Is Warzone 2.0 good? Here's what the community is saying
Now that the highly anticipated sequel to Call of Duty’s free-to-play Battle Royale mode Warzone has arrived, opinions on the overall experience have been mixed. Here’s what the gaming community has been saying about Warzone 2.0 in its first few days of playing time.
The good
Proximity chat
Warzone 2.0 has introduced proximity chat to the mode for the first time ever. This allows players to speak to other people in their surrounding area over voice — even if they’re in entirely different squads. The vast majority of the gaming community has loved the addition of this feature, as it allows for some extremely funny moments to take place mid-game.
In the first 24 hours we’ve seen brutal betrayals, trash talk, and temporary alliances being forged across livestreams and social posts.
Here’s one of our favourites from former Call of Duty League pro Thomas "ZooMaa" Paparatto.
ZooMaa added to this with a simple Tweet saying: “The proximity chat in Warzone 2 is incredible.”
That said, proximity chat does open the doors to toxicity and flaming. And with the gaming industry at large taking steps to address this issue, we’ll have to wait and see if proximity chat remains a positive feature to Warzone 2.0, or whether it becomes a pit fall of the game.
New map: Al Mazrah
Following the widely disliked Caldera from the Call of Duty Vanguard season of Warzone, Al Mazrah has been highly regarded as one of—if not the best—map out of Warzone’s offerings to date. With clear visibility, recognizable points of interest, and a brand new mixture of activities, it’s no surprise that the majority of the community loves this new stomping ground.
The bad
A new game release can’t be all positive. Here are the negatives that the community is taking away from Warzone 2.0 in its first few days.
Overall performance
An issue that’s all too common with gaming these days is the poor technical performance of new titles, and Warzone 2.0 is no exception.
Even looking beyond the server issues that left many people unable to play the game on the first day, Warzone 2.0 is plagued with frame stuttering and considerable drops in FPS compared to the multiplayer component of its partner title, Modern Warfare II.
Complaints have mostly stemmed from PC players, so if you’re on console then it should be a safer bet for you to drop in now. But we’re certainly hoping this issue can be addressed soon so that the game is open (and smooth) for the entire gaming community.
Looting system
One of the most criticized changes of Warzone 2.0 is Infinity Ward’s changes to the looting system from the original Warzone.
Instead of all a player’s items being scattered across the floor following their death, you’ll now only see their weapons out in the open. To access their cash, armor plates, field upgrades, and more, you’ll need to open up a separate backpack to bring up the looting menu — like in Blackout from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
There are numerous threads on r/CODWarzone of players feeling vexed by the new system, with many calling for the return of the previous Warzone’s looting system.
The sentiment very much seems to be: don’t fix what wasn’t broken.
Unfortunately for many, though, the chance of this looting system being reverted is slim, as the game seems to have been built with it in mind, but it is possible that Infinity Ward might streamline the process to be more player-friendly — especially to those on controller.
The divide
Game pacing
A significant change to Warzone 2.0 is the overall pacing of each game, due to it being built upon the newly-released Modern Warfare II.
Whilst the original Warzone favored players that utilized slide-cancelling and bunny hopping to outplay their opponents, these have been removed entirely from Warzone 2.0. This has led to much slower games and a divide in the community.
On the one hand, those who previously utilized movement to rush their opponents and overwhelm them are finding it difficult to adjust, whereas more methodical players largely approve of the change, seeing it as a way to bring more strategy to the game.
---
Where will you land on the spectrum? That’s for you to decide. These are the major talking points surrounding Warzone 2.0 immediately after its release.
If you think it sounds like a good game that you’d enjoy hopping into, then we’d say go for it. If you’d rather wait to see what changes (if any) are made to Warzone 2.0 based on community feedback, then we’d say that’s fair too.
One thing’s for certain, though: plenty of people are having fun on it.
