Call of Duty: Warzone. Exit from the Eclipse

Warzone is a free-to-play multiplayer shooter based on the updated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and released by Activision. This is the third attempt of the publisher to create a hit in the "battle royale" format - after the "Eclipse" mode in Black Ops 4 and Call of Duty: Mobile, which was released for iOS and Android devices. Not surprisingly, the best studios got involved in the project, including Infinity Ward - the authors of the classic releases of the series. The result was immediate: in the first 24 hours after the release in March 2020 the audience of the action game has exceeded 6 million people, and by the end of the month it reached 50 million. Until now, Warzone remains one of the most popular games of the genre. Let's analyze why it attracts the public and whether it is worth to get acquainted with it today.

The game is based on classic "battle royale" rules. Together with the other participants of the match you parachute into the selected point of the map, collect weapons and supplies, and then fight to the last survivor, trying not to go beyond the borders of the narrowing combat zone. Warzone builds on the ideas of the Eclipse mode that appeared in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 release. But the junior shooter has a significant advantage - you do not have to pay for it, while MW, along with all the modes and add-ons, costs money. And here it's enough to go to the official website of Activision, register in the system Battle.net and download the necessary files - by the way, on the media they occupy as much as 175 GB. Got it? Then welcome to the battlefield.

The action takes place in the fictional city of Verdansk, which is partially copied from the real Donetsk - even in the game files it is marked with the word donetsk. It is a huge location with residential areas, prison, industrial area, dam, stadium, military base and airport. In the full-fledged Call of Duty series the settlement appeared twice, in Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War, but here it is used simply as a firing range. The match begins with a landing on the terrain: a hundred and fifty participants jump down with parachutes and choose where to fall. On the map you can operate both alone and with allies - as part of a team of two, three and four fighters. In this case, while still in flight, comrades put tags for the joint landing.

After landing you have to do exactly three things: search for weapons and supplies, save virtual currency and shoot the enemies. At first each participant of the "battle royal" has only a gun, so for more convincing arguments in a firefight you'll need to find a machine gun, machine gun, sniper rifle or explosives like Claymore mines - this stuff is scattered around the room and usually lies inside the crates. Healing stimulants and armor plates are also useful. There are no customary vests in the game, so to protect against bullets you must insert the pieces of metal into the unloader, replacing the shot with whole ones. There is no Warzone and the usual inventory, which is filled as you gather your loot. Everything you need is always at your fingertips - just press the button and use it.

But it's not just armor plates and cannons of ammo that help you survive on the map. Virtual bucks play a big role in the shooter - you can pick them up along with other equipment or earn them by participating in additional activities. Money can get something useful at the purchase stations, where they sell reanimation kits, boxes of supplies, gas masks and other things to strengthen your forces. If you manage to shoot someone, the station allows you to call in a bombardment of the specified area or order a UAV flight - rising above the ground, it will show the nearest enemies, even through the walls. In addition, here, without leaving the cash register, you can redeem the dead comrades in a team game. Sometimes a discount is announced - and the prices in such stores are reduced, which all the participants of the match rush to take advantage of. This makes them vulnerable to surprise attacks.

Verdansk is set up so that snipers have plenty of room to run wild. You can use rooftops, towers, hills, back alleys, or the same dam that overlooks a good quarter of the map as firing points. So moving around in open terrain is very risky. It is better to use transport, represented in the game as ordinary cars, as well as motorcycles, buggies, helicopters, trucks. Of course, the cabin will not protect completely from bullets, but will give a chance to skip under fire at high speed. A sniper in this case will need at least three shots instead of one or two. In Warzone the time required to shoot the enemy is really short, nevertheless it is not easy to die here too.

Playing in a team, you can always count on your comrades to redeem you after death. But a single player also has many chances to return to the battlefield. The resuscitation kit helps you get up after a serious injury, and if you're badly wounded, don't be in a hurry to find the next match. After all, the game sends you to a local version of purgatory - Gulag, where conditionally dead fighters fight among themselves for the right to return to the map. Duels take place on the arena, surrounded by a fence around the perimeter, from behind which the rest of the "dead" observe the course of the duel and even throw stones, waiting for their turn to go to this ristalische. So once you're here with your partner, you can help him by telling him which hideout his opponent is hiding behind. Gulag gives you a chance to revive, but it doesn't restore your equipment - everyone who wins the duel must reassemble weapons and supplies.

Needless to say, the game rarely gives you time to retrieve supplies. On the one hand, the area of action is constantly narrowing - where only recently battles were simmering, a few minutes later there are clouds of poisonous gas that can kill in 15 seconds. It's not instant death, of course, but you can't go too far outside the zone anyway, and it's not a good tactic to stick around for a vague chance to find something useful. On the other hand, most of the "Klondike" in the second half, when the Gulag is already full of people, is looted clean. Help after revival promises, again, virtual bucks if you spend them on dropping a parcel. Right out of the sky a box with everything you need, including armor, ammo, and custom weapon kits, will drop at the specified point.

A striking feature of Call of Duty: Warzone is that the shooter is designed for glory. The famous developers could not lose face, so they have released the most beautiful from now existing "battle royal". However, this also affects the system requirements, so the owners of not the most advanced computers will have to reduce the graphics settings. But even with gentle settings the game looks impressive. And the animations in it are made at such a level that you can spend a long time admiring how your character reloads the rifle or how the barrel itself behaves during the shooting. There are many YouTube videos on this topic, where people compare the movements of shooters and weapon parts in the virtual world and in real life.

To add beauty helps personalization, which at Warzone also full order. The appearance is customizable for anything, whether it's a helicopter, a gun in your hand or a character's camouflage. Always wanted a pink machine gun covered in images of unicorns? No problem - just buy a combat pass, which together with the decorations will give new characters, an increase in experience points, fashion accessories such as a wristwatch, unique weapons and animations. Graffiti, spray-painted on walls, also helps to stand out on the battlefield. In other words, the shooter allows you to shine not only the skill of shooting, but also style. However, not all of the modifications are purely cosmetic in nature - there are also quite practical solutions, such as firearms dodgers, including sights and silencers.

Verdansk is a big city, so it's easy to get lost in it. Any newcomer looking at the terrain plan worries quite reasonable questions: where to land at the beginning of the match, where the top equipment lies, how to avoid a stray rudder in the first seconds of the battle? The game offers to get acquainted with this topic on your own experience, by trial and error. But some general advice can still be given. And to begin with the bunkers - points on the map, where at the very beginning of the battle mass of the participants rushes. First you have to open the bunker, that is, enter the code, which is not difficult to find on the Internet, then you have to clean the basement, where there is usually a lot of money and tough guns, and finally the most difficult part of the operation - getting out with the loot. An ambush is almost always guaranteed. And since you must also have skill to meet the burglars at the gate, the novice player in such a showdown does not get anything. It is better to land at other points.

There are five areas with a lot of prey: the prison, the stadium, the military base, the airport and the train station. Finding them on the map will not be difficult. Each of these locations has advantages and disadvantages, but most importantly, you can quickly get weapons and supplies, which with careful tactics will be enough until the end of the match.

• The prison complex is a huge fortress in the southeast of the map. As in real life, it's easier to get in than to get out, because there is no shortage of people willing to shoot fugitives in the back. But the prison is full of chests with loot, which is a sin to refuse. Therefore it is better to land on the walls, not going down to the lower floors: so you will have a good overview and the fortress itself and the area around it. The disadvantage of the location is that it's located on the outskirts of Verdansk - you'll have to get away from here after the first warning about the war zone's borders narrowing.
• The stadium, which has the outline of the Donbass Arena, is located in the center of Verdansk, making it a point of attraction for many hunters of loot chests. First, it's easier to land here, and second, from here you can run in any direction you choose. But don't expect an exhilarating walk either - shots can be heard in the stadium throughout the match. There's a tactical trick for those who want to get away in the English way: drop down at the beginning of the battle on the field, where the helicopter is usually parked, and then immediately fly away in it to another, quieter place.
• The military base is located north of the stadium and away from the city's residential areas. This is both good and bad at the same time. On the one hand, open terrain gives you a good overview, but on the other hand, if you have a gun, and your enemy has a rifle with telescopes, the layout is obviously not in your favor. So it is worth to seek shelter in the houses and search them before you collect all your equipment. Not far from the buildings near the cliff, where there is always good loot, there is a transport - you should use it when retreating. West of the base is a dam - a quiet place, an excellent shelter for the sniper, but to retreat from the dam, when on the heels of the boundaries of the circle, it is difficult.
• The airport is a large location in the west of the city. Throughout the game, height gives you a tactical advantage over your enemies, so it is better to land near the buildings or the control tower. Nearby is the largest supermarket in Verdansk, where you can get not only guns, but virtual currency.
• The railway station is one of the most convenient drop-off points. There are many large buildings where it is easy to find loot and shelter in case of a sudden firefight. In addition, there are several escape routes: you can go east through the city hospital to the stadium or north to the airport. If it gets too hot at the station in the first minutes of the match, it's better to take advantage of this opportunity and not take any unnecessary risks.

An important difference between Warzone and traditional Battle Royale are the contracts. They are offered to any participant of the match, and their fulfillment brings rewards in the form of virtual currency, weapons and supplies. It's not a worse way to quickly equip your character than hacking into bunkers or a surprise ambush, and sometimes it's even better - if you assess the risks and benefits. To find the right assignments help you find the markers on the map. Depending on the conditions, there are five varieties of contracts:

By fulfilling contracts in Call of Duty: Warzone you can turn the tide of a match and gain an advantage in a situation that seems hopeless. This distinguishes the game from the majority of the "battle royale", including hits of the PUBG caliber. And the bonuses from such quests add up: no one is stopping you from taking one after another, as long as circumstances allow, and increasing the reward time after time both for yourself and for your team. Most importantly, most contracts are easier to complete than fighting for trophies with other players, which is something a newcomer should pay attention to.

"Battle Royale is the main format of Warzone, which is what it's all about. But it doesn't stop there, because there's more to do in the game than just the title mode. At the very beginning of the game the newcomer is greeted with "Training": here you are shown how to tuck the armor plates into the vest (on the computer by default key 4), shoot with different types of weapons on weight and at point-blank range, navigate the area, look for money, use the buying stations, accept and execute contracts. In general, teach a young fighter course. Comes to the little things like orientation by sound - for example, the penetration of enemy armor can be identified by a distinctive click. The guide also teaches the basics of teamwork, from tagging different types of prey to resuscitating an injured partner. In general, "Learning" helps to master the basics of the shooter, so you should not neglect the mode when you first get acquainted.

After getting basic knowledge it is worth consolidating them in the "Battle Royale". But what to do if you are bored with it? To help in this case comes "Scramble" - a battle according to the classic rules of "death match". Map in this mode is smaller than the main, but the size of the location is fully compensated by the mass of the fight: it involves two teams of fifty people each, and the firefight lasts 20 minutes or until one of the teams gets the maximum points for kills. "Combat" will appeal to those who missed the multiplayer battles of the main parts of Call of Duty.

"Rebirth" is a mixture of "battle royale" and "deathmatch" rules for forty participants. The main feature of the mode is that there is no gulag, and you return to combat if at least one of your partners is alive. Postponement of resurrection depends on the number of killed enemies - the more you have time to shoot, the faster the team replenishes itself. In other words, the most effective shooters have higher chances to act as a complete team, and the group that was killed to the last member is eliminated from the competition. Obviously, singles have no place in the mode: now in "Rebirth" the competition of threes and fours is available. At the same time, such battles are held on a separate map - it is an island, reminiscent of Alcatraz prison. The area appeared in Warzone after the release of the game Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in November 2020.

One of the most exotic modes of the shooter is "Mining", where you have to compete not in shooting, but in collecting money. Whoever is fastest to accumulate a million virtual bucks wins, but if there is no clear leader, the outcome of the match is decided by counting the amounts after half an hour. For convenience in the "Extraction" increased rewards for completing the contracts, and instead of being sent to the gulag killed simply fine. Additional equipment comes in handy here in the form of a balloon to send money to the bank - the balloon can save up to $150,000 at a time, but it also costs money, forcing you to use it wisely. As soon as someone on the battlefield becomes a millionaire, a 3-minute round is triggered, during which all prizes increase - those going after the leader have a chance to turn the tide of the match.

Being properly equipped on the battlefield is half the battle. Items must be chosen according to their rarity and your fighting style. In addition, there are two classes of equipment available for money and kills: field modifications and series rewards. Both are available at purchase stations. The first class includes a tactical marker to mark enemies, a reconnaissance UAV to "scan" nearby shelters, an EMP UAV to disable enemy vehicles, a money balloon, and other useful devices. And as a reward for the series, you can trigger a cluster bomb, launch a guided bomb drone, set up a turret, or turn off the minicards in the opponents' interface with a counter UAV.

Weapons, in turn, also vary in purpose and rarity. For short and medium combat on the map Warzone use submachine guns, grenade launchers, shotguns, machine guns with high kill rate, but a strong recoil, and at long range traditionally rule the ball rifles of different models. According to their value all barrels are divided into ordinary, unusual, rare, epic and legendary. On the efficiency of this status does not affect the shooting, but determines the number of available modifications: the standard gun can not put even a silencer, but the legendary can be equipped with five additions. For example, you can attach a flame thrower, laser sight, underbarrel grenade launcher, tactical grip and some cool handguard in addition.

Modifications are installed in a separate menu when you rest from the battles. Here are immediately available guns that can be improved - to get more, you must participate in the "battle royale" and earn experience. And the balance of the dodges is such that any increase in the range of aiming leads to a decrease in the speed of aiming. That is, if you put optics on your rifle, you thereby slow down aiming at the target. A separate point is control of recoil, provided by all sorts of grip, barrels and flame arrestors. You can make your own kits from the thus improved weapon models - and order them directly on the battlefield by paying for the parcel.

Any kit, custom or default, consists of two guns, complete with lethal and tactical equipment. For example, this can include a submachine gun, sniper rifle, landmine, and stun grenade. You can buy a set right during the match - for 10,000 virtual dollars, if you have more luck with collecting money than with finding good firearms. Three perks are also attached to the weapon set. There are a lot of them in the game, so let's talk about the most useful ones. "Bomb Squad" reduces the damage from fire and explosions, "Ghost" hides you from enemy's UAVs, thanks to "Marauder" you can collect more ammo from the defeated enemies, "Cool Blooded" protects from thermal imagers and drones, "Sentinel" increases the reward for completing contracts, "Stubborn" gives a 20% discount at purchase stations, "Tuning" speeds up resuscitation, "Vigilance" warns about the enemy who is aiming at you out of your field of vision. It's up to the player to choose.

In a "battle royale" everyone should have an equal chance, so there is no traditional progression system with character enhancement. Of course, participation in the matches brings some rewards, such as new gun blueprints, perks, elements of external decoration, but it does not make you stronger or more dangerous on the battlefield. But some weapons can be upgraded - just use a gun in battle to improve its characteristics. First, not all modifications are available to install right from the start. Even if the firearm has a box for a particular armor, it must still be unlocked. Second, there are so-called skills - something like perks, only you can assign them to a separate gun. Among these bonuses are an increase in aiming range, a decrease in recoil and shudder, and the ability to hold your breath. In other words, progression in Warzone improves not so much the character as his arsenal.

Another important difference between the game - the general pumping for it and related shooters Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. That is, guns and perks obtained in the multiplayer modes of Cold War, you can use in Warzone, and vice versa. Moreover, common to these products is a combat pass, which gives bonuses to boost and a whole carload of personalization elements. Not all users will see an advantage here, since not everyone has the new Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War - both cost money after all. But fans of the games of the publishing house Activision will love this opportunity.

Call of Duty: Warzone is one of the best free-to-play battle royale shooters at the moment. The game is created with attention to detail, so it will please fans of everything that shoots. Thanks to the cross-platform, owners of different systems, including PCs and modern consoles, can take part in matches. But if someone doesn't like the help in aiming that the dodgers with gamepads get, no one prevents them from disabling this feature. In other words, the action game is accessible, handy, beautiful and on top of that perfectly voiced. Only to join it you need a more or less modern system - with a computer from ten years ago you have to endure low frame rate even on minimum graphics settings.