Five Features Infinity Ward Should Add to Warzone
By Chaz Frazer
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Warzone was a much-needed win for Infinity Ward since the release of the main game back in February, and over 50 million players are dropping into Verdansk daily to show their appreciation. Not without its faults of course, but overall it has been an amazing battle royale experience. As something good always has the potential to be even greater, we’ll share some constructive criticism in five features that we think would make Warzone even better.
Five Features Infinity Ward Should Add to Warzone
Ranked Playlist (Duos/Trios/Quads)
Water Element on Map & Boats
Dynamic Map Changes (in-map events, weather, seasonal changes)
Nighttime in Verdansk (day/night cycle)
Ability to swap weapon attachments based on rare, epic, legendary loadouts spawned on the map (restrict to same weapon class or weapon model)
Ranked Playlist
Implementing a ranked mode in Warzone seems the simplest way to immediately improve the state of the game. Such a move also accomplishes more than one goal that fans have been asking for. Not only does it give competitive, sweaty, try-hard players (like myself) to have a separate bracket to enjoy that playstyle, it also completely eliminates the need for Skill Based Match Making (SBMM) to exist within normal playlists.
Water Element on Map & Boats
Something missing in Verdansk as you put in countless hours traversing the city and surrounding countryside, learning every POI and route, is the absence of any real water element. Something that games such as Black Ops 4 - Blackout and Fortnite do well, is to seamlessly blend this element into the map gameplay. We would like to see this dynamic return to Warzone, perhaps starting with boats available to justify landing at usually far-off locations such as Prison or Port.
Dynamic Map Changes
Something that Black Ops 4 did well was the seasonal dynamic changes in the Blackout map, down to the blades of grass and difference in the light coming from the sun as the rays hit the earth at different angles during the year. As the Warzone map is already primarily in Spring, it would be nice to see some dynamic change in the works for Summer. Whether a subtle change like the seasons or a large drastic in-map event such as the flooded Blackout map, this could be a cool, welcome addition to keep things fresh. In-game weather patterns, something PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS is famous for, could also work, supporting the weather patterns during this time of year in lovely Kostovia.
Nighttime in Verdansk (day/night cycle)
With fans speculating with actual renders of what Verdansk would look like under the cover of darkness, this one is a no-brainer, and should actually be in-the-works at Infinity Ward - if they know what’s good for them. Playing under a moonlit sky on a huge BR map sounds intimidating, but with the right pieces in play could be amazing. Giving vehicles headlights, limited use of night vision goggles, and illuminating buildings from the inside would give everyone reason to go out at night and paint the town red...with blood. Implementing a day/night cycle (not necessarily tied to real-time) could work if some method of in-game timekeeping is implemented. How exactly that would work, we don’t know. Then again, it’s not our job to anyway.
Ability to Swap Weapon Attachments
One thing Warzone did extremely well was streamlining the way looting works and managing the equipment, weapons, ammo, and armor you pick up throughout the map. Gone was the clunky, prone to glitching, non-console friendly duffel bag system from Blackout. While the current loot/drop system works extremely well for both PC as well as console, we’d like to see some greater implementation of customization of weapons that spawn on the map naturally.
Currently in loot boxes, there is a chance that a rare, legendary, or epic weapon (sometimes equipment) is contained inside. This is denoted by the color the loot box glows - blue for rare, purple for legendary, and gold for epic. These rarer weapons are pre-decked out with attachments and based on existing blueprints unlockable in the main game. Perhaps giving players the ability to swap attachments - moving optics, stocks, barrels to another weapon - while keeping the system somewhat restricted to either weapon classes, or the same weapon model (to discourage players looting for weapons rather than using loadout drops) would work extremely well and offer another level of in-game customization and looting to the game.
While Loadout Drops are invaluable due to the ability to equip perks (and the only way to do so), this extra level of customization could go a long way to give Warzone the edge it needs to stay relevant in the months to come, and possibly further into the cycle of the next Call of Duty.