3 Up, 3 Down – The Best & Worst of the Black Ops 6 Beta
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is out next month! This past weekend was the beta, showcasing what experienced and new COD players can expect with the latest iteration. It featured a new game mode, 6 all new maps, and some sweet new guns. Now for the ultimate question, is Black Ops 6 worth getting excited about? Is it better than Modern Warfare 3? Yes and no. Currently there are a lot of things that are done right here. There are definitely some aspects that require some heavy adjustments to make the game great too. I’m stoked to see Treyarch and company’s hard work over the last few years, and can see a ton of potential, but I’m worried that they aren’t taking community/fans criticisms of previous games seriously. Let’s talk about it.
The Worst
Bugs & Glitches
It’s worth noting that the beta seems to have a higher amount of various glitches and issues throughout than usual. There were multiple times where the sound (inclusive of footsteps and gunfire) just ceased altogether. There was a lot of server lag and stuttering, as well as game crashes. When playing with friends, one of us was dropped on a consistent basis at the end of a game or two. On top of these issues, it was noticeable that the time to kill (TTK) was affected by these server and latency inconsistencies as well. It seemed quite a lot faster than previous COD titles, though I’m currently chalking it up to these various bugs/glitches. Hopefully most of these get ironed out before Black Ops 6 drops, otherwise it might be the cause of a lot of unnecessary frustration for players worldwide.
Spawns
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s previously played a Call of Duty game to see this on the worst list. Spawns always seem to be at their very worst during the beta and damn is that ever true for Black Ops 6. There were so many moments where I’d spawn into a group of enemy players or right around the corner from them, which made it seem almost like it was being randomized. Then, while being in the team spawn, I witnessed multiple enemies just pop up out of the blue, only to kill us from behind. It felt consistently like there was little recognition of enemy vs teammates where this was concerned. Now I recognize that spawning may never be perfect, but it definitely needs some major adjustments before the full game drops next month.
Visibility
Maps can make or break any Call of Duty title, and so far the ones showcased in the Black Ops 6 beta are pretty good. They could use a bit more color, and of course there’s always going to be fan favorites, but overall, nothing major to complain about. Except maybe the lack of visibility in each. It’s hard to make out enemy players across the maps, let alone in an enclosed space at times. Part of this is the player name tag being seemingly higher than usual, and part of it is no pop of color to really differentiate between friend and foe. The amount of times I watched an enemy player run right by myself, or a teammate was likely just as high as the amount of times I did the same to them. It happened a lot. This could also stem from the randomization of the spawns, with players just popping up all over, but it’s currently quite difficult to see enemies unless just out in the open. A couple small changes to the player icons, and a bit more color could make all the difference here for the open beta, and for the full game!
Read on through to page 2 for the Best of the Call of Duty beta…