March 7, 2023Call of Duty Warzone Review (Warzone 2.0 2023 Review)

Call of Duty is one of the biggest games in gaming history. It has garnered so many fans since its very first launch on October 29, 2003. Since then, the fanbase and Call of Duty game series have been continuously growing. With its most recent game release, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, fans had high expectations due to the success of its predecessor, Call of Duty: Warzone. But how does WZ2 compare to WZ1? Well, if you want to find out, continue reading our Call of Duty Warzone review on Warzone 2.0!

Call of Duty Warzone Review (Warzone 2.0)

The original Call of Duty: Warzone was a massive success for the COD series and was even titled as one of the best battle royale games on the market. That made the expectations for WZ2 so much higher. But is it better than the original, or was it a disappointment for the game series? Let’s find out!

Photo Credits to Steam

The launch of the new Warzone 2.0 on the 17th of November 2022, brought about a whole lot of new features and mechanics that the original Warzone did not have. It was a huge step from its predecessor, and a lot of fans had mixed feelings about it.

Photo Credits to Steam

A lot of fans loved the original Warzone so much that they thought that Warzone 2.0 would be an upgrade to what WZ1 had trouble with. But to the dismay of a lot of Call of Duty fans, Warzone 2.0 is kind of a whole new game, which may sound obvious, but WZ2 is a totally new game with just a few similarities to WZ1. From the new map and game engine to even the user interface and graphics, everything about WZ2 screams “new game,” instead of being an upgrade or expansion to WZ1.

Map and Mechanics

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0’s new map, Al Mazrah, and the Resurgence map, Ashika Island, are, to be honest, great maps. These maps were big and had decent graphics surrounding the environment. Because of the graphics, the maps felt a little less artificial and much more lively than the other maps in the COD series.

Al Mazrah feels more diverse and less artificial with its large desert, huge bodies of water, and small towns scattered all over the map. The huge bodies of water in the new Al Mazrah have stepped up the game in addition to the new and improved swimming mechanics. It’s one of the few things that the new WZ2 was better at compared to the original WZ1. The new swimming mechanics and large bodies of water give you a new mix of fights in WZ2 that WZ1 lacked.

Other than the new swimming mechanics added due to the larger bodies of water available, the new map is also much more balanced in terms of design. The different structures make for a wonderful variety of situations for close-quarters combat, but there are also many open areas for snipers. Turning from point to point doesn’t always feel difficult because there are many enormous rocks and other barriers that serve as protection. Fortunately, the open spaces don’t leave you particularly exposed when moving through them.

Gulag

Photo Credits to Steam

The Gulag—where if you get killed in the earlier parts of the game, you’ll get sent to go on a death match against another player to earn back your spot on the main map—is another feature that I quite liked in the new Warzone 2.0. The new Gulag has 2v2 clashes instead of forcing players into 1v1 battles for survival. It is significantly better for individuals who prefer working with someone because you are partnered up with a random person who also died in the earlier parts of the game.

The Jailer—a new AI combatant that arrives when no team is eliminated after a predetermined amount of time—appears if no team has been eliminated, and the first team to eliminate this foe wins.

With the new Gulag, there are quite a lot more possibilities, but it does seem much more flexible and dynamic. Although it is less simple than previously, the pace is still really quick.

Looting

Aside from the new maps in Warzone 2.0, another feature that was amplified was how you loot. In Warzone 2.0, looting feels a bit more natural. While players don’t seem to be in love with the revamped looting system just yet, it has the opportunity to be something great with a few adjustments. Cash registers can be looted for cash, and instead of relying on supply crates’ unpredictability, you can look in specific locations that make sense, making it much simpler to find the items you need.

Players do, however, now have access to a limited number of inventory slots in their backpacks. This means that you’ll spend a lot of time rearranging your own backpack just to make space for new items. This looting system is different from the original Warzone’s looting system, which was faster.

Photo Credits to Steam

Warzone 2.0 has had its fair share of new features, but that doesn’t change the fact that the game has a lot of glaring issues that have caused a lot of fans to take a step back from the game. But Warzone 2.0 isn’t beyond help. It has a great baseline that just needs a few (or a lot) tweaks that could help restore this battle royale game to a better position. The developers of Warzone 2.0 are actually doing some bug fixes, which you can check out in their Patch Notes. So, we hope they are able to address these issues to make Warzone 2.0 a game worthy of the hype it generated when it was first announced.

Final Verdict – Is It Worth Playing?

So, is Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 worthwhile to play?

Well, first and foremost, Warzone 2.0 is actually a totally free-to-play game. Thus, the only thing you’re going to give is your time and effort to play the game, because it costs absolutely no cash to get to play it. So, if you’re a big fan of the first Warzone, then there’s absolutely no harm in trying Warzone 2.0. But be warned, there are a lot of things to get used to because of how much of a step up Warzone 2.0 is from the original Warzone, from the new map and mechanics to the diversity and other new features that boost the game’s content, which you’ll uncover.

I don’t think it’s the worst game ever, but if you compare it to the other Call of Duty games, then this would be at the bottom of my list. It just has a lot of issues that I do not like dealing with, so if you’re not really up to dealing with its issues, then I’d probably wait until the developers are able to fix them. Other than that, Warzone 2.0 is worth a try!

We hope you enjoyed our Call of Duty review of Warzone 2.0!

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