6 features Warzone 2 should have taken from the original

Warzone 2 has evolved Call of Duty’s battle royale in a number of ways but it’s missing some fantastic features that were added to the original post-launch. Here are six features we wish were there at launch and hopefully arrive in the near future.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2 has arrived as an evolution of Infinity Ward’s original battle royale. Without any of the bloat that Warzone 1 gathered over its two-and-a-half-year lifecycle, Warzone 2 brought an entirely new map and limited players to only use Modern Warfare 2’s guns.

It’s been an evolution in many ways, including new vehicle mechanics, deadly AI, overhauled looting, and movement. But, Infinity Ward decided not to include some of the fantastic changes that Raven Software made throughout Caldera’s lifecycle, and unfortunately, certain Warzone 2 aspects feel like a step back without them.

Here are six features that should have been included with Warzone 2 at launch, and hopefully will be with future updates.

6. Ability to activate Double XP Tokens in-game

A real problem with using Double Weapon XP Tokens in Warzone 2 is that you don’t know if you’re going to get the weapon you want to level up. You can pop an XP Token, spend the majority of the game looking for the gun, and then it’s completely wasted.

Raven Software allowed players to activate their Double XP Tokens while in a match and it’s such a simple and useful quality-of-life feature that it should have appeared in Warzone 2 as well. If it does come in the future, the in-game timer’s return would also be appreciated.

5. Gulag Entry & Redeploy Extraction Tokens

Warzone 2’s Al Mazrah is rather slow-paced, where you can go the whole mid-game without seeing or hearing another team. One major reason for its pacing is that once players die out in the early game so there are only 50 or 60 players running around the massive map.

Raven combatted this issue with the Gulag Entry and Redeploy Extraction Tokens. If a player had one of these tools in their inventory, they’d either get another shot at the Gulag or be thrust back into the fight without needing to be bought back.

Gulag Entry and Redeploy Extraction Tokens would allow more players to be alive in the mid-game, keeping the action high throughout the entire match.

4. More mobility tools such as Redeploy Balloons

Warzone’s pace significantly slowed down when it moved to the steep, jungly, Caldera so Raven Software implemented Redeploy Balloons to allow players to fly across the map. They had such a positive reception that many, myself included, assumed they’d also appear in Warzone 2.

Another reason why Al Mazrah is rather slow-paced is that it takes a long time to travel from POI to POI, and cars can give away your position too much. If there were Redeploy Balloons or Portable Redeploy Balloons, players could quickly traverse the map and keep the momentum going, allowing for much more mid-game action.

3. Detailed squad HUD

A huge quality-of-life change that Raven Software brought to Warzone was the overhauled HUD, and it was a real shame to see it missing from Warzone 2.

Warzone Pacific Season 3 Reloaded brought a major HUD overhaul, where players could see their squadmates’ inventory including whether they have a Gas Mask, their plate count, Killstreaks, and more.

Warzone 2 released with the old, more basic, HUD, and it felt like a step back. Hopefully, the devs can implement Raven’s highly requested HUD system in a future update.

2. Lootable Perks

Infinity Ward made the controversial decision to make Loadout Drops much harder to come by. While you can get your primary weapon from Buy Stations, Perks are limited to Strongholds and the Loadout Drop event. While I don’t mind loadouts being more difficult to acquire, I miss how easy it was to get Perks in the original.

Raven brought lootable Perks to Warzone with Vanguard’s Season 3 update and it was great for leveling the playing field. Not only would lootable Perks make not having a loadout feel less of a disadvantage, but it would also allow players to break free of the restrictive Perk Package system.

A potential compromise would be to add Perks to Buy Stations for cheaper than a weapon, perhaps $3,000 each.

1. 150 health for slower time to kill

Activision

After the huge success of Warzone’s Iron Trials and its high time to kill (TTK), Raven Software increased player health to 150 for the better. Not only did gunfights last longer and require more accuracy, but max health and max armor being the same value made fights feel a lot more consistent.

Long-range TTK in Warzone 2 doesn’t feel too punishing, you usually have time to dive to cover or return fire. But with powerful weapons such as the Fennec 45 or Lachmann Sub, close-range gunfights are over in the blink of an eye.

Raising health to 150 would gunfights last longer, feel more consistent, and make only having a two-plate Armor vest much less punishing.

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Warzone 2 launching with these six features would have elevated the latest Call of Duty battle royale and allowed it to feel a true evolution, rather than both a step forward and a step back.

There’s still time though, and I hope a few of these features will arrive with the upcoming Season 1 Reloaded update, or perhaps Season 2 in 2023.

Image Credit: Activision