–The blackout mode from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 took the world by storm at the end of 2018 and it was felt that Activision could even knock Fortnite off the throne. Battle Royal in Call of duty disappeared again from the public radar, because although the players remained on the ball with regular changes to the map, special events and other innovations, certain Apex Legends and Fortnite headlines on the subject of Battle Royale. There the players could experience high quality and great fun with their friends completely free of charge, which was perhaps one of the reasons that Blackout followed his name and disappeared from the collective consciousness. The solution? Call of Duty: Warzone – a free-to-play battle royale shooter in the modern warfare universe. Has the world been waiting for this? Not necessarily.
Don’t get us wrong: the general gameplay has been taken from the latest branch of the series and is just as fun as last autumn. The controls respond well, the weapons feel fantastic and the sound design gives you goose bumps with every shot. The map is much more varied than the one from blackout and the game is definitely worth the additional download. There are fewer buildings that have been copied and pasted, and we find many interactive computers and suspicious doors that suggest secrets to upcoming events. Warzone was clearly inspired by the competition and offers its own cool ideas and changes to the well-known formula.
–The most important innovation is without question the Gulag. During your fate with Fortnite and Apex Legends in the hands of your teammates, as soon as you die, Warzone gives you another chance to show that you belong to the ever smaller group of remaining teams. You fight in the Alcatraz shower in a one-on-one fight against another survivor for the chance to return to the current match and jump over the island again. It is a mini-gunfight duel in which you have 40 seconds to take down the other player with randomly selected equipment. If it takes longer, the player who can hold and occupy the center of the room for a short time wins. If you fail, you have to hope that your teammates have the $ 4,500 in-game cash on the high edge to bring you back to a supply warehouse.
Call of Duty: Warzone has a monetary system and you can buy back killstreaks, a resuscitation kit, ammunition boxes or just your teammates with collected or earned coal. It is an interesting system that makes classic “camping” less worthwhile and rewards us for kills and brave actions. A problem can be killed partners, who press the notification button during the match and annoy us, but the competition is already desperate at such spinners. You’d better get started with friends anyway, otherwise you’ll always hear an annoying beep when you come across impatient teammates who can’t control themselves.
Another option in Warzone is a mode called Plunder, in which you should collect $ 1,000,000 when Respawn is activated. We didn’t find that so incredibly interesting, but if you are looking for a mighty death match with reduced Battle Royale elements, you will find it here. Some tactics differ from the main mode because there are ways to hedge collected money, but overall we are more excited about the other multiplayer modes of Modern Warfare. For this, junk is a nice option to learn the card and the basic mechanics.
–Gun attachments are not included in the loot scheme because the loot system has been changed so that the rarest weapons automatically have more attachments. This may ruin the fun for those players who like to adapt their weapons to their own style of play, but it also has the advantage that we don’t have to compare or internalize values in menus forever. It was really made to make Warzone accessible.
Then why don’t we jump up and down for joy? Perhaps we are too clear-headed, but we cannot get rid of the feeling that we have played it several times in the past three to four years. While Fortnite the build options and the comic graphics are there Apex Legends the unique abilities of the legends and significantly more dynamic movement options – Warzone has only the Gulag and its currency system to counter it. The latter, in my opinion, actually makes gaming fun a little bit easier because it removes the purity of Battle Royale that we love about these games. So actually only one feature worth mentioning remains among the many borrowed ideas.
We don’t like the fact that we have to ping important locations or rushing enemies on the controller via the D-Pad, because that means we can’t keep moving (or can you reliably run with your left index finger?). The back key attachment for the Dualshock 4 saved us in this regard, but only a few players have the option to adjust the key assignment. There are still a few things Infinity Ward has announced for the future or that are expected to improve over the next few days and weeks, including the previously missing solo and duo options.
–Overall, the good controls, the great gunplay and the intense gameplay can also be found in Warzone. For beginners in the genre, the opportunity to fight for re-entry to the island after the first death in the Gulag duel offers many opportunities. The currency system can be divided, but it’s good that exploration tours and good actions are rewarded, although this can sometimes lead to a strange pace and somewhat contradict the Battle Royale concept.
The changes to blackout are good and the tactically reduced loot system makes the game much more accessible. However, there is a lack of innovations overall and the limited squad size will hopefully be improved soon. But if the developers continue to work on the game – and this can be assumed after the first few days – and build on the solid foundation, they could Call of Duty: Warzone develop a real force that is difficult to resist.
– .
