Probably the most anticipated news to come from today’s COD Next event, was the announcement of the all new Call of Duty Warzone experience launching alongside Black Ops 6.
Apart from the addition of the new Omnimovement system in Blacks Ops 6 making its way across to Warzone as well (which you can read about here), a ton of new map, weapon, perk and inventory information was revealed.
WELCOME TO NUKETOWN
The new Warzone resurgence map is the birthplace of Nuketown, Area 99. Having been a top secret government facility built in the 1950s nestled and concealed from the public in the unforgiving Nevada desert, Area 99 was the answer to the team’s question of how to bring Nuketown into the Warzone experience.
The map, which centres around its main POI, Reactor, has 10 key locations in total for players to land with their squad, with each location telling a story of how Nuketown came to be. Whether that’s at the Cooling Towers, Test Site or Mannequin Factory, players will enjoy hunting down the easter eggs to the origins of one of Black Ops’ most iconic maps.
Updates to the map experience and gameplay mechanics have also been made, like more fluid zipline and ascender access, faster usage of stims and redeploys, the addition of new perks to support movement style as well as the ability to gain infinite tac sprint in multiple ways.
PERKS HAVE BEEN REWORKED
The team has had a hard look at the current perk system and the way in which players are using them (or not), and have brought about a new way to play when it comes to perks.
The idea has been to increase each perks individual value, with some underused perks now being combined with others, to give what we think is some crazy, maybe even OP, combinations – one of which being the perk combination of Tracker and Combat Scout (gasp!)
In a nutshell, perks have now been honed in to suit play styles much more, like movement, or awareness, or survival etc. and will also be seeing the return of the pick 3 system. There are 18 perks for players to choose from in total with 5 of those perks being brand new. A lot of new things here, yes, but the ability to gain your perks in game remain the same – either by the way of obtaining your load out from a drop, or by specialist perk packs.
There will also be the new lootable perks system, with 6 ground loot perks in play. These are Veteran, Dexterity, Tracker, Cold Blooded, Tempered and Alertness – two of which are ground loot exclusives.
WARZONE WEAPON INTEGRATION
What good are perks though, without the right weapons to wield? The revamped Warzone will see the Black Ops 6 loadouts being the featured weapons in game, with the added note that players’ weapon builds will now be part of a global system – meaning that if you build and save a weapon loadout in Warzone, it will save across to all game modes! Eliminating the need to potentially build the same arsenal out in Multiplayer and then again in Zombies. Hooray.
Oh and did we mention doors will also now be able to be opened by shooting at them?
It was also revealed that two new kill streaks will be coming to Warzone, being the Care Package and Sentry Turret. This does mean that the Mosquito Drone and Guardian will be getting yeeted out of the game though. *pause for applause*
The goal this time around for Warzone and weapons is for each season to have a healthy meta, so be sure to test those weapon builds and combos pre-season 1 to be ready to go.
WILDCARDS ARE HERE
That’s right, wildcards are coming to Warzone Day 1, and will act as a significant loadout modifier for players. Players will have the ability to access and equip wildcards during a match, which may prove gaming winning or survival necessary depending on the situation. Overkill (the ability to equip two primary weapons) and Gunfighter (the ability to equip up to 8 attachments) are just a couple of examples of what players can expect from Wildcards in Warzone.
GOODBYE BACKPACKS
It’s out with backpacks and in with the OG inventory system. A new satchel mechanic will now assist players with expanding armour and ammo amounts, not to mention a dedicated melee slot. Which brings us to that infinite tac sprint mentioned. When players have their knife equipped (holding the melee button to bring it out), they’ll have an infinite supply of tac sprint at their disposal.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
We couldn’t leave without mentioning some of these planned Season 1 quality of life updates coming to the new Warzone, because some are just REALLY good:
- Weapon rarity outlines
- Pick up Self Revive whiled down
- Downed enemies don’t trigger High Alert
- Pinging loot triggers a navigational ping
- Firing Range Improvements like stats & faster dummy respawn
All in all, the new and improved Warzone is sounding like a welcomed addition to the Black Ops 6 revamp of the Call of Duty franchise, with a plethora of new and returning features that players have been asking for. And we’re for one pretty keen to jump into what is sure to be one hell of a time.
Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 launches on October 24th. You can grab it for $89 from Amazon HERE.
