Free-to-play standalone includes Battle Royale and Plunder
After much speculation, it’s nearly here: Call of Duty: Warzone – the 150-player, standalone, free-to-play battle royale game – releases for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on March 10, 2020.
You don’t need to own 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to boot up Warzone, but if you do have a copy, you’ll be able to start playing a little earlier. The head-start period for Modern Warfare owners begins at 8:00 a.m. Pacific, and then Warzone will go live for everyone at 12:00 p.m. Pacific.
Warzone is set across Verdansk, a battle-royale-as-hell-sounding city with “over 300 points of interest.” You’ll be able to drive ATVs, SUVs, rovers, cargo trucks, and even fly a four-person helicopter.
Player squads – at least at launch – will be trios.
If you’re afraid of facing a quick and early death in battle royale (me too!), don’t be: there’s a shot at redemption. Warzone has a Gulag in which fallen players can fight in one-on-one battles after their first elimination to earn their redeployment. Contracts (“objective-oriented tasks”) and Cash (the in-game currency) are another way to bring back your friends. “For varying prices, you can purchase Killstreaks, Redeploy Tokens to bring back fallen teammates, Self-Revive Kits, and more” at Buy Stations.
Another interesting wrinkle that got my attention: Battle Royale is only half of Warzone. The game has another mode, Plunder, that’s focused on earning, stealing, and depositing as much Cash as possible.
Download sizes have gotten out of control lately. How big is Warzone? For brand-new players, it’s a “83-101GB download,” according to Activision. For Modern Warfare players who have the latest update, they’ll need to download a “18-22GB” Warzone update to unlock the “Classified” panel in-game.
Modern Warfare players will be able to transfer all of their stuff over to Warzone. The two games share a progression system, so it’s a two-way street. Warzone unlocks will register in Modern Warfare.
I dropped off battle royales and Call of Duty, but I have to admit, Warzone is intriguing.
