Black Ops 6’s Omnimovement is a make-or-break moment for the franchise

In Call of Duty’s fast-paced arenas, movement is everything. Earlier attempts at shaking the core formula up with jetpacks and glides ended with sequels abandoning these features in a ‘return to form.’ That’s why the new Omnimovement system in Black Ops 6 caught my eye. It’s an experiment that will pay off handsomely or end up forgotten in a drawer of canned ideas.

Looking towards where you want to sprint isn’t just natural to CoD veterans, it’s an industry-wide staple. In fact, quickly moving the controller stick the other way or pressing the back key usually ends your sprint. In Black Ops 6, you get to sprint in any direction you want. And that includes sprinting sideways for some franchise-first strafing tactics. While we’ll need to get our hands on it to know how effortless or disorienting it is, it’s already stirring up discourse among players who weren’t a fan of bunny hops, slide cancels, and dolphin dives. Being knocked out in a fraction of a second is bad enough without players hopping all over the map.

Sprinting isn’t the only change that the next CoD game is bringing in terms of movement. Diving in any direction, a move Helldivers 2 fans will recognise, is a welcome bonus. Being able to rotate 360 degrees while prone is another nice touch. While I get the appeal of diving sideways to confuse an enemy, I’m hoping weapon recoil patterns are appropriately tuned to respond to rapid movements. It’s a military shooter after all, despite what the garish Modern Warfare 3 skins would have you believe.

Intelligent movement is another trick that Black Ops 6 showed off, letting you automate some muscle memory-level actions like mantling and sliding through holes. This fits seamlessly with the new Corner Slicing feature that automatically leans your gun around obstacles based on how you approach them. For instance, turning left at a corner will gently nudge your gun left, making it easier to target enemies. While developers treat this as removing busywork, I don’t want the game to play itself. Expect this to bridge the gap between PC and console players, particularly when it comes to catching enemies off-guard with quick turns. 

While I’m skeptical of how these movement options will come together, we won’t have to wait long to see the final result. Call of Duty Next is almost here and creators will get to go hands-on with Black Ops 6 on August 28, 2024. A beta should follow right after this event, letting you try these options for yourselves. While this will spice up CoD’s multiplayer, I hope it doesn’t drastically change how players approach firefights. Considering the franchise’s approach of granting aggressive aim assist to console players, these new movement features better be reined in with weapon recoil and stability debuffs.