Call of Duty: Warzone Review

"Plundering Battle Royale"

Multiplayer

March 29, 2020 at 4:19am
By Jason Stettner

This is a free to play standalone release that takes the great core Modern Warfare gameplay and fits it into a battle royale situation. You either play from the separate release, or can do so right from the menu of Modern Warfare if you own it. This release presents two main modes, the first being the traditional battle royale and the latter being Plunder.

In the former you try to be the last one standing while fighting in teams of three. There are 150 players on the map at once, which is quite action packed. Since launch has passed, they’ve also added a singles option too with more modes likely planned down the road.

While trying to be the last team standing you’ll gather loot, and be pushed inwards due to a deadly gas. If you die you’ll be sent to the Gulag for 1v1 matches where you need to win to return. An alternate return option is if your squad buys you back in. This area does close towards the end game portion of a match.

With Plunder it’s basically a never ending deathmatch where you collect cash and then deploy it to score. Your team is fighting to get the most cash, and these matches take a fair bit of time to play through. I honestly was not a fan of Plunder, finding it rather boring though I do appreciate the extra option for play. Again, not battle royale with this one being just a deathmatch with a cash collection focus to it.

Gameplay

This takes the typical first person shooter action from the latest Modern Warfare entry and presents it here. That includes the various refinements to the franchise’s gameplay. They’ve also streamlined the inventory system so you’re never really managing it and just playing. Aside from straight up combat on foot, a number of vehicles can be driven as well. There’s a team design to them, so be sure to squad up when you can. As you play you’ll earn cash, this can be spent on various upgrades aside from bringing your team members back.

You might also be able to get a package drop which can include multiplayer classes to bring into the battle royale which is rather interesting. A key aspect here is armor which can be collected and added up to three plates at a time per person. This map is truly insane in terms of scale. It’s a pile of the multiplayer maps stacked onto one big area with extra new additions as well. It’s quite simple to traverse, and easily spreads out the population. There are key points, and these are shown clearly with a perfect mapping option.

It’s easy to coordinate with your team, as you attempt to traverse this massive area. Performance is also mostly great, some dips on Xbox One X though it’s just generally impressive considering the scale of this one. It’s amazing what they were able to achieve, especially considering the draw distance that’s present. It’s great to get in there, battle for various tiers of loot while unleashing some extra abilities and just trying to survive while you move forward.

The Conclusion

Call of Duty: Warzone is a great battle royale experience that delivers more than what you would expect in a free to play offering. I do wish that more modes were present, as that aspect seems limited at the moment. The core mode is excellent whereas Plunder came across as rather boring to me.

I liked the systems they deployed in the combat here, the cash and the Gulag change things up quite a bit. The world is very well designed, and truly impressive in terms of scale. This feels like the first truly next generation battle royale experience, and it shines on this new engine. Taking over the key gameplay from Modern Warfare worked well and it’s very neat how the various maps merge together so well.

It’s a lot of fun to play, action packed and seems to be getting updates with changes to content so that should be exciting to see play out over time. It’s definitely worth checking out and one seriously large scale battle. With that, I feel we’re honestly getting closer to full scale city battles down the road in gaming.

Read our Modern Warfare Review
View our Call of Duty

Call of Duty: Warzone Review on Xbox One X

Rating Overall: 8.2