Activision has released a new mode for Call of Duty: Warfare multiplayer by adopting battle royale mechanics. On March 10, the Call of Duty: Warzone arrived as a gift for the people following social distancing and staying home during the pandemic. Quickly it becomes the choice of many gamers that were grinding hard on Fortnite and PUBG for years. The gameplay has manipulated the native Call of Duty mechanics into the battle royale version.
Social distancing and staying at home have contributed towards the success of COD: Warzone. Activision has observed more than 50 million downloads in the first month of release and got to the same number as Apex Legends last year. Aside from the pandemic situation, another factor contributing to its success is its wider audience and passionate people. The game has already achieved its success milestones and added innovation to the already going on COD series.
Call of Duty: Warzone Review
Summary
Call of Duty: Warzone has been the successful title since its beta version. Introduction to some new mechanics in the Battle Royale happened in this edition of the game. The combined mechanics of Call of Duty and the battle royale game proved to be successful. The game proved to be quality entertainment free of cost. Warzone has all the required perks and prominent features of a shooter game combined with the battle royale gameplay.
See: Best Game Settings for Call of Duty: Warzone
There is a race in creating battle royale titles, and almost all have the same mechanics and gameplay. Recently the gaming industry has been swimming in different variants of battle royale. All of this started with the success of Fortnite and PUBG. Both of these battle royale games redefined the norms of the genre. The COD: Warzone is not distant and works the same way as other battle royale games. You land in an area with a hundred or more people and survive by killing other players to get yourself to the number one spot. Fun is involved when a continuously shrinking play zone limits the actual play area and forces players to engage in close combat.
Access to Call of Duty is free, and players can download the Warzone with two different methods. If you are an owner of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, you can download it internally from the game after installing a 20-22GB patch. In the unavailability of this method, you can download its 100GB standalone setup directly from its website. You need a good internet connection and patience to download and install, but it’s just for the game’s first run.
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Call of Duty Warzone Battle Royale
Call of Duty Warzone tried to break the standard 100 player limit in a map, and we see an immediate difference of 150 players. The map is enormous, and you never feel crowded despite the massive participation of the players. However, the shrinking map takes things to the exciting phase, and things become intense in close combat. Overall the game stability is phenomenal with this enormous map and more players in a battle royale than PUBG and Fortnite.
Map in Warzone presents an expansive, beautiful, and massive city known as Verdansk. The city comparted into the zone and home to 300 interest points. Gore Dam and Gerongard Lumber Yard are well-known zones and are divide the zones according to landmarks. Each location has distinctive features and has environments like villages and cities. Verdansk offers considerable opportunities to explore and change drop location on each map’s start to understand the whole area better.
See: Best Gaming Keyboards and Gaming Mice for Call of Duty: Warzone
Unlike other popular battle royale games, you do not enter the game barehanded. Instead, you have a handgun right from the start of the match, giving all players an equal opportunity. Later you can replace the weapon with any better weapon found on the map. Each map has 150 players placed in 50 teams, while each team comprises three members. The map contains various weapons, and you can scavenge for them throughout the map. Loot in the buildings include SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles, LMGs, and rocket launchers. Loot is either found inside the loot chest, the floor of the buildings, and abandoned stations.
The players in COD: Warzone carries only two weapons. One is a lethal weapon that acts as the primary weapon, and the other is a tactical weapon. With the modification of the backpack concept in this game edition, you do not carry any heavy artillery. Players also do not have any health kits or bandages to restore their health, and their health regenerates automatically with time. However, the armor gives a health boost and increases the HP to 250 from a base value of 100. The gameplay’s pace is quick and cuts the weapon search time, and players often engage with the shrinking map.
Even though the map shrinks faster, there are still games that we do not find any players to encounter and can be a putt off for some players, and they might get bored from it, but it still allows the players to find better weapons. A deadly gas encircles the players and forces them to move quickly towards the play zone. In this way, you keep moving to different map areas and engage other players on the same site. Engagement with other players usually is according to your movements inside the map. When exploring the map, you come across an enemy at every part of the map.
Call of Duty: Warzone allows players to create their loadout and customized it according to their preferences. But you cannot use the loadout in the map and have to wait for a supply crate to get weapons of your will. The risk involved in the supply crate is more as more players move towards it, exposing the safe gameplay. Once you get to the crate, you can change the weapons and can revert to already present weapons in your inventory.
Inside the buildings, not only are weapons present, but you can collect cash from them. Buy stations that let you purchase bundles for armor; self revives kits, gas masks, and other in-game stuff. Once a teammate is down, you can revive them from these stations. But one downside to these stations is that you expose yourself while doing transactions. The enemy can detect you and can engage to finish your run the map. However, these buy stations offer great in-game rewards that you still risk yourself and try to do transactions inside the game.
The Gulag (only in Battle Royale)
Once your teammate gets knockdown every battle royale game offer revive option. But reviving in Call of Duty Warzone is something out of the box in this genre. Whenever a player gets knockdown, the teammates can get to him and revive him. But if he gets eliminated, then on first elimination, he is sent to a Gulag as a Prisoner of Warzone. Gulag is a 1vs1 mode in which you fight with other prisoners, and as a reward for winning, you get redeployed to the Verdansk. Getting eliminated in Gulag is no fun, and you still have hope.
Upon returning from Gulag, you need to obtain new armor and weapons. But if you die while fighting in Gulag, there is still a way to get you back to Verdansk. Buy Stations offers cash for the completion of the contracts. If your teammates get enough money from those contracts, they can get you redeployed using Buy Station. Warzone has created a strong revival system built around teammates that if your team is there, they will revive you one way or another.
Let’s Begin with Warzone
Warzone brings intense gaming experience built on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s framework. Creativity in map details and pleasing addition to sounds, animations, and weapons from Warzone makes it a unique experience. The buildings and architects in Verdansk provide these fictional locations a meticulously designed look. You may wonder about the mechanics in maps and their integration into the gameplay. Many of the map locales are fantastic scenery and range from suburban towns, mountains, and dense downtown areas.
Parachuting in the game has improved, and you can land on any location. Deploying the parachute is easy and controlling it and moving in any direction is very easy. The damage from the fall is lenient and does not drain much Hp. Maps show a great sense of verticality. Buildings and structures in some locations seem mirrored, but they fit the environment very well; as we mentioned, interiors are a sheer dedication towards a much better experience. The finishing in the interior of the buildings is acceptable to a great extent.
So far, the gameplay is very smooth, and there are no evident glitches in the overall gameplay. The game matchmaking is well balanced, and tasks in the game do not look like a chore. Leveling up weapons and ranking in the game is not tiresome, and the game is cross-platform, gathering a large audience for competition. The game developers have put their blood and sweat to make this game free from any significant glitches.
The Vehicles of Warzone
The game’s map is a continuously shrinking circle that bounds the players to rush quickly towards the safe zone. Sometimes, the circle moves fast, and you have no option other than having the vehicle’s aid to get to the playing area. For this, Call of Duty: Warzone has different types of vehicles with various capabilities. Each of them has varying levels of the abilities like speed, off-roading, seating, and protection. Just like players, vehicles in the Warzone also have a health meter. Vehicles can blast if the health meter goes down to zero. To prevent yourself from vehicle blast, jump out of the vehicle as soon as health falls to near zero.
In Warzone following is the list of vehicles included in the map and offers players a great range of movability and protection.
Tactical Rover: A four-seat vehicle reliable at off-roading and provides less protection with more speed.
SUV: This vehicle is not ideal for driving off-road, has less speed, and provides better protection with a four-seater driving setup.
ATV: There are two seats, and it is fast with a two-seat setup, and protection is more diminutive.
Cargo Truck: It is the slowest of all and provides the best protection while not recommended for off-roading.
Helicopter: The advantage is flying while a four-seat setup and provides better coverage.
Killstreaks
Buy Stations offer killstreaks purchase within the Verdansk map. Killstreaks are a famous component of every Call of Duty game, and their nature and number change in every new edition. Currently, there are three killstreaks that game offers. Players can carry one streak out of Precision Air Strike, UAVs, and Cluster Strike, ensuring even gameplay. Although killstreaks are available from Buy Stations, you still need to acquire a specific number of kills to charge them.
Every killstreak has a unique feature and helps you in different ways but don’t expect any groundbreaking help from them aside from assistance in-game. But the game feels unbalanced when player stockpiles their killstreaks and then use them in the later stages of the game. Using a set of killstreak in the last close circle can prove deadly.
Contracts
Players can find tasks built around objectives in Verdansk. These objective-oriented tasks are known as contracts. These in-game challenges need to complete alongside your main last team surviving battle royale. Contracts offer in-game cash and loot items to use at Buy Shops. They also provide special rewards like the ability to see the location of the next circle.
Multiple types of contracts are there in the Verdansk and tasks you to find pinged crates, protecting certain areas, and killing specific players. Securing location works like Call of Duty Domination mode, where the team needs to stand their ground and capture the required site. Aside from the rewards that we get from completing the contracts, we also bring fun to the game by doing the tasks. The rewarding nature of contracts bound players to them and provides exciting gameplay.
Buy Stations (Plunder)
The primary objective of Battle Royale is to eliminate other enemies and be the last man standing. Gathering cash in the match is not objective, but it helps to buy special items from Buy Stations. On the map, Buy Shops are visible with the shopping cart symbol. These shops offer Redeploy tokens, self-revive kits, killstreaks, and many other items.
In Plunder, Buy Stations has all the regular items that can leverage you over the enemies. While there is more to this and it has a unique item know as Cash Deposit Ballon. You do not need to worry about stealing your in-game cash once you upgrade your Cash Deposit Ballon. Away from the enemy, you can deposit in-game cash securely deposit cash to this ballon anywhere from the game. However, this mode is a diversion but not as engaging as battle royale. But it offers something new and different.
The Big Twists in Gaining XP
In traditional Call of Duty, XP is an essential factor in unlock camos, weapons, perks, attachments, etc. But you may question the need for XP in a battle royale. There is a twist from the genre formula, and XP here allows players to create a loadout before the game start and with weapons and perks of your will. Once you enter the match, you can access those customized kits in the game.
As mentioned already, there is an in-game money that helps you to shop in Buy Stations. This money stockpile as you play the game and let you buy the Loadout Drop marker. It allows your hands-on custom loadout or pre-made loadout once summoned in the game. This whole process eliminates the randomness of the game and reduces your search for weapons.
The downside is that this loadout makes the looting less relevant and gives you items that you want. In battle royales scavenging for weapons and gearing up is one of the main fun points, But taking away this randomness and giving already what they want to players takes the fun out. And players with high ranks and more XP can get an advantage over other players with a lower level.
Perks are abilities that are unique and improve the skill set of the character. There are several perks, including cold-blooded, double-time, tracker, etc. Cold Blooded prevents your detection from thermal scopes. Double time increases the speed during crouched movement and also increases the duration of the sprint. Several other perks present in the game give certain advantages against the player that don’t have these perks.
Communication is the Key
Success in a battle royale depends a lot on communication when playing in a team. With an ever-changing play zone, enemies all over and places, and fast gameplay, communication is a prerequisite throughout the game. For the team’s survival, all members need to talk and communicate the game’s current events. You can point to the enemy location or task your team various assignments over the voice.
For competitive gameplay, many teams use Discord as the communication medium. Because in-game communication channels can sometimes cause problems, a dedicated setup on Discord can work. The clarity of sound is much improved, and real-time communication is possible even with several people. You can point to the enemy location or discuss the strategy over the voice channel.
Anti-Cheating Mechanism
Cheating is a big issue in every game, and exploiters keep irritating the game’s loyal players. Infinity Ward contributed to the transparency in the Warzone and introduced a punishment system for cheaters. Whenever someone reports a cheater, they get banned from the game and reported get a notification regarding this progress. Suspected cheaters match with each other and observed for any evidence. A continuous violation of the rules or exploiting any bugs in the game can result in a permanent ban.
The developer of Call of Duty Warzone continues to put banhammer and has banned 50,000 cheaters. The cheater’s in-game use aimbots and wallhack. Aimbots kill the opponent without proper aiming, while wallhack lets you see and shot behind the wall. All of these cheats spoil the real essence of the game and reduce the Fairplay. The reporting and banning system is improving continuously and promoting fair play in the game.
Can your PC run Call of Duty Warzone?
Call of Duty: Warzone is available for download on the official site of Activision. For minimum requirement, you need a decent PC having Intel Corei3 4th Generation or AMD FX-6300 CPU. Graphics card of at least Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 required for smooth gameplay. But for a better experience, an Intel Core i5-2500k or AMD Ryzen R5 1600X CPU is needed. The Graphics cards need to be Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 580 GPU for smoother frame rates per second. Saving the progress and playing it seamlessly, you need an Activision account.
The game runs fine on a mid-range to high-end specifications desktop. Any PC with a mid-range graphics card runs COD: Warzone with constant smooth frame rates per second. Tweaking the visual setting from high to low also solves frame rate issues on low-end specification PC. You can tweak other locations, including particle lighting, shadow maps, ambient occlusion, motion blur, and anti-aliasing. Tweaking these settings improves the gameplay, and there should be no issue with the high-end PC specs.
Review for Parents
The game carries an M rating, and there is an element of violence in the game. But the blood and gore are there in the game and easy to turn off from the game settings. Like other games in the genre, there are not many bodies lying around. Swearing in the chats is easy to turn off, and turning the chat off in the game is no problem. Shooting and blood in the game are shown from a distance and minimize the element of violence. Overall, game mechanics are friendly for the parental controls, and modifications to reduce the gore and blood are accessible from within the settings.
Final Verdict
Call of Duty: Warzone remains the successful title right from the beta version till the date of article writing. Introduction to some new mechanics in the battle royale happened in this edition of the game. The combined mechanics of Call of Duty and the battle royale game proved to be successful. The game proved to be quality entertainment free of cost. Warzone has all the required perks and prominent features of a shooter game combined with the battle royale gameplay.
