Call of Duty Warzone was launched earlier this week on the 10th of March and with much anticipation to experience the new Battle Royal Mode. Lets explore what Warzone has on offer, the game play mechanics , map, modes etc.
Warzone really does posses a large Map and there is plenty of area to cover and explore. I felt like I didn't get to the point of were I was bored and found that I could drop into multiple areas and dive straight into the action with other players. I feel with other BR games there are more traditional "Hot Spots" and quiet ones, but with Warzone the action is really well spread across the Map.
In terms of the game setup, you can have a Team of 3 players (you can set this to two players as well if you have only one friend for example and do not want a rando to join you). Warzone has a total of 150 participants in a given Match. This was slightly concerning to me at first, especially for finding local games, but honestly I have been finding local games fairly easily thus far.
Before starting the BR for the first time, you will play through a tutorial section which gives you a great breakdown of how to play the game effectively. The mechanics of the parachute system is really great and easy to navigate, especially based on the fact that if you time it right you can actually shoot people from the air before landing. You spawn with Pistol and two plates of armour, so no PUBG madness of running around punching one another! You will still need to look up rather quick and start taking out the enemy players asap. Players can be slightly Tanky when they have all 3 armour slots filled up, but I found that killing them was not that difficult compared to Blackout. The looting system overall is really straight forward, when you kill an opponent, open up a lootbox or crate, the Loot will drop, it is really easy to see what there is and calculate your decision from what to pick up.
The game has a currency system that you should "pay" special attention to as your cash will reward you with great goodies for tactical opportunities moving forward. There is a list of various Killstreaks that you can purchase along with Armour plates, self revive kits, custom loudout crates, etc. The buy station is where this all happens and it is crucial to look out for their locations as this is where you also buy back fallen team mates for $4500.
In Warzone, if you are killed, you get spawned into the Gulag. This is where you get a chance to get back into the game without having to pay for it, well paying for it with your life against your enemy opponent as you battle in a 1v1, with various weapons and tactical equipment. If the rounds time runs down, you can be sneaky and secure a flag in the centre of the Gulag fighting pit to win as well. Once you have won, you will be able to spawn back into the game and either join up with your teammates again or buy them back into the game if they have failed in the Gulag or just died after this event. Just remember, you only have a pistol again when you land so choose wisely where you land!
There is also objective based missions scattered throughout the map that will give you cash when you complete them like achieving a bounty on an enemy player. This bounty will show up on your enemies side mentioning the fact that they are being hunted and it will give you the area of where this player is located. So both sides will have to decide how to handle the encounter.
Furthermore, Warzone also brings in a new game mode called Plunder. In this game mode you will be thrown in with your squad and the objective is to collect as much money as possible in order to win the game. At first I was rather skeptical about this mode, but after playing it for a few hours, I have fallen in love!
The one great attraction of this mode was being able to firstly keep on respawing into the game, after a 15 second delay and the fact that you can choose your own Loadout from the start of the game. The mode is really high paced and collecting cash has never been this much fun.
You need to deposit your cash as fast and effectively as possible. There is two ways of achieving this by either calling in a deposit Helicopter, which allows you to deposit as much money as you want or via a money balloon, which has cash deposit limitations. Which ever route you use will attract some real hostile attention to your position so be prepared to fight! The buy system works fairly similar to Warzone, but is more limited for this game mode as the strategy you are using to win is a bit different. My overall experience was really fast paced as you are running around looking for Cash, trying to eliminate players for their cash. The map will also reveal players who are carrying a large sum of cash and give a red circled area as to their location so you can hunt them down for a large reward. When you die, you loose half of your cash resource, so when you re-spawn you can go back to your death location to try kill the enemy players and take back what is yours!
To sum up Warzone, the game really runs well and for PC players, download the latest Nvidia and AMD drivers for a better experience. A really important point is the fact that this was released as a Free to Play. This allows lobbies to fill up, it creates a much bigger player base and the fact that cross play is involved makes life so much easier to find games and especially for us South Africans that struggled with this so much in Blackout in Black Ops 4. The game modes give loads of room to play the way you want to play and the customisation to add to your decision making feels endless. I do feel that in Warzone they could reduce the round timers slightly to move the game pace between gas rings more effectively, but overall the game has really grown on me with both game modes introducing loads of fun and especially when you get to experience it with friends.
You can experience Warzone and Plunder for Free on PS4, Xbox One and PC right here