YouTuber half my age giving me all of the elite strategies (and hopefully not fornicating with my mother...)
The Bad:
The guns just...kinda suck? I get that BO6 falls into that murky timepoint that CoD has never really explored (post Cold-War but before much of the interesting Modern Warfare scenarios), but the guns feel underwhelming. CoD always has the opportunity to bring back old guns from previous games to invoke a bit of nostalgia, but they rarely do it! Why call the gun something different when it's just a Galil or an AK47? Sure, a rose by any other name might be just as sweet, but if you hand me the rose and say it's some brand new flower that's never been seen before...what good does that do?
I wish zombies could have been in the beta in some capacity. I grew up as a "I buy CoD only for the zombies" kid, but lemme tell you: seeing them be so open and hyped about zombies in this case just to not have it in the beta felt like such a cuck move. Many people are a bit worried about how zombies will play in the new game, whether it's gonna resemble the fairly gun and engaging Cold War style or be a more watered-down asset grab like MW3 or Outbreak.
The Mid
Combat feels a bit underwhelming. The gameplay revives feelings of older CoDs like BO2 moreso than previous games, but the pacing really throws me off. It feels like they wanted to slow down combat in many ways with the more spongy-feeling players, but the general pace and momentum you can build up with perks and guns reminds me moreso of prime MW2 days where you'd just never stop sprinting with the Marathon, Lightweight, and Commando setup...
Scorestreaks (killstreaks?) also feel uninspired. Sure they brought the RC-XD back, but it controls like you're trying to navigate a shopping cart with an industrial fan. The controls make it so clunky and I could never manage a satisfying kill without playing bumper cars with non-moving targets.
It also feels like scorestreaks are harder to get now, which isn't strictly a bad thing, but it often makes the variety when playing matches feel nonexistent.
The attachment system...exists I guess? I feel like Activison can never get a feeling for what a good attachment system is like. Now they kinda just threw the kitchen sink at us and said "Yeah take all the attachments and good points about them and run with it". The closest they came to a good attachment system is Modern Warfare (2019) where attachments had strict benefits but also had some drawbacks. Now people are just going to min-max their guns by adding the best recoil/accuracy attachments with no downside whatsoever (and don't get me started on the whole perk system allowing you double the attachments...)
Here's my overall consensus: If you have GamePass, you may as well just play the game and see how it is. If you are interested in buying it, don't. You won't miss much. :)
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