Back in the heady days of 2017-2018, there was a concern among the gaming community that, in the wake of the unprecedented success of Epic Games’ Fortnite, every video game brand under the sun was going to leap onto the “battle royale” bandwagon. Y’all remember the E3 memes, right? With Dolan? Yeah, you remember.
It didn’t really turn out that way. Oh sure, many established franchises went straight for a piece of the Last Person Standing pie, whilst new IPs such as LawBreakers burst onto the scene to amazing… umm… Look, the point I’m making is, the whole industry did not go battle royale crazy. Today, Fortnite continues its dominance, while a few successful alternates such as EA’s Apex Legends please their own dedicated audience. The genre is alive and well, and it didn’t ruin video games forever.
Last week, like a bullet out of the blue, Activision launched a new entry in the genre, marrying the billion-dollar Call of Duty franchise with the grim mercenary appeal of originator PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. This isn’t Acti’s first rodeo, having previously tried its hand with Black Ops IV‘s “Blackout” mode. But Call of Duty: Warzone isn’t quite the same animal. In fact, this free-to-play release introduces features and innovations that help inject a new lease of life into the mass multiplayer shooter.
Source: Destructoid Call of Duty: Warzone is a slick evolution of battle royale