Black Ops 6’s ‘Omnimovement’ is a hit as controller aim assist gets a huge nerf this year

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There is talk of how similar Call of Duty is year after year that one of the most interesting additions to Black Ops 6 is taking place on the side. This is a selling point of Omnimovement: Activison’s brand name for the ability to sprint, slide and dive in any direction. Players rush into enhanced mobility doing cool Max Payne dives off second floor balconies (no bullet time) – good fun that usually gets you killed – and I’m pleased to report that the feature has won over this skeptical CoD veteran.

That said, why Omnivmovement works so well isn’t visible on the surface. When Treyarch revealed the feature in June, I worried that more mobility would only further empower the tiresome “king of movement” gameplay — jumping bunnies and canceling slides at every corner — that Modern Warfare 3 leaned into (2023).

This happens to an extent in Black Ops 6 with excessive sliding, but it’s also easier for me to play around this behavior than last year and now I know why. As a YouTuber TheXclusiveAce Recently demonstrated, the controller’s aim assist received a huge nerf in Black Ops 6. Specifically, the rotary aim assist (which helps track enemies while you’re moving) is significantly weaker at close range than any modern CoD. It’s the kind of change you can feel but can’t put your finger on until you see a direct comparison.

Close-range nerfing assist is a particularly big deal for CoD balance, because historically, that’s the distance at which the assist does its heaviest lifting. As long as you keep a thumb on the left stick, your camera will consistently keep nearby targets in the center of view, long enough to get a kill. Because neither are most mouse gamers that good at tracking targets that are only visible for a fraction of a second, there is a perception that controllers have too much of an advantage in most common CoD scenarios.

Now, that perk has been cut in half and is already showing trickle-down effects. Select Aim Assist pairs well with Black Ops 6’s mobility. Gliding or diving into a fight to take the other team’s objective away is a more viable strategy when AA doesn’t compensate for movement as much as it used to. Testing TheXclusiveAce is consistent with my experiences against controller players last week: getting up close and personal isn’t as dangerous as it used to be, and the killcams I’m watching aren’t causing me to die as often. I (a mouse player) have a better shot against controllers in those casual “headbutt” encounters where we bump into each other and struggle to shoot first.

The same goes for less flashy tactics – I find that shaking up my movement patterns in small ways allows me to “dodge” bullets like never before in CoD. When I light up for 90% HP after going through a door, I actually have a decent chance of escaping danger by throwing my legs into reverse or crawling at sprint speed. Black Ops 6 is faster than Modern Warfare 3, but its movement mechanics are more intentional and, crucially, it doesn’t feel like I have to learn cheesy techniques to compete.

The availability of directional change and momentum conservation in Black Ops 6 inch Call of Duty closer to, dare I say, a classic PC shooter. Treyarch’s weapon design aside, this is the best 6v6 CoD has ever played on a mouse and keyboard. But the benefits of weaker aim assist aren’t platform exclusive: all of Call of Duty benefits when fights are weaker and have more than one possible ending.