We all knew this year’sCall of Dutywould be another entry in Treyarch’sBlack Opssubseries, simply titledCall of Duty: Black Ops 6. However, one interesting and exciting new addition that was kept under wraps until the recentCall of DutyDirect wasomnidirectional movement. This means players will be able to sprint, slide, and dive in any direction, and the team at Treyarch not only hopes fans will like it, but that it’ll be popular enough to become a mainstay for futureCall of Dutygames.
On June 10, associate design director Matt Scronce and senior director of production Yale Miller answered questions from the press (includingVGC) aboutBlack Ops 6. Naturally, the topic of omnidirectional movement (or Omnimovement as they’re calling it) was brought up, and Miller admitted he hopes it will become a new standard for theCall of Dutyseries when asked. He added, “I think if it’s really good, it won’t just become the standard for otherCall of Dutygames,” suggesting other developers could pick it up for their games too.
Of course, that’s dependent on how well Omnimovement is received; something Miller is acutely aware of too: “If it’s great, people are going to want it. … So we hope we do a great job at it…” He and the rest of the team won’t need to wait too long for feedback since there will be a beta session in a few months time. There’s no exact date for it yet, but frequentCall of Dutyleaker BobNetworkUK has saidon Twitterit could start from August 28.
OnceBlack Ops 6is in players’ hands, the team will be able to tweak Omnimovement when needed, especially since Miller is expecting particularly skilled players to figure out ways of exploiting the mechanic: “We’re going to continue to tweak as we get different skill levels, really good players. People who’ll find ways to exploit it. We want that, so that we can just continue to polish it.”
It will be interesting to see if Omnimovement proves so popular with fans that Activision will want to see it present in whatever Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, the other two majorCoDdevelopers, work on next. There is precedent for this; the Zombies mode in Treyarch’sCall of Duty: World at Warwas such a hit that it’s not only a mainstay of theBlack Opsgames, but it was also included in Sledgehammer’sCall of Duty: Vanguardand Infinity Ward’sModern Warfare 3. There’s also Prestige Mode, which was introduced in the originalModern Warfarefrom 2007 and would go on to appear in almost every mainlineCoDgame ever since (though it was ironically absent in the2019Modern Warfarereboot).
