When Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII tried its hand at the battle royale genre, gamers were generally optimistic but divided. While Black Ops IIII’s take on the genre was mostly successful, there was a general consensus that there was room to grow. This wasn’t the best the battle royale genre could offer, nor was it the best Call of Duty could do. The ground was fertile for another Call of Duty instalment to come along and show its competitors how battle royale is really done. With Call of Duty: Warzone, Infinity Ward and Activision may well have done just that.
Yes indeed – Activision and Infinity Ward’s take on battle royale in Call of Duty: Warzone is fresh, inspiring, and well-crafted. It combines Call of Duty’s signature gunplay with some genuinely astonishing touches that make its battle royale mechanics feel all the more rewarding and compelling. While it’s effectively the same distillation of the multiplayer experience that other battle royale games offer at its core, Warzone is doing so much right – and so much new – that it would be foolish to ignore the fact that gamers are flocking to it in droves.
So, what exactly is Call of Duty: Warzone? Why are so many gamers flocking to it? Effectively, Warzone is a battle royale game that uses Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s engine and mechanics while offering new maps and gameplay systems all its own. Just like other Call of Duty games, it has killstreak bonuses, airstrikes, and various other staples of the franchise, but it’s also an entirely new game. It takes place across one gigantic map in which players must battle one another to be the last soldier or squad standing by dominating the others.
Just like many other online multiplayer battle royale games, Call of Duty: Warzone has an in-game currency system. COD Points will allow you to purchase the game’s Battle Pass, which grants access to a wealth of in-game currency. If, by the end of this article, you’re hankering for more Call of Duty: Warzone (which we suspect you will be), you may want to check out a site like CODPointsAndCredits to get yourself some COD Points. The Battle Pass is invaluable if you’re going to be playing the game a lot and over a long period of time, so you should bear that in mind going forward.
So, what makes Call of Duty: Warzone so much better than other battle royale contenders? The first and most important aspect of Warzone’s design is inarguably its superior gunplay. Call of Duty has always excelled in this area, going right back to the original game, so it stands to reason that Warzone would take on board design lessons learned over a period of seventeen years. Firing guns in Warzone simply feels great; the recoil and kickback systems strike the perfect balance between instant gratification and skill expression, and even the pistol offers a cathartic experience.
The biggest design string to Warzone’s bow is definitely the new Gulag system. Many other battle royale games have respawn mechanics, but none of them are expressed as ingeniously as that of Call of Duty: Warzone. When you die, you’ll be given a chance to 1v1 another opponent who’s died in the Gulag. You’ll be surrounded by teammates and enemies, all of whom will either be cheering you on or trying to make sure you lose. In this way, Warzone makes you work for your respawn and turns the tedious process of waiting to come back into a gameplay mechanic in and of itself.
Warzone also has some brilliant twists on the classic quest formula. You and your squad will find Contracts dotted around the map, each of which will task you with doing something different in the game’s world. You could be asked to assassinate a high-profile enemy target, for example, or scavenge a certain area of the map for critical supplies. By adding this system, Call of Duty: Warzone ensures you’ll always have something to do, even if you’re not in contact with other players at any given time. It’s not quite a PvE mode, but it’s not far off.
This being a Call of Duty game, there are of course also the regenerating health and armour systems. Unlike many other battle royale games which task you with searching the map for health and armour pickups, Warzone has your health and armour regenerate over time. While this may sound initially game-breaking, battle royale is often designed around quick skirmishes anyway, so if a player is skilful enough then they can easily dispatch an enemy. If you need some breathing room, Warzone will give it to you where other battle royale games won’t.
In summary, Call of Duty: Warzone is the freshest the battle royale genre has felt for some time, and it’s no surprise the game is attracting huge numbers of players around the world. It offers enough twists on the battle royale formula that it feels fresh and inviting even to players who’ve experienced the best the genre otherwise has to offer. Despite that, it’s also very forgiving and welcoming to newcomers and Call of Duty fans who haven’t checked out games like Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. We suggest you download Warzone posthaste. You can do so on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
