Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has finally been revealed and it's set to shake things up as promised.
Today's Call of Duty Next delved into Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2.0, and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. We were treated to a new trailer for the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer reveal, and the news that Call of Duty is getting a third-person mode when Modern Warfare 2 launches later this year. And battle royale fans will be particularly psyched about the Warzone 2.0 map reveal.
The map was first leaked back in May with an updated version leaking ahead of the Call of Duty Next livestream. And now we have the official thing right in front of us, with confirmation that it's called Al Mazrah, as we've heard. Take a look:
Warzone 2.0 map
The Warzone 2.0 map has been in development since 2020 and is a product of the studio's philosophies and new technologies. Described as an "interesting mix of geography", Al Mazrah is set in the desert but features "a mix of industrial areas, towns, a city and of course water," with lots of "cool elevation." There's caves to explore, subterranean spaces, and it's huge to boot. In fact, it's the largest Call of Duty battle royale map made to date.
It sounds incredibly varied, and even has a water system so you can even swim between some POIs on the map. All of the multiplayer elements present in Modern Warfare will be in Warzone 2.0 thanks to the integration between the two games.
One huge change on the way for Warzone 2.0, aside from the supersized map, is the circles. Instead of one giant circle that shrinks into a smaller and smaller play area, there'll be multiple circles that separate and rejoin, paving the way for plenty of chaos.
Warzone 2.0 vehicles
Of course, there are vehicles to joyride as well; boats, tanks, helicopters – you name it. All of which have their own physics and handling, which makes for interesting gameplay:
"Some vehicles are heavier, some will slide more, have more traction, or less traction and as you're driving them around and you're encountering them and other squads of playing with them, you can choose to shoot off the tires to kind of impact the handling, you can have them – they react to explosive differently based on their weight.
"So, if you're in a heavy armoured 4x4 and get hit by an RPG, it's gonna kind of bounce a little bit, but not quite take the hit as a small sedan. You can also choose, with your squad, to be rolling into a POI and somebody jumps out on the roof, somebody leans out the window, and suddenly get yourself, a lot of firepower driving into the POI.
"Of course, that vehicle needs to survive for quite some time in the map… if you want to keep using it to get from point to point. And vehicles will run out of gas - or at least most of them will - run out of gas and then you can bring them to a gas station to fill them up."
You can also get your tires repaired at gas stations if they get damaged.
The Warzone 2.0 release date was also announced. It's set to launch on Wednesday, November 16. That's just a couple weeks after Modern Warfare 2's release date of Friday, October 28.
Wednesday is a bit of an odd day for a new game release. But Warzone is a live service games with updates rolling out on – you guessed it – a Wednesday. So we'll probably see a dramatic in-game event to usher it it. Although there's no carry over between Warzone and Warzone 2.0 so it could just be that the devs are keeping the sequel's updates to Wednesday to make everyone's working life a little bit easier.
