> Warzone 2 Looks Like It’s Slowly Turning Into Blackout 2

Luca Di Marzo writing for Charlie Intel:

Industry insider Tom Henderson claims that Warzone 2 could introduce players to a bag system for looting purposes much like Escape from Tarkov. The same report also suggests that the sequel will come with a new way to store armor. On May 20, Tom Henderson published a Warzone 2 report which revealed various details that could be coming to the battle royale. While players are already excited by leaks of classic MW2 maps being involved in Warzone 2, they also got word of the potential inclusion of Pro Perks. Henderson’s report highlighted several exciting new features that are rumored to make their way to Warzone 2. Among these new features is a bag system for looting as well as armor vests that are similar to what players had in Black Ops 4’s Blackout. It seems the devs have decided to combine the current armor system in Warzone with the previous armor system in Blackout. In Blackout, players were tasked with searching for one of three levels of body armor that would increase their overall health.

According to Henderson, “players will need to find a tiered armor vest in order to equip armor plates,” in Warzone 2. If leaks are true, players can expect both armor plates and a version of body armor, aka armor vests, in Warzone 2. The report claims that there will be three tiers of armor vests, and each tier will hold one more armor plate than the previous tier. Furthermore, “your armor vest does not break, but your armor plates do.” These claims suggest that plating in Warzone 2 will abide by a similar structure to the familiar Warzone system.

I don’t know how I feel about this. As someone who doesn’t play alot of Warzone I feel like this adds complexity to something that was already working and working well. The armor system in Warzone is simple and a level playing field. Part of the reason I hated Blackout was it was too complicated and thus I couldn’t get into it. While I certianly wouldn’t say that Warzone would be as big as it is without the Call of Duty branding, part of what I think has made it such a huge success is its simplicity. I feel like there’s a bit of nostalgia for Blackout here, possibly because it was the first and Treyarch has it’s own fanbase, but first doesn’t always mean best. As I said, Blackout was complicated. Warzone is not. I know whenever I come up on an opponent in Warzone that there is a certain expectation depending on the weapon I’m using. Complicating the armor system complicates that and takes away from how good the gunfights feel. It will make them feel less solid and predictable and more random which will just frustrate players.

I know this type of system exists in other Battle Royals but there is a reason Warzone is consistently at the top of the heap even with all its issues.

A lot of people also like to think that the reason Blackout failed was because it was behind the paywall of Black Ops 4 but I’d argue that if Blackout was as good as people want to believe it would’ve helped sell more copies of BO4 and thus Activision would’ve found a way to keep it around.

Another interesting aspect of the report was the suggestion that Warzone 2 could adopt a bag system, with similar functionality to that of Escape from Tarkov’s. Henderson stresses that the bag system is in early development and far from finished as a new feature.

RIP Console players. There’s no way they’re going to be able to manage this efficiently if this is true. There just aren’t enough buttons.

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