With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s battle royale mode on its way soon, Warzone has the potential to be bigger than any of the major players currently in the shooter sub-genre.
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Differentiating other battle royale modes/games between each other boils down to the defining differences between what makes them distinct. Fortnite has its building mechanics, Apex Legends has its special heroes and abilities, PUBG has vehicles and a larger map, and each brings something unique to the battle royale formula. It’s why many believe it’s too late for a Modern Warfare battle royale, citing that they wouldn’t have anything to bring to the table. Even a video game franchise as ubiquitous as Call of Duty has to bring something unique to the table if Infinity Ward wants its battle royale to succeed.
Modern Warfare’s Warzone Map Size and Player Count
Many of the rumors and leaks are pointing to Modern Warfare having several defining features, primarily the battle royale player count size. Glitching into the “Warzone” menu states that the mode itself will support up to 200 players per session. Of all the most popular battle royale games currently, most don’t exceed 100 players per session. Upping the ante to 200 players can result in a lot of things, depending on the scenario.
Environment size plays a big part in whether or not having 200 players in a single session is a good thing. Since Call of Duty multiplayer is generally associated with small-to-medium-range and close-quarters combat, it’s going to need a map to match. Infinity Ward should take cues from its Ground War maps, but not emulate its design one-to-one.
A bad example would be Tavorsk district, a map defined by tall buildings and verticality, and several cramped interiors and side streets. Even with Ground War sessions topping out at 50 players, maps like these get very crowded, meaning more frequent player deaths and cramped spawns. There was even a known glitch that gave an unfair advantage to Modern Warfare players to players on Tavorsk due to hit detection issues. Map design in Modern Warfare’s Warzone would do best to follow examples like Korvnik Farmland, plenty of longer sight lines without compromising the close quarters element Call of Duty is known for.
Use of Killstreaks/Scorestreaks in Modern Warfare
Along with map design in general, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare could go a step further from the standard fare of most other battle royale games. Initially, Infinity Ward wanted to skip developing a battle royale for Modern Warfare because it wanted to focus on core multiplayer first-and-foremost. Many of the existing mechanics in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare lend themselves well to most multiplayer modes already in the game, so there’s no reason why they wouldn’t transfer well into a battle royale mode.
Any good battle royale game distinguishes itself from others with unique gameplay elements. Call of Duty Modern Warfare could easily pull mechanics from its plethora of other multiplayer modes and add them in as well. Most will point to Modern Warfare’s killstreak/scorestreak abilities as prime candidates for inclusion in a Modern Warfare battle royale. What better way to control space in a shrinking arena than ordering giant area-of-effect attacks on your enemies in tense situations? Other than Bangalore’s ultimate in Apex Legends, this really isn’t a gameplay feature in most battle royale games, or at the very least isn’t on the same scale as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare multiplayer.
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Existing Mechanics in Modern Warfare
Other than that, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare also has some similar mechanics in its core multiplayer that already exists in other battle royale games. Field Upgrades, like Deployable Shield or Recon Drone, are rechargeable abilities that each player gets sparingly per match. It’s likely these upgrades/equipment will be added to the battle royale mode anyway, since they persist across all multiplayer modes in Modern Warfare, but the main point is these abilities lend themselves to battle royale gameplay especially well. The success of Apex Legends was built off each individual legend’s special abilities and how those abilities fit into a squad’s team composition, so it’d only benefit Modern Warfare’s Warzone more.
Why Warzone May Be Bigger Than Blackout
There’s one last thing that Warzone has going for itself that may make it more popular than Blackout ever was: the Modern Warfare reputation. Call of Duty has changed FPS games in formative ways, and Modern Warfare was a big part of that contribution.
Call of Duty’s triumphant return to the Modern Warfare sub-series received a lot of good press because of its reputation. Many of the preceding Call of Duty releases have been all about futuristic technological warfare. Fans are attracted to Modern Warfare because of its iconic characters and present-day arcade-y combat simulation. Even though the Black Ops sub-series has been the best-seller of the Call of Duty franchise most recently, Modern Warfare propelled the Call of Duty franchise into mainstream acclaim with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and receives a lot of revelry from fans for that reason.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare breaking sales records and having the largest opening weekend for a Call of Duty game this console generation, it proves that the Modern Warfare name still carries a lot of weight. As long as Infinity Ward can use the strengths of its already great base game and craft a solid base for Modern Warfare’s Warzone mode, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be a great addition to the battle royale lineup.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
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