With the Black Ops 7 beta set to kick off on October 2, Treyarch is eagerly anticipating the opportunity to welcome millions of players into six of its core 6v6 multiplayer maps this weekend. Naturally, with Black Ops 7 developed in parallel with its immediate predecessor, Black Ops 6, the two shooters share foundational systems and mechanics – meaning it's likely that players already familiar with elements such as Omnimovement and weapon handling will more closely scrutinise the finer details of Treyarch's cutting-edge 2035 combat.
But with the November 14 launch just weeks away, is there really enough time for the studio to action on any critical feedback it receives across the open beta weekend? "Oh, yeah, 1000%!" says Miles Leslie, associate creative director. "We welcome all constructive feedback – 'constructive' being the key thing there," he chuckles.
"There are a lot of fans out there from our community who do give us a lot of constructive feedback and we really appreciate it. To be quite honest with you, we will be looking at everything." Leslie tells me that Black Ops 6 is evidence of how tuned in to community feedback Treyarch is as a studio, issuing countless quality-of-live improvements to the title over the last 12 months.
That won't be changing with Black Ops 7, Leslie stresses, although he does note that even if Treyarch does agree with a piece of feedback received, not all of it can be implemented right away. "Sometimes it's not immediate, because these things are complex and we want to make changes in the right way. But we are constantly looking at feedback; from beta into launch, launch into post-launch, we'll always be looking for ways to make the game better for players."
Serendipitously, there have already been examples of Treyarch receiving feedback and quickly implementing changes in just this last week. The studio released a deep-dive into Black Ops 7 multiplayer ahead of Call of Duty: Next, and some players had concerns surrounding the way Perks were distributed in create-a-class following some pretty foundational shifts to Omnimovement.
Tactical Sprint and aiming-down-sights while sliding, diving, and wall-jumping are now disabled by default for all players, with these enhanced movement abilities instead activated by integrating the relevant Perk into your loadout – meaning they come at the cost of something else. "If you want Tac-Sprint, then you can take the 'Tac Sprinter' Perk," says design director Matt Scronce. "If you want to move a little faster, then we've got lightweight, and if you want to ADS while sliding, diving, or wall jumping then you can take the Dexterity Perk. "We've already made adjustments to these that are going to be in the beta build as we really try to nail our Perk distribution."
For more exclusive coverage on the latest Call of Duty, be sure to read my Black Ops 7 hands-on preview to learn more about this year's multiplayer offering.
Lawrence Metten, associate director of design at Treyarch, tells me that even these subtle tweaks can have a big impact on the way Black Ops 7 will play – explaining that it's vital for the studio to continue monitoring feedback as it prepares for launch. "I think the Perk changes are a great example of monitoring feedback and making changes."
"We want people to tell us how things feel, we want them to react and share feedback. We're watching and we're listening. If something isn't quite there yet, we will continue to look into it. I'd say the feedback I'm looking forward to the most is the thing we're not expecting, right? This is why we do a beta, so that we can make sure there are no blind spots."
Here's how you can access the Black Ops 7 beta from October 2, and a full list of all the Black Ops 7 rewards you can earn from playing.
