Call of Duty introduces ‘hallucinations’ to mess with cheaters

The Ricochet anti-cheat system that’s present in recent Call of Duty titles just got a clever, and pretty hilarious, update.

Ricochet, employed in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2, will not trick cheating players in its latest update. It achieves this by spawning ‘hallucinations’ which, according to the official Call of Duty blog, will disorient flagged cheaters with fake players.

These hallucinations won’t disrupt the play of honest Call of Duty players online, as they’re only visible to players Ricochet has flagged as using third-party tools and hacks that would otherwise give them an advantage. Such advantages include seeing other players through walls, or providing pinpoint accuracy via aimbot software.

“Hallucinations look, move, and interact with the world like a real player,” the blog post reads. “These are not AI but a clone of an active user in the match, mimicking their movement to trick a cheater into believing the character they see is a real-life player.

“Hallucinations also trigger the same information that cheaters would have access to using nefarious tools, revealing unique data to make them appear legitimate.”

In the same update, Activision has elected to retire Ricochet’s Quicksand anti-cheat measure. Quicksand pretty much did what it says on the tin; slow down or completely freeze cheaters in place and effectively lock their controls. The decision to decommission Quicksand comes down to immersion, with the blog post stating it could be “jarring” to witness other players moving extremely slowly while you’re sprinting to the next hot zone.

Over the years, Ricochet has implemented some pretty ingenious ways of foiling the play sessions of cheaters. These include Disarm, a measure that takes away a cheater’s weapons, and Cloaking which renders legitimate players completely invisible to those running illegal tools.

There’s every chance we’ll see some of the best Call of Duty games discounted during the Amazon Prime Day gaming deals. It’s also a great time of year to check out the very best Prime Day Xbox controller deals if you’re after a new gamepad, too.