Warzone 2.0 Needs To Bring Back Some Of Its Predecessor’s Ideas

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When Activision threw their hat into the battle royale ring with Warzone back in 2020, there’s no doubt that a large part of its success was due to the timing of its release. It was March 2020, COVID-19 was spreading like a wildfire, the world was in a state of panic, and shortly after the launch of Warzone, most of the world began entering into lockdown. It was an unprecedented time for the world, being told to not leave the house unless absolutely necessary was something many of us had never seen in our lifetime. As such, we all had to find a way to kill time, so many of us took that saying literally and decided to kill time by killing others (virtually, of course).

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Warzone might have been all the rage when it launched, but over the course of its life cycle, it received some hugely important quality-of-life changes made to bring it up to scratch. Now, with the launch of Warzone 2.0 just a few weeks ago, it quickly became evident that a sizeable portion of the community feedback and changes made over the last two years has simply gone to waste for this new-and-not-entirely-improved outing. When Activision confirmed that Infinity Ward would be the lead developer for Warzone 2.0, with Raven Software having more of a support role, design changes were of course to be expected. With that said, reversing improvements that took the original devs a long time to implement seems a little counterintuitive, to say the least.

One of these changes was the gas mask animation, an issue that spanned multiple patches and seasons before the community finally got what it asked for. The gas mask, which enables players to stay inside of the encroaching storm for an extra minute or so, features an animation of the player removing the mask when leaving the storm. More often than not, this animation would interrupt gun fights and disadvantage the player. After plenty of complaints from players, Raven Software eventually altered the gas mask animation so that it wouldn’t interrupt players mid-battle. But, after players still weren’t happy, the decision was made to simply give players the option to remove or equip the mask themselves.

It really didn’t take a brain surgeon to work out that this was the easiest fix, but is this simplest of features available in Warzone 2.0? No, no it is not. The gas mask animation isn’t as annoying in Warzone 2.0, but making it automated again feels like a backwards step. Given that Call of Duty has always been more of a fast-paced arcade shooter, what even is the need for the animation that serves no real purpose but to hinder your experience. I’ve got a sneaky suspicion that if it was removed altogether, and was just indicated by the UI in the bottom left, nobody would complain.

Second to the gas mask animation issue is the audibility of enemy footsteps, which were incredibly inconsistent in Warzone, making it too hard to hear enemies even if they were sprinting right behind you. Again, this was something the community was incredibly vocal about, and it took numerous patches before it was even close to acceptable. In a competitive shooter, hearing – or not hearing – your enemy could be the difference between a win and a loss, so I was left confused when I saw that at the launch of Warzone 2.0, we were right back to square one. Not only has the ability to equip or remove your gas mask at will been removed, but the audio levels of enemy footsteps are once again inconsistent and too quiet.

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It doesn’t stop there. Towards the backend of Warzone’s life cycle, Raven Software updated the teammate UI – found at the bottom left of the screen – with some pretty cool changes. We were finally able to see everything our teammates were kitted out with, including kill streaks, gas masks, and armor plates. This might not seem like a huge issue, but for the tactical players out there, knowing what your teammates were equipped with could be a pretty big deal. That’s now gone in 2.0.

In a way, the minuteness of this issue is even more frustrating than some of the bigger ones, because really guys, what’s so hard about carrying over some small UI changes? When a community praises changes made to your game, why leave them out of the sequel? To me, it just seems like something went wrong in the communication between Raven Software and Infinity Ward.

Credit where it’s due, Infinity Ward has made some great changes too. Again, this is a small issue, but one of the most frustrating parts of Warzone for me was the ability to shoot and kill players immediately when dropping out of the plane. I have a few choice words for the developer who thought it would be a good idea to let players use a pistol in between parachuting, but I’m also eager to buy the developer who removed it in Warzone 2.0 a beer.

Modern Warfare 2 screenshot

Although it’s a controversial addition amongst the community, I’m also a big fan of the inclusion of AI and strongholds throughout the map. Considering Warzone 2.0’s gameplay is much slower than that of its predecessor, the AI fills a gap and adds a rather unique twist to the typical Battle Royale formula. They also serve a solid purpose too, now that we can’t simply run up to a ‘buy’ station and purchase a loadout drop; tackling a stronghold to get your loadout makes things more interesting and gives you more of an objective to jump into.

Warzone 2.0 is a great game, the slower gameplay and new looting system makes it feel more like a standard Battle Royale title, but new additions such as AI and strongholds make it stand out from the crowd. If only Infinity Ward actually paid attention to the changes Raven Software made throughout the original Warzone, its successor could have been even better than it already is.

NEXT: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) Campaign Review

 

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