Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 Review: An Explosive Battle Royale Shooter

Despite the success, the first Call of Duty Warzone was not an impeccable product and since its release it presented major technical flaws that the developers have not been able to solve in any way, to the point of being forced to publish a completely new chapter.

In short, Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 constitutes a necessary reset for this free to play trend and is a fundamental piece of the new era of the IP game with Modern Warfare 2 (by the way, here is our complete review of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2). We therefore parachuted to Al Mazrah to discover all the novelties of this free but at the same time enormously ambitious experience.

Welcome to Al Mazrah

In large part, Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 is exactly what we would have expected from Activision and its many teams working on the series. The starting point is that of the excellent Modern Warfare 2, which we have already talked about extensively and which we greatly appreciated, albeit with some reservations.

From the gunplay to the weapon customization system, the quality level of the experience is high and guarantees the free shooter a solid frame, perfect for taking part in the frenetic battles in Al Mazrah . Anyone who has played Warzone over the last year knows well that Caldera failed to hit the target and turned out to be the worst map among those proposed in the first two years of the free to play life, due to a monotonous and devoid setting of memorable places.

And it is precisely here that the new desert setting comes into play , which represents at the moment the only combat scenario available (almost certainly a Rebirth Island/Fortune Island-style map will not be long in coming). Modern cities, small villages, a fortress, a hydroelectric plant and an airport : these are just some of the points of interest that you can reach to start your raids around the map, perhaps in the company of a group of friends. In addition to a considerable extension and greater than that of the arenas that preceded it, Al Mazrah can be appreciated mainly for its varietyand for the care taken in the creation of each single scenario, which as per tradition is inspired by iconic places from the series such as the POI that winks at Dome , the legendary MW3 map. Despite being flat from a chromatic point of view, Al Mazrah is to date the best war scenario among those proposed in the battle royale and can only improve with the inevitable changes that will upset it in the coming months.

A portion of its surface is obviously covered by water, given the presence of underwater combat .Again we cannot argue that this is a revolutionary mechanic, but it still represents a strategic possibility that expands the range of tactics that Warzone players can exploit to prevail over their opponents. Instead, we continue to find the usefulness of the holds dubious , a system that we have never seen in use by our enemies during the matches played.

Another novelty of recurring gameplay is the third person : the battle royale played in this way is a really interesting experience. Let me be clear, it is self-evident that Warzone 2.0 was created to be lived in subjective and the modalities with the camera behind the operator remain a step below. In any case, taking part in matches with this visual solution is absolutely pleasant. The possibility of peering beyond the cover and having a much wider vision area makes the clashes even more frenetic and opens up the possibility of ambushing based not only on sound but also on sight.

In the remote corners of this war scenario there is also the Gulag, which is essentially identical to the one we have already known for years, but is completely different in shape. The beauty of the ‘Gulag 1.0’ was precisely the focus on skills: the stronger of the two contenders had the upper hand, whether it was mere aiming skills or cunning in the use of tactical / lethal equipment. Instead, the new arena adds layers of complexity that weren’t really needed, making any victory the result of both skill and luck .

Being flanked by an unskilled player – the clashes are between two pairs of players, not necessarily belonging to the same team – will cause the clash to turn into a difficult one against two, especially when the Warder comes into play . Yes, because in the Warzone 2.0 Gulag it is enough to wait a few seconds for an AI-controlled mini-boss to join the party, whose defeat allows all challengers on the field to return to Al Mazrah.

The loot revolution

The presence of the Warder in the Gulag provides us with the perfect hook to talk more generally about bots , which can be encountered throughout the map. These enemies, usually resistant due to the thick armor they wear, patrol places in Al Mazrah called Strongholds , which are dangerous areas whose doors open in the later stages of a match and which balance the risk involved in facing them with quite a lot ‘of rewards.

Clearing a nest of AI-managed enemies is one of the systems that leads to custom classes , which are no longer tied to buy stations, however present with the very useful killstreaks and armor, now available in multiple versions with a capacity of plates different. In Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 it is not enough to collect a few dollars to request a supply, as players must fight tooth and nail to get their hands on the tools of death that they have carefully crafted in the appropriate section of the menus. Loadout drops now occur regularly across the map , and challengers must prove they’re skilled enough to grab one without falling victim to enemy fire.We really appreciated this change of course, since in this way it is less obvious to collect one’s weapons, and indeed it is often necessary to make do with what is around.

In this regard, the guns and the loot in general have undergone a drastic change that we could define as the cross and delight of the free battle royale. Forget the colored weapons that levitate on the floor: in Warzone 2.0 the loot is positioned in a contextual way without any particular colors that indicate its rarity. Cash registers hold cash, trunks might hide weapons, and medicine shelves in bathrooms always have some stimulant in them.

If this novelty is more than welcome and makes the game more credible, it is the looting that is not convincing : the way in which objects are collected and inventory is managed is cumbersome and sometimes even performing trivial actions such as replacing a weapon equipped. Apex Legends does not hit the target and we hope that this element can undergo some changes that make it more intuitive, especially with the use of the controller.

The last major change concerns the advancement of the gas, since Warzone 2.0 renounces the classic circle that shrinks in favor of a dynamic development of the match . At a certain point, in fact, based on the number of survivors, up to a maximum of three smaller circles are generatedat different points, which then converge at the same place. We are not dealing with the new battle royale revolution, but the triple circle seems to have improved the pace of the game, avoiding that all the firefights concentrate in specific moments and then give way to long phases in which you just walk around looking for unfortunate people to shoot down.

DMZ

Some define them as ‘extraction shooters’ , others include them in the broader category of survival FPS: regardless of what you decide to call them, Escape From Tarkov-style shooters are attracting public attention and it was only a matter of time before that giants like Call of Duty tried to exploit the recipe to offer interesting modes.

È così che nasce DMZ , un’esperienza che accompagna Warzone 2.0 attualmente in phase di Beta ma già giocabile in forma gratuita. Non ve ne faremo segreto: del pacchetto approntato dagli studi di Activision è quella che ha saputo divertirci di più. Non è infatti la mappa a cambiare ma le regole che sostengono la partita di un gruppo formato da un massimo di tre giocatori. Questa unità è chiamata ad affrontare sia altri team di sfidanti reali, sia gruppi di bot piuttosto temibili, in degli scontri che se perduti comportano la perdita dell’equipaggiamento portato in battaglia. In compenso, le armi recuperate sul campo si riportano a casa, così da poter essere utilizzate in future spedizioni. Eliminare il Chimico , l’attuale boss di Al Mazrah, e rubare il suo preziosissimo M13Bè un’impresa non facile e rende la successiva fase d’estrazione in elicottero un momento tanto delicato quanto emozionante: in frangenti come questi non si agisce per vincere e lo stile di gioco cambia del tutto, visto che l’unica cosa che conta è sopravvivere, non far fuori quanti più nemici possibile.

A rendere le cose ancora più divertenti ci pensa la nuova chat di prossimità , che consente a chi vuole usufruirne di parlare con qualsiasi giocatore nei paraggi, magari per provare a trattare ed evitare che ne scaturisca uno scontro a fuoco. Detto questo, il reale problema di DMZ è da ricercare nella povertà del suo metagame .

Con questo termine ci si riferisce a tutto ciò che permane al termine della partita, con DMZ che non permette di conservare nulla al di fuori delle armi. Malgrado la presenza del loot in partita, non esiste un modo per tenere anche gli oggetti e mancano sia un sistema di crafting, che la possibilità di acquistare o vendere equipaggiamento. Ciò non è sufficiente a farci cambiare idea su una modalità il cui scheletro funziona perfettamente e che di certo verrà ampliata con gli aggiornamenti stagionali.

Problemi tecnici, bug ed imperfezioni

Proprio come per Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 anche la componente free to play del titolo di Activision presenta un numero rilevante di imperfezioni , che richiederebbero un intervento da parte dei team di sviluppo.

Apart from a few glitches and sporadic problems with the animations in the third-person mode, we have not encountered major hitches on the scenic level and, on the contrary, we were pleasantly surprised by the visual distance that allows us to identify even more distant opponents on consoles.

The problems of Warzone 2.0 concern the slowness of the matchmaking – unjustified for a title so played and with cross-play support – the double loads before accessing any game, the delay in the positioning of the ping and the application crashes that have occurred tested on multiple platforms and in different contexts. Added to these hurdles is a menu and game interface that inherits all the problems of MW2 and which, to be honest, presents new ones.

La mappa di gioco è quasi illeggibile per via di icone simili tra loro nella forma e nel colore, senza contare la costante presenza a schermo di messaggi – anche dalle dimensioni generose – che informano l’utente circa i giocatori che stanno abbandonando il match o che sono vittima di errori di rete: si tratta di informazioni ininfluenti ai fini del match, che non hanno senso di essere mostrate a schermo, talvolta anche con fastidiose sovrapposizioni. Come potete intuire, si tratta di difetti sì ingombranti, ma al contempo esterni al core gameplay e non così gravi da non poter essere sistemati con una patch, che speriamo arrivi in ​​tempo per il debutto della Stagione 2, all’inizio del prossimo anno. Una piccola parentesi finale dobbiamo dedicarla a Ricochet Anti-Cheat, che sembra stia finalmente iniziando a fare il suo lavoro.