Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 developer Treyarch heard your beta feedback loud and clear, and has just announced in an October 21 dev talk video that it's making the Dexterity perk optional while accessing aim down sights in motion. Still, Treyarch would love to hear you even louder and more clearly, and so it's also making footstep noises more audible.
"The team looked at all of our options, and ultimately landed on providing the most fluid experience by default – which does mean we've reintroduced the ability to aim down sights while sliding, diving, and Wall Jumping," says Treyarch design director Matt Scronce. This ability was standard in Black Ops 6, but, originally, Scronce told GamesRadar+, "we're being a bit more intentional with our combat, just at a baseline" in Black Ops 7.
"If you do want to get a little more aggressive with your movement," he said then, "we will have perks that allow you to do that."
Now, Scronce explains in Treyarch's dev talk video that Dexterity will only enhance ADS (aim down sights) while you slide around – it's not required. So Black Ops 7 players will be able to glide around their maps like Beyblade princesses, but they'll also need to mind their clomping.
The Black Ops 7 beta featured nearly undetectable footstep squeaks, so Scronce says Treyarch has "slightly increased the volume of our footsteps in multiplayer."
"We're very happy with where they're at, where it's going to incentivize more stealth playstyles without over-indexing on the need for the Ninja perk," he continues.
Fans have never been more glad to be fat-footed.
"They nailed it. Perfect changes to the perks and defaulting Omni movement back to being able to ADS," says esports champion Parasite on Twitter. "Fkn W."
I played Black Ops 7 multiplayer for 4 hours, and here's my 10 takeaways you need to know.
