Activision have announced Call of Duty: Warzone, a free-to-play battle royale title from developer Infinity Ward.
As detailed on their official blog, the game boasts over 150 players divided up into squads of three players. Plunder matches focus on earning the most money via looting, contracts, and killing other players and stealing their hard earned money.
Warzone mode “takes place in Verdansk, an expansive city with multiple named zones and well over 300 points of interest.” Using vehicles (even including helicopters), this is the traditional battle royale mode- with players dropping into specific areas, killing each other off, and slowly being forced together by a wall of gas.
In addition, there will be several special mechanics to the game. You can find the rundown below.
The Gulag (only in Battle Royale)
Upon your first elimination, you will be taken as a “Prisoner of Warzone” and thrown into the Gulag. There you will await your fate and watch other prisoners fight to the death. When your turn is up, you’ll enter the Gulag and face-off against a single opponent in a 1v1 to earn the ultimate reward – redeployment. Win in the Gulag and earn redeployment back into Verdansk. Lose and hope that your squad completes Contracts and earns enough in-match Cash to redploy you.
Contracts
Contracts are objective oriented tasks players can find and activate across Verdansk. A squad can activate one Contract at a time and completing it rewards you in-match Cash and other loot items. Multiple types of Contracts exist including Scavenger Contracts where you have to find and open a series of Supply Boxes and Recon Contacts where you must secure one location, similar to Call of Duty’s Domination mode. In addition to in-match Cash, Contracts can give you special rewards like the ability to see the next circle collapse location before it starts to close.
Buy Stations
In Battle Royale where collecting in-match Cash isn’t the objective, Cash can be used to procur beneficial items at Buy Stations. Denoted on the Tac-Map with a shopping cart icon, head to a Buy Station to spend your in-match Cash. For varying prices, you can purchase Killstreaks, Redeploy Tokens to bring back fallen teammates, Self-Revive Kits, and more.
In Plunder, Buy Stations hold all of these items to help you gain an advantage over other teams, plus a unique game mode item – the Cash Deposit Balloon. Want to securely deposit your in-match Cash, away from the threat of enemy teams trying to kill and steal? Get a Cash Deposit Ballon, a portable Field Upgrade, that allows you to deposit Cash, from anywhere.
In addition, the game offers “seamless play,” with progress made in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (“including Battle Pass items, Operators, weapons and customization items”) also applying to Warzone. Likewise, progress made in Warzone passes into Modern Warfare,even if the player chooses to play Modern Warfare at a later date.
The blogpost also emphasizes “You do not need to own the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to download, play and enjoy Warzone.” You can find the announcement trailer below:
Call of Duty: Warzone launches March 10th, for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One at 12 p.m. PDT. Players of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare can access the game early at 8 a.m. PDT.
