Call of Duty’s Warzone just got a little more crowded with the addition of 200-player battle royale matches. You’d think this would be total chaos, but so far it doesn’t seem to have changed things much.
Modern Warfare’s mid-season update for Season 4 arrived on June 30 across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and it’s bringing an even bigger crowd into the Warzone mode. Solos, duos, and trios matches are all still set at the standard 150-player count, but the four-player “Quads” mode is now packed with an extra fifty players. At first, dropping on to the map of Verdansk alongside 199 other people isn’t too chaotic — unless, that is, you like landing at popular points of interest like “Boneyard” or “Atlas Superstore.” There’s the potential to rack up a higher kill count, and the extra engagement can make the matches feel a little faster. Lag is generally a concern when upping the player count, but I didn’t experience any extra lag from the 200-player Quads.
While the idea of a 200-player battle royale sounds game-changing, it’s actually the other tweaks that arrived with Season 4’s Warzone update that can have a greater impact on your matches.
More diversity has been added to the weapons pool for the 1v1 Gulag, the area in which defeated players can attempt to get back into the game. Now is definitely the time to brush up on your sniper skills: If you get owned on the battlefield and end up fighting for a revival, you’ll find that some Gulag loadouts now include snipers and semi-auto rifles. Of course, the flip side of that coin is that there’s now a frustrating loadout that consists of just your fists and throwing knives. Good luck.
The update also introduced a new piece of tactical equipment called the “Spotter Scope.” This will let you scout out enemies from afar, toggling thermal vision off and on. It’s not a sniper rifle, just a scope. But unlike sniper rifles, there’s no scope glint to give away your position, so you can sneakily locate distant enemies without detection even if you can’t immediately take a shot at them. The Spotter Scope can only be looted from crates or off the ground, as this is not a piece of equipment that you can equip to your custom loadout drops.
The Spotter Scope can be a powerful tool for you or your squad, but it seems to be a pretty rare find. I played several matches across solos, duos and the new 200-player quads, but I only found the scope once. On the off chance you do find one, though, it’s definitely worth keeping.
Another new feature is a “Supply Run” contract that you can locate and activate for discounted loot. This basically works like Warzone’s Fire Sale event. Activating the contract will give you a time limit to rush to a specific Buy Station, where you can purchase a killstreak or gear for a lower price. Reviving a teammate appears to be free during this time.
Warzone also received some major weapon tuning. Leading up to this update, many had been hoping that certain guns would get nerfed enough to shake up the meta. For quite some time, the Grau 5.56 assault rifle and the MP5 submachine gun have been the melt machines that most players were using. The Grau got a damage and range reduction, but it’s still been the God-tier gun in most of my Warzone matches today. For players looking to run a sniper rifle, the Kar98k and HDR received buffs that make them more viable options. Just don’t expect the Grau to go anywhere.
Overall, I think this update was mostly positive. 200-player matches can certainly add a little extra spice in the early goings, and 200 players definitely isn’t too outlandish, considering the sheer size of the Verdansk map. I’m mostly disappointed that we’re still not seeing any landscape changes or live event action. There are a ton of identical buildings that still have shit for loot. Some buildings are several floors of absolutely nothing. Everything is still moving like molasses in Warzone, and it might not be until Season 5 before we see anything significant change out there in Verdansk.
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