Activision has officially revealed the poorly kept secret that is Warzone, with the free-to-play add on to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dropping tomorrow, March 10.
While Warzone will offer Modern Warfare players an enormous, 150-player battle royale, it will also offer a second mode called Plunder, which involves teams roaming the map searching for cash to deposit, with the winner being the first to safely secure $1 million. Both modes look set to be three-player teams only.
While Warzone, like most battle royales, will have loot scattered about the map for players to grab when they parachute in, Loadout Drops will also begin to drop around the map throughout the game. These act as care packages, but instead of offering up even more loot, they instead allow players to pick one of ten custom classes that you make in the menu before you enter a game of Warzone, complete with two weapons, equipment, and perks. These require a few seconds to open, meaning you are exposed and defenceless while accessing a Loadout Drop.
Free to play for everyone.
Drop in tomorrow March 10th. #FreeCallofDuty pic.twitter.com/URU1Yg4wjk— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) March 9, 2020
To help players get to grips, with the enormous map, the names of the locations will appear over each as you freelook around while in the plane or dropping down, as you can see in this footage from Charlie Intel.
Here’s how matches begin in Call of Duty: Warzone.
One of the cool new features is that you can see the name of each location overhead while you’re first dropping in to see where you are going. https://t.co/JVi779Z46A pic.twitter.com/IhQdVOzR7T
— Call of Duty Warzone News (@charlieINTEL) March 9, 2020
Plunder looks set to be the more lighthearted mode in Warzone. This sees teams secure cash from around the map (and the bodies of players they’ve killed) to attempt to deposit $1 million. Cash is deposited in small amounts by Deposit Balloons, or in large quantities by Deposit Helicopters. Balloons are a more risk-free approach, while the Helicopters are called in via helipads which are reportedly very open and exposed (again, thanks Charlie Intel).
Remember, any cash you have on your person that hasn’t been deposited is at risk. If you get killed, it can be swiped by enemy players.
Warzone looks set to shake up the battle royale genre big time and will look to pinch players off of Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PUBG.
The current in-game countdown is saying that Warzone will become available at 8:00 PDT / 11:00 EDT / 15:00 GMT on March 10. Players who own Modern Warfare already will be able to play from that time, but those who don’t own the game but still want to play Warzone will have to wait four hours later.