Since the rise in popularity of Battle Royale games, such as “Player Unknown BattleGrounds”, “Fortnite”, and “Apex Legends”, it has been clear to see the BR genre is here to stay. And because of this, huge game developers have made their own battle royale games to compete and attract the growing fan base. After “Call of Duty’s” less than successful attempt at a battle royale implementation, called Blackout, a gamemode in “Call of Duty Black Ops 4”, Activision decided to create a new approach, a laid back, easy to pick up and learn, and free to play battle royale shooter, called “Call of Duty Warzone.”
Call of Duty Warzone became playable to the public on March 10th, of 2020. This was free to play, downloadable on PC, PS4, and XboxOne. One key point I noticed while playing it was the huge map and environments. Warzone takes place in Verdansk, an expansive city with multiple named zones and well over 300 points of interest. There are many places to loot up and explore, to secure yourself the victory.
Another key point of Warzone that I found the most interesting was the Gulag. After being killed in the battle royale, you are labeled as “Captured: Prisoner of Warzone” and the animation shows your body being carried and dragged to an arena. Here, you are given a second chance to continue to fight alongside your teammates in the battle royale. You are put into a 1v1 with another prisoner of warzone, and the winner is given the redeployment back into the game. The round is only 40 seconds long, and if no one dies in these 40 seconds, a flag appears and the two competitors are forced to duel in the middle or lose if the point is captured. This was the most intricate and creative redeployment feature I’ve ever seen in a battle royale.
With many intricate features, such as killstreaks, redeployments, weapon loadouts, attachments as you level up, and buy stations the game has quite a bit of depth to it, as well as a learning curve. While this is true, Warzone nails the aspect of casual, more laidback combat and gameplay that other call of duties followed.
This is why warzone was reviewed better than blackout, because it ‘actually feels like a call of duty game’. The fact that anyone can pick it up and have a fair chance at winning gives the battle royale genre a long awaited casual and laid back scene. While other BRs were filled up with conditioned, very mechanically intensive gamers that did anything to win, Warzone made things simple and quick to pick up. I think this is the main reason Warzone will continue to and attract all kinds of gamers.
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