Can the COD franchise advance the battle royale genre?
On September 15th, 2022, Activision hosted their Call of Duty NEXT event, announcing their latest Battle Royale game, COD Warzone 2.0.
Activision claims that Warzone 2.0. will usher in the next era for Call of Duty—but will Warzone 2.0. also set a new milestone in what to expect from the Battle Royale genre.
COD Warzone was a refreshing take on the Battle Royale genre. A genre where IPs came to die with their failed innovations or dev’s lackluster imaginations, where the market was full of cheaply-made clones of Fortnite or PUBG.
However, there was never a truly-polished, triple-A Battle Royale experience until Warzone was made. Warzone developers Infinity Ward and Raven Software collaborated to create unique features and systems unseen in any other Battle Royale game, such as perks, the gulags, loadouts, in-depth weapon customizations, etc.
In a blog on COD’s website, Warzone 2.0. promises to host more innovations and details for Warzone 2.0. but are they appealing enough?
Al Mazrah – a Map too Detailed for a Battle Royale Game?
Call of Duty has designed some of the most iconic maps in the shooter genre in video game history. Maps like Nuketown, Rust, and Terminal are nostalgic for many and continue to be requested for future Call of Duty titles.
Now picture a battle royal map filled with many locations on par with Call of Duty maps—this is what Warzone 2.0. map, Al Mazrah, aims to be.
In fact, a blog on the COD website mentions there being 18 unique locations in Al Mazrah; that’s more locations than all the maps you get in a COD game but combined into one open world. These locations should be just as detailed as any COD map, with some taking inspiration from iconic maps such as Terminal (Al-Malik Airport), Highrise, Dome, Quarry, and Afghan.
Screenshot of Al-Malik Airport Location—Courtesy of callofduty.com
The blog showcases how Al Mazrah is built from the ground up to be a fictional region that’s impressively just as realistic as a region in the Middle East with its political influences, cultures and different biomes, historic landmarks, generational architecture, and many industries all at play. Some of the most impressive features of the open world include the following:
Strongholds
Scattered around the map are strongholds controlled by AI where valuable loot can be found. Conquer these strongholds to secure the loot and have a secure vantage point of your surroundings where enemy players will pass through.
Aquatic Gameplay
The new Warzone will emphasize aquatic gameplay, with many locations comprising flooded towns, an ocean, lakes, and rivers. You can swim in these zones and engage in underwater combat with guns. Other ways to interact with aquatic locations is by setting up underwater explosives and ambushes.
Shops
These locations are where you can buy loadouts, weapons, gear, and custom builds made in the Gunsmith.
Vehicles
The range of vehicles in Warzone 2.0 is diverse, with over a dozen unique vehicles at your disposal for either land, air, or aquatic travel. Some vehicles include tanks, speedboats, helicopters, and UTVs.
Gas Stations
Since vehicles play an important role in this new battle royale game, just as important is fuel to run the vehicles. Gas stations are pivotal locations for securing fuel and repairing vehicles. Gas Stations will be the tactical points of interest you want to occupy in a match.
Split Circle Zones
As with any battle royale mode, a circle zone covers the map and begins to shrink, with players having to stay within the shrinking circle to survive. However, Warzone 2.0. have included multiple shrinking circles to give players more choice in the zone they want to fight in and adds another layer of strategy to the game.
DMZ—Call of Duty gone Tarkov?
The Gulag feature was the first big innovation in Warzone unseen in other Battle Royale games, where your player has a chance to rejoin a Battle Royale match after being killed if they win a 1v1 death match against another player that was killed.
The Gulag was a popular feature and will return in Warzone 2.0. with some changes, such as replacing the 1v1 deathmatch with a 2v2 deathmatch or takedown a powerful boss AI known as ‘The Jailer’ to retrieve a key and leave the Gulag.
The next big innovation in the Warzone series looks to be DMZ, where similar to the Gulag, the game mode takes place outside of the Battle Royale match despite being connected.
To improve your skills and gear in Battle Royale matches, you will want to play the DMZ mode to train and secure special loot. The DMZ is an extraction mode that plays similarly to a dungeon crawl in RPG games and takes inspiration from the hardcore FPS game, Escape From Tarkov.
There is a total of 3 different raids in unique maps to clear, where you must defeat grunts and bosses to acquire the special loot that’s transferred into your Battle Royale matches.
