Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 features an arachnophobia mode that removes the legs of all zombie spiders and turns them into horrible, floating leeches

Arachnophobia can be a burden, especially when spiders are the default enemy type that game designers use to fill out a cave, ruin, or other spooky setting. We may be tired of poisons, webs and spiderlings stuffed into egg clutches. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 follows suit. Developers are increasingly addressing spider concerns, whether with arachnophobia mode or by avoiding spiders altogether.

I wouldn't surprise myself if the nightmare results of Black Ops 6 arachnophobia end up feeding completely different sets phobias.

The arachnophobia feature is described in an Activision post that outlines Black Ops 6 accessibility features. It targets spider enemies, and the changes are very specific: They target the legs. Arachnophobia is often triggered by spiders' legginess, both in terms of the number of legs and the ratio between leg size to body size. Black Ops 6 arachnophobia turns them off. It yoinks. Set legs to no.

The blog post states that "this setting will allow players the ability to change the appearances of spider-like opponents in Zombies, without affecting the game play," and this is not inaccurate. The results are, quite frankly, awful.

I haven't played Zombies since Black Ops 2. But I'm told the spiders in subsequent Zombies games are pretty traditional arachnids -- big black widows essentially. Black Ops 6 Zombies spiders are fleshy, eyeless things with grinning toothy maws. The arachnophobia setting disables their legs, leaving us with a flesh-toned leech that hovers. It's a sucka, man.

Even if it's worse for us, it's still an improvement for arachnophobes. Imagine this: Even if your not an arachnophobe you now have the option to add some extra horror to your zombie experience. Everyone wins.