Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is already distancing itself from its predecessor, which is now being refered to as Warzone Caldera, but Activision's follow-up to its hit battle royale is more of a reset than a sequel. Warzone 2 is running on a new engine, is available on Steam, has a new battle pass system, and lacks the large amount of guns from MW2019, Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard that filled Warzone 1. This makes Warzone 2 feel like a clean slate for Activision to build on as more Call of Duty games come out to follow Modern Warfare 2.
However, Warzone 2 is still at risk of replicating Warzone 1's biggest mistake. When Warzone 1 launched in March 2020, it had all the weapons from the 2019's good, but not great Modern Warfare reboot in the game. However, as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard released, the weapons from those titles were crammed into Warzone 1 in a disorganized manner that led to significant issues with the game's balancing. With Warzone 2 quickly following the launch of Modern Warfare 2, there's the sense that Activision may make the same mistake again.
Warzone 1's Gun Problem That Warzone 2 Needs To Avoid
Warzone 1's problem with weapons balancing has followed a pattern similar to many battle royales: newer weapons outclassed older ones and shook the game's meta up unnaturally. However, Warzone 1 experienced this phenomenon to an exaggerated degree because of how guns were brought into the game. Instead of bringing in one or a few weapons at a time like Fortnite or Apex Legends, a large bulk of Black Ops Cold War's unbalanced multiplayer weapons were integrated into Warzone 1 when Season 1 came out in December 2020. They then overtook the game in an abrupt manner that created a volatile meta. The same pattern repeated itself when Vanguard guns were integrated in 2021. By the time of Warzone 1's Season 5, most of the top guns were all from Vanguard save for a few of Cold War's assault rifles like the XM4.
Additionally, the integration of so many guns made the game feel overflowing with weapons. By the time of Season 5, Warzone 1 had over 160 guns. On top of this, some of these weapons were duplicates, as guns like the M14, M16, and AK-47 had different models from Modern Warfare, Cold War, and Vanguard. Contrary to Warzone 2's best weapons being prevalent because of fewer options, this contributed to making Warzone 1 feel over-bloated and messy with the sheer amount of options there were, even if these options helped make the game feel highly customizable.
Warzone 2 can try to avoid making these same mistakes before it's too late. The game has around 50 weapons currently, so slowly integrating more guns from future - or even past - games could help this number expand while maintaining a sense of stability. The volatility of Warzone 1's meta is what hurt the game the most, so without it, Warzone 2 can have a promising future.
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