Everyone talks about the newest release from Activision, Call of Duty: Warzone. After only two weeks, over 30 million people played this game across all platforms (Pc, Xbox, and Playstation) to fight against in an epic match of battle royale.
I am a big fan of the Battlefield franchise, COD’s biggest opponent. However, the newest releases from Dice didn’t give me the rush and experience I expected to have, so I had to find it elsewhere. In this review, I want to show you what I experienced playing Call of Duty Warzone, which is also the first game from Activision I have ever played.
Watch the trailer:
How is the gameplay of COD Warzone?
Warzone looks similar to Modern Warfare, which already released in 2019 for all platforms, in terms of the game-, and gunplay. Players already expected this, since Warzone is an addition to the main game Modern Warfare. However, as this is a battle royale game, you have a lot more options on how you can play this game.
Warzone takes place on a giant map, which is divided into many different areas. You can find urban zones, industrial buildings, airports, or prisons, and stadiums. Inside and outside of these structures, you can find chests to loot to get a good weapon to start with. Unlike Realm Royale or Battlefield Firestorm, games have a much faster pace in combination with many more players on the map than most battle royales have.
Currently, 150 people across all platforms can play around together, but you can also change the settings so that you only play against people on your platform. Having 150 gamers on one map was a great decision from the developers, as it makes sure everyone has some action, across the map.
Note: You cant play Warzone as Duo at the moment but as a 3 player squad. If you want to play solo, you can set autofill to off, but you still have to face teams up to three opponents. Hopefully, Activision decides to add these options too in the future.
In chests, you can find different weapons, but also many different grenade types, gadgets, ammunition, and cash too. All players can carry the same amount of supplies, weapons, and gadgets, so there are no backpacks that complicate things.
When you kill an enemy, he will drop all his items on the ground, so you can pick the things you want pretty easily (and fast). However, dying is not the end in this game, as you get a second chance by winning a 1v1 fight in the gulag.
The gulag is a brand new mechanic, which allows you to respawn, so your teammates don’t have to buy you back at a store. In the gulag, you first have to wait a few seconds to get into the fight, and at this time, you can watch other people fighting.
When it’s your turn, you get a random set of equipment, which can range from pistols, shotguns, or rifles (you get grenades too). If you manage to defeat your opponent, you will spawn in the air (near your squad), but without the gear you had before.
Note: Chests make a unique sound to the point they got open. So having a decent headset enables you to locate them much easier.
Over the curse of the match, there is a high chance that you will meed another team, and a gunfight begins. If you didn’t play Modern Warfare previously or you didn’t play any COD in the past, it will take time to get used to the weapons.
As far as I can say, most weapons have their own playstyle, and at which moments they shine. As the map is massive, it’s hard to have a weapon for any situation, especially as the zone moves differently between matches. For example: When the zone takes place at the stadium, having a rocket launcher isn’t quite useful, as an SMG could be.
There are many different aspects of what could have an influence on the fight, such as having the high ground, better weapons, more armor, support from squad members, and so on.
Warzone does so many things right that I missed in Firestorm and other battle royale games that got released over the years. Even some minor details can make a game so much better, which Warzone has a lot. The weapons and movement feel fantastic, creating a unique experience that I first experienced in Battlefield 4.
The other half of Warzone: Plunder!
Battle royale is not the only game mode that you can play in Warzone. The second game mode is called plunder and takes place on the same map, also with 150 players divided into 3 man squads (or smaller teams).
However, in this mode, it is not your goal to be the last one alive. The main goal is to collect $1 million in cash and deposit it on delivery points. Money can be found in chests, but also be looted from other players, by eliminating them. But beware, the squad that holds the most significant amount of cash gets highlighted on the map, which is visible for everyone.
Another difference between the battle royale mode and plunder is that there is no zone that moves around, and you don’t have to loot chests to get decent weapons. Before the match starts, you can select one of your loadouts you want to play with, and even after dying in a gunfight, you will respawn with this loadout.
To get to the million-dollar goal as fast as possible, you can accept challenges that can be found on the map. At the moment, there are three different challenges you can take:
| Scavenger: Find specific chests and open them to get a good chunk of money (about 60k to 75k) |
| Recon: Go to a particular location and defend it for a few seconds (prize is about 75k) |
| Bounty: Eliminate a specific player in a set amount of time (you can get about 75k from this mission) |
Besides challenges, there are other methods to get a lot of money in a short amount of time. From time to time, supply boxes will spawn in random locations on the map, and if you manage to loot some of them, you can get significant amounts of money. To loot as many of them as possible, go into a helicopter or any other vehicle and find them on the map (they get marked with a $ symbol).
Another way to get good money is to bring down attack choppers, that appear throughout the game. But beware, this is very dangerous since they kill you extremely fast.
To deposit your collected cash, you have two options: first, you could search for a delivery point and call a helicopter by throwing a smoke grenade (you have to go on the platform to do that!). The second method would be to buy a “cash deposit balloon” at a buying station.
Note: Deposit balloons have a limit of 200k that can be deposited per balloon, while you can deposit all of your money at once.
Going to delivery points is very risky, as there are only a few of them on the whole map at the time, so there are always some people in these areas. This is one of the most popular strategies in the game, as everyone has to use these points to deposit their huge sums.
But overall, I love this game mode so far. It is super fun to play, and we can level up our weapons to unlock new attachments for them. I watched some other videos about this mode too, and most people liked this new game mode too.
Weapon and loadout customization:
Modern Warfare released with a lot of different weapons that we can use in battle royale and plunder as well. By eliminating other players and collecting points, weapons level up and unlock new attachments, such as grips, optics, lasers, underbarrels, ammunition, and more.
Depending on which level your weapon has, you can equip more attachments (up to five max), which can drastically improve your weapon. Besides accessories, you can also equip different skins, charms, or stickers, which can be bought or unlocked in the battle pass.
Before you jump into a game of battle royale or plunder, there is one thing that you have to do first: create one or more custom loadouts. This is so important, as there is no option to modify your weapons inside of a match, and you can use them in battle royale too. By buying a supply box, you can choose one of your custom loadouts, that want to use for the rest of the match.
These boxes are not that expensive eighter, so you can get your hands on a fully customized set of weapons and gadgets in just a few minutes.
In the customization screen, you can also change your perks, grenades, gadgets, killstreaks, and field upgrades. Customizing your perks can give you an advantage over other players in specific situations, like being undetectable by the AI targeting system and thermal optics.
To unlock new gadgets, killstreaks, and more, you have to increase your player level. The max rank that you can achieve is 155 at the moment, so there is enough to do. To level fast in Warzone, I play plunder and focus on collecting as much cash as possible.
How are the visuals of COD Warzone?
Warzone doesn’t look like Battlefield, Fortnite, or Apex Legends. It has its own style, and looks very good, as other parts of COD before. Depending on your graphic settings, the game can look fantastic, but to play on the highest settings, you probably need a decent PC.
However, if you don’t own a brand new PC like me (mine is about 7 years old now), you cant play the game on ultra graphics. But without this, the game looks super good (menu and in-game), but not as good as Battlefield 5.
Navigating in the menus is very easy, and we need only a few clicks to get to where we want, unlike in Battlefield 1, which was horrible. If the regular weapon skins are not enough for you, there is the option to buy skins in the shop too, which are a bit more flashy.
Overall, Warzone does a decent job in terms of its visuals, especially at the menus, and weapon customization.
Problems that Warzone currently has:
Even the newest addition to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is not perfect, as there are some issues that I (and many other players) encountered while playing the game. The first larger issue is that some weapons are a bit too strong at the moment, as the RPG. This weapon is very powerful and can down a person almost instantly if you manage to get a good hit.
In the community of Modern Warfare, there is another controversial topic, which focuses on thermal snipers. There are a few optics that can be used on a sniper, but thermal optics differ from each other. With this optic, you can spot enemies way easier than with different optics. However, it can be countered for some extend by running the perk “cold blooded,” but not completely.
Besides these minor balancing problems, there is a huge one: cheaters. Warzone has a big problem with cheaters, who ruin the experience for everyone. Luckily, Activision already works on this problem and wants to release a reporting tool too, which makes it way easier to report these little…
The next issue is more an annoying thing, but many people in the community talk about that topic: rooftop campers. Personally, I don’t really care about them and look for ways to get around the area, but yes, they are very annoying. However, there are some ways to get a roof cleared, like calling an airstrike, or another killstreak.
Another more substantial problem that needs to be fixed is the audio in the game. Being able to hear your enemies, which are in the same building or near you, is necessary to handle the situation correctly. At the moment, it’s challenging to hear footsteps. Some time ago, a lot of players felt that footsteps are way too loud, so the developers made them less noisy. But now, we have the direct opposite: they need to be louder.
In-game monetization:
Warzone can be downloaded and played by everyone entirely for free, which is super cool and a great move from Infinity Ward. But like many other F2P games, there is an option to spend money on the game. In this case, you can buy COD Points that can be used to purchase skin packages, operator bundles, and more.
However, you can only buy pure decorative skins, so nobody has a disadvantage because of that. COD Points can also be earned by playing the game and increasing your level in the battle pass, which simply allows you to get bundles for free.
Final verdict:
Warzone is an excellent addition, and would even work as a stand-alone game if you ask me. It does almost everything right, besides some issues, of course. The weapons feel precise, heavy, and responsive. The map is fantastic, the visuals are decent, and there are vehicles and killstreaks and more.
If we are not in the mood for some battle royale, or we need to warm up first, there is the second game mode: plunder, which is also fantastic. Warzone brings a lot of variety to us, and it has the potential to stay for a long time if the main issues get fixed. I really missed the weapon customization in Battlefield 5, so I’m pleased to find it here again. Only after playing the game for a few days, I love this game and had cool moments too.
Sometimes, the game feels a bit like Battlefield 4, in terms of what crazy things people can do in this game. So I already look forward to some cool montages on Youtube…
If you thought about downloading Warzone, or you were not sure about it, I highly recommend giving this fantastic game a shot and try it out by yourself. You can download it entirely free on the battle.net launcher (link down below), so you don’t have to spend a dime on it.
And if you played Warzone previously, please share your opinion about the game down in the comments.
| ?? Pros of Call Of Duty: Warzone | ?? Cons of Call Of Duty: Warzone |
| Excellent gameplay | Audio issues (footsteps) |
| Two game modes | Some weapons need to be balanced |
| Many different weapons | Camping |
| Free to play | Connection problems |
| Decent visuals | |
| 150 player lobbies | |
| Weapon customization | |
| Overall a lot of things to do |
