News - Call Of Duty: Warzone 2 Review
Although Call of Duty: War Zone 2 introduces the new al-Mazara map, it integrates both new and iconic locations together to serve as a crucible for the battle royale's big overhaul of a lot of the game's core features and the introduction of Modern Warfare 2's mechanics and movement. The end result is mixed, with some of the new additions making the moment-to-moment action feel fresh while updates to other classic war zone features feel like a step back for the Battle Royale title.
Warzone 2's 150-player skirmishes of solo, duo, trio, and quad combatants are played out on the new Al-Mazra map, the fictional desert region in Western Asia. It does a great job of combining new Modern Warfare multiplayer maps with several nostalgic locations that longtime Call of Duty fans will recognize in every location, old or new. blends together to create a vibrant and beautiful environment.
Almazra feels more diverse
comparison to modern warfare for dance mapping Almazra feels more diverse with its mixture of arid deserts, large bodies of water, tight cities, and exposed small towns. Water was very limited in the original war zone because Modern Warfare lacked swimming mechanics, but the sequel brings over all the features and mechanics of Modern Warfare 2, which means that large bodies of water, boats, and swimming are now added to the mix, and their meaningful additions give you fresh ways to take on fights in war zone 2.
Being able to dive away from a bad gunfight or use it for stealth to flank an opponent in particular adds a new kind of dynamism to engagements. There's also a much better balance with how the map is designed; although vast for the dance stadium and calderas. Peak weighted the focus on those massive landmarks, making them choke points of sorts, al-mazura.
A great mix of environments
However, it doesn't have a similar focal point that's hard to traverse around like the aforementioned locations; instead, there's a great mix of environments with buildings for close quarters action but also a lot of open sight lines for sniping, thankfully. These spacious areas don't leave you too vulnerable when passing through them, as there are plenty of large rocks and other things to use as cover, so rotating from point to point doesn't always feel like a straw struggle.
One of the major gameplay changes that Warzone 2 introduces is the brand new "Circle" mechanic. Instead of one large circle, there are multiple microcircles appearing at once. There can be up to three of these smaller circles active in any given match, but eventually these all merge back together for the final circle.
Although unconventional for the Battle Royale genre, this approach does add a bit more spice to the mid-game action of War Zone matches on Verdansk or Caldera, which would quickly turn into players camping to wait out further circle collapses, almazaras, and micro circles. Force players together into condensed locations earlier to offer you more engagements leading up to the final circle collapse.
This simple change ensures matches feel engaging and like something is always happening around them. Again, good work, While microcirculation is a smart and welcome change, the same can't be said of War Zone 2's revamped Gulag. Sadly, Almazura comes with an overly complex and much larger Gulag Arena, which often puts your fate in someone else's hands.
The Gulag is no longer a simple 1v1 arena, and instead, your first death will transport you to a multi-level arena where you fight in 2v2 matches while temporarily paired up with another random player. The original Gulag was an exciting way to give you a second chance by providing you with added skills to win the 1v1 fight, but this new 2v2 twist leaves your fate partially in a random player's hands.
Although this Gulag does utilize the game's proximity chat feature, someone like me who sits in party chats with friends or squad mates will find themselves struggling to communicate with a temporary Duo partner, and if they or you die, the odds of survival become much more grim for the surviving player.
Al-mazra. Also featuring the addition of the new strongholds and black site loot locations, at the end of the first circle collapse, the strongholds are activated on the map, and there are 77 random locations where the strongholds can appear, but there will only ever be three on the map at once. are marked on the map as a large castle icon, and the first team to reach one must defuse a bomb there before a timer expires; otherwise, the objective for the remaining strongholds is to clear out a specific number of enemies.
Completing these will reward you with items like your loadout killstreaks. Gas masks and such You can go for an even greater challenge with black sites, which are basically just an even more dangerous form of strongholds. A black side is marked on the map with a skull icon and contains considerably tougher armored enemies, including a juggernaut boss.
It's also an enticing place to conquer for the in-game loot you receive for use in the match itself, which means it can turn this location into a major PowerPoint with all the high-end loot and Intel it offers looting. feels more natural to the environment in war zone 2. Cash can be looted from registers.
While house supplies are found in places like first aid kits, bathrooms, and ambulances, it's much easier to find the item that you need because you can look in specific places that make sense instead of relying on the randomness of supply crates. Warzone also adds a simplified backpack and a system that feels like a hybrid of Black Ops 4's blackout battle royale and the original War Zone.
You can start with a small pack that has six inventory slots, but you can loot or purchase a pack that has more. At first, having a backpack to stow and pull items from seems like a hassle because you can often find yourself hiding somewhere, rummaging through your pack to drop or add items, feeling vulnerable in the process.
However, it's actually really convenient to be able to carry more supplies. It's nice to know you can lug around an extra stack of armor plates for yourself or that one teammate who never has enough armor. However, this approach does pave the way for some potentially annoying situations too, such as having a backpack full of one item.
There are opportunities to spam certain items if you're able to collect enough of them, and this could have a negative impact in late-game scenarios. Just like in Blackout, there is now a rare three-tier armor item by default. You'll only be able to carry two armor plates and will now need to loot a three-plate vest to equip a third one.
