Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0’s second season is only a step back

WARZONE 2.0’s release reignited our passion for Call of Duty’s online multiplayer.

We appreciated how 2.0 puts less emphasis on your loadout, and more of our friends were eager to join a party than ever before.

The original Call of Duty: Warzone required you to purchase certain weapons, perks and equipment, or stand very little chance against your opponents.

Warzone 2.0 makes loadouts harder to get, meaning that the start of matches are a free-for-all of whichever weapon you manage to find.

Both the multiplayer in Modern Warfare 2, and the free-to-play option have been under scrutiny from fans since they launched.

As players were used to the mechanics of the original, a game which is now gone, they were upset by the sudden upheaval.

Instead of staying the course, Activision has instead decided to backtrack, and adjust, and remove anything that made it unique.

Loadouts are purchasable again, and while they are more expensive, plenty of players are still grabbing them.

Armour started with two players and later could be upgraded to three. But now, like the original Warzone, you start out with three.

The Gulag was overhauled to focus on 2v2 matches, but now it’s 1v1, just like the original.

It seems any original idea the team had for the sequel has been removed from the game.

Two new maps are being added, but they are only kind of new. One was in the beta test, and the other is a remake of an old location.

Hardcore mode is still absent, which seems like a glaring omission. It was replaced with Tier 1, a mode without UI, but that is now gone, with Hardcore promised for the future.

Season 3 seems no different. Plunder and Ranked battle royale mode are both seeing a return.

The removal of new features and the return of old, have prevented the team from devoting their efforts to much-needed changes.

Lag spikes, rubber banding, players kicked from games, and broken items, are all issues players frequently run into.

When Call of Duty’s multiplayer is working at its best, it is merely inconsistent instead of broken.

We understand that it’s hard to see a game you know and love disappear, and replaced with a whole new game you have to learn.

But Activision needs to learn to show it has some backbone, and have faith in the developers’ new concepts.

Warzone’s new modes don’t work as intended, or are like DMZ mode which is truly dull.

We expected Season 2 to be a much-needed refresh to the multiplayer, after a season of complete instability.

However, as the team focuses on reversions to old features, there appears to have been no time for making the game as good as it could be.

Written by Dave Aubrey and Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.