Call of Duty: Warzone isn't the talk of the town like it once was. Even with the new Pacific update, Warzone is having a hard time pleasing long-time fans of the game. It seems as though every new update intended to fix the game only ends up breaking some other part of it, and fans are starting to get a little tired of the repetitive cycle. While Warzone is still considered by the vast majority to be a good battle royale game, with competition from the likes of Apex Legends and Fortnite, that doesn't really cut it anymore.
According to some recent rumors and reports, Call of Duty: Warzone is going to be getting a full-on sequel sometime in the near-future, and will skip the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generation consoles. Although this might disappoint some fans still playing on that generation of consoles, the decision seems like a necessary one, and could bring some new and exciting features to the game, perhaps finally putting Warzone back on top of the battle royale genre.
An FOV Slider On Consoles
A gameplay feature that seems like an obvious addition, a Field of View slider for Warzone on consoles has been requested by fans since before the game even released. While the developers did repeatedly confirm that an FOV slider would be implemented into the game at some point post-launch, the feature is still not present.
Although it may not be utilized by all players, those who play Warzone competitively or those who strive to be the best they possibly can at the game feel as though they need this feature to compete with PC players. Over the last two years or so, the lack of an FOV slider on consoles has caused a few minor controversies, such as when players could use the Roze skin to blend into the shadowed environments, giving PC players an unfair advantage. Adding an FOV slider to consoles in Warzone 2 seems like an absolute necessity.
A Balanced Arsenal
It's no secret that Call of Duty: Warzone has a balancing problem. As more and more Call of Duty games are released every year, more and more weapons are added to Warzone. What started out as around 30 primary weapons has now grown to an alarming 119. It's no wonder, then, that Warzone is a pretty unbalanced game.
Where competitors like Fortnite and Apex Legends have a set number of weapons for essentially their entire lifespan, with one or two being swapped out and added over time, Warzone has just continued to add, piling more problems onto the mountain as opposed to fixing the ones that are already there. Every new patch that seeks to fix the game's balancing often results in another weapon being nerfed beyond all reason, leading to a constant change in the game's meta.
If Warzone players want to stay in the competition, and have any chance of actually winning a game, then they need to pay constant attention to the game's latest updates and meta changes. With Warzone in its current state, these metas change practically on a weekly basis.
If Warzone 2 does release like the rumors suggest, as a standalone game not tied to a specific Call of Duty yearly entry, then balancing the game's weapons should be a much easier task, as the developer can keep the number of weapons limited, and thus can focus on minor tweaks to a weapon's performance. As it currently stands, Warzone's balancing issues are detrimental to the game's current popularity.
Dedicated Next-Gen Versions
If the rumors are correct, then Call of Duty: Warzone 2 will release exclusively on next-gen consoles and PC. This decision would undoubtedly come with a vast number of upsides, the first of which being the game's visual and framerate performance.
Playing Warzone on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X right now is pretty disappointing: The draw distance isn't far, the game stutters regularly, and it certainly doesn't look like a next-gen title in terms of graphical fidelity. If Warzone 2 made the jump to next-gen consoles exclusively, then these issues could be easily solved, and the game could finally reach its maximum potential.
Additionally, if Warzone 2 wanted to go above and beyond, then a next-gen release could use the PlayStation 5's DualSense to really elevate the gameplay experience. The DualSense's adaptive triggers are perfectly suited to first-person shooters, and its haptic feedback goes a long way in making the game's weapons feel more realistic.
Destructible Environments
With the ongoing disappointment of Battlefield 2042, there's room in the FPS genre for a new king of destructible environments. While this feature has never really been present in the Call of Duty franchise, having destructible environments could help to make a Warzone sequel stand out from the crowd. Call of Duty: Vanguard's semi-destructible environments could serve as a solid foundation for expansion.
This would also add some more variety to the gameplay, and would help to stop campers, which is often cited as one of the game's more annoying aspects. Having the opportunity to blast away a camper's hiding spot is certainly an interesting idea.
Live Events and An Evolving Map
Aside from the balancing issues and bugs, Call of Duty: Warzone's weaker aspects is its lack of live events. When compared to Fortnite, a game which changes its map comparativley frequently, and even Apex Legends' evolving maps between Season updates, Warzone is very disappointing.
Although Warzone has had some live events in the past, and has added new points of interest to the map on a few occasions, it's nowhere near on the same level as its competition, and does drag the game back from being at the top of the battle royale genre. If Warzone 2 wanted to cement itself as the king, then it would need to introduce more live events to the game that brought its player-base back regularly to participate, possibly incentivizing them with unique cosmetic rewards, like Fortnite does.
