In the split-second world of online warfare, being first to take aim and fire is all-important. Perhaps that’s why some PC players look to get an edge by installing cheating software, which lets them see through walls to get the drop on approaching enemies, or deploys an ‘aimbot’ that makes sure every bullet hits its target.
But in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and its Warzone 2.0 Battle Royale mode, cheats can no longer trust their eyes. The game’s anti-cheat police force, Team Ricochet, has added ‘hallucinations’ — phantom players who only those identified as cheats can see. While invisible to ordinary players, to those using cheat software, they look and move exactly like the real deal. When you’re busy blasting away at phantoms, it’s hard to dominate the virtual battlefield.
Hallucinations are the latest in a long line of mitigations — anti-cheat measures designed to befuddle fakers and stop them winning, but also give Team Ricochet the chance to study their behaviour and their software. In fact, Hallucinations don’t just spoil the game for wrongdoers, but act as a cheat-spotting test. Team Ricochet can add Hallucinations near suspected cheaters who are only visible through cheat-software packages. If a player follows them or tries to shoot them, they identify themselves as a cheat.
Previous mitigations have cloaked other players to make them invisible to cheats or protected them with a damage shield to make them invulnerable to trickster players. One recent mitigation, Quick Sand, slowed cheating players’ movement and muddled their inputs, making them easy targets for other players. Sadly, it had to be pulled from the game because the effects were too distracting.
Call of Duty’s maker, Activision, isn’t alone in playing mind games with the cheaters. In February, Valve, the company behind the PC gaming platform, Steam, mass-banned more than 40,000 players of its popular eSports game, DoTA 2, after identifying them through ‘honeypot’ code that was only visible to players using cheat software.
Other developers are using litigation. Earlier this year, Bungie Inc won a $3.6 million (£2.8 million) lawsuit against a cheat software developer, AimJunkies, over software it was selling to give players an unfair edge in Destiny 2.
Cheat software has become big business, worth more than $100,000 (£79,000), according to anti-cheat experts. Game studios were having a hard enough time stopping cheating software that worked on top of the game code, but the latest exploits work at the operating system level to make cheats even harder to detect. Even football giant Fifa isn’t immune, with cheats appearing to boost player stats, kick the opposition out of a game mid-match, or ensure a perfect shot on goal, every time.
Consoles aren’t directly affected, as there’s little opportunity to install cheat software. However, PC gaming remains vulnerable and, with more games allowing mixed matches between PC and console players, that’s a problem for everyone.
Not everyone’s impressed with the latest anti-cheat options. “If Ricochet detects cheating, auto-kick and ban the user. We don't need cheaters getting added features to their cheating experience!” said Twitter user Boldasaur.
IF RICOCHET DETECTS CHEATING, AUTO-KICK AND BAN THE USER!!! WE DON'T NEED CHEATERS GETTING ADDED FEATURES TO THEIR CHEATING EXPERIENCE!
— BOLDASAUR (@BOLDASAUR) June 29, 2023
While Twitter user JonW1412 was equally nonplussed. “Does anyone believe it's actually making an impact?”
Does anyone believe it's actually making an impact?
— Jon (@JonW1412) June 30, 2023
Unlike the cheats, Team Ricochet is under no illusions; they understand that each tool to detect and limit cheating is just another move in an ongoing war.
“This is the cat-and-mouse nature of anti-cheat development,” the team notes in its latest blog. “We make a move, they counter; we fix a problem, they create new issues.”
Yet the team remains committed to putting a stop to cheats and their software, promising that while it takes time to spot cheats and their latest methods, “cheaters will be identified, captured and removed, and every step we take helps build better tools”.
