Warzone Skynet's Place in CoD

[warcelt27]

OK, guys... I always hate being a 'naysayer,' but, NAY - enough is enough. I absolutely adore the CoD franchise for the most part, and have played since...well, a very long time. In that time, I have seen titles come and go and ebb and flow. Some with great success, others less so. But, I have tried them all, have fallen in love with some, and have "agreed to disagree" with others. After all, the Activision, et al folks do an exceptional job providing us with games and content for same via their hard work and dedication - and oft times by giving over to a fan base that can be - dare I saw it: awfully whiney about things that don't matter much in the grand scheme of things. They try to appeal to the majority by adding things, buffing things, nerfing things, and so on, and add content to grab gamers new to the franchise. So, on all those points: great job designers, writers, artists, developers, and testers!

That said... I have stopped playing Warzone altogether. When Kong and Godzilla arrived, I took my leave. I've also stopped buying Battle Passes and things related to Vanguard/WZ. After all, grinding through all of those levels in the games I love, only to have every single thing go ONLY to the title(s) of the franchise I..."agree to disagree with"...is frustrating and pointless. I can only hope with the release of MW2 (2022) that weapons, skins, and so on either go toward THAT title, or have some sort of distribution among all of them. Because, nothing says WWII like giant lizards and monster monkeys...

And, with such a focus on what, in my opinion (though it IS the lowest-selling, least popular game of the franchise based on all the data, so I'm clearly not the only one), is their weakest and worst game (Vanguard) showing up in Warzone alongside all of the other garbage from that title instead of modern weapons, maps, and the like, they have essentially degraded a once decent game and, again, in my opinion, created now TWO titles that are sub-par. Vanguard has vastly poorer graphics, speeds, mechanics, gameplay, and so on, but those things that are also simply poor in overall game genre from the title have now infected Warzone, and are taking away from all CoD titles (see my point on the Battle Pass).

Now...enter Skynet. Don't get me wrong - I'm a HUGE 'Terminator' fan! But, once again, rather than making these skins and such available in MW or Cold War as well, they become Warzone and Vanguard exclusives. Why NOT the games that have a much larger fan base??? After all, there are some pretty ridiculous skins floating around already; they wouldn't be OUT of place! You know what I mean: zombie queens with AKs; the maniac from 'Scream;' bunny costumes from 'The Purge' (or wherever the hell they're from). n fact, with all of that, it seems to me T-800s and "mercury men" would fit in perfectly and be enjoyable. Why? Because in the other games, there isn't any set genre; not really!

BUT, nope...where we have one game (well, now, two, given that Warzone is now only Vanguard set in 'battle royale' mode) whose SPECIFIC genre is WWII, we need the naked flesh flasher from 'Attack on Titan' running around with an Earth-based weapon like a BAR; Kong and Godzilla mucking things up on Caldera; and, now, entering the Pacific sometime between 1943 and 1945, we get the Terminegger and the T-1000, probably with the same poor, smudged-out graphics quality (or, just to be more fair, FAR less quality than EVERY other CoD Title, including those from many moons past), relegated to an equipment-, story-telling-, and genre-specific, NON-fluid historical period, probably always spawning, back turned, in front of the enemy team, or running across the huge map that is Caldera for 30 minutes to acquire cash and weapons and finally catch up with your team-mates who ran on ahead, only to be sniped out by some camper (read as 12-year-old living in mummy's basement) whose only mission in-game is to rack up headshots. But, I digress...

Besides, hey..."they'll be 'bock'" next round for a repeat, so no harm no foul.

Anyway, again, nothing says WWII like monster lizards, apes on steroids, dorky Manga, and Cyberdine Systems' bad boys, so if we can't get all of these things (OK, not Kong and 'Zilla...you lot can keep those or, better yet, send them into the future to help John Connor...wherever they are FAR away from CoD) in the more modern eras, the Second World War is the "perfect place."

Two out of 10 stars.

 

[Carlos]

First off, EXCELLENT write up. Love your post. Constructive, detailed, and cordial.

Second off, WELCOME to CoDForums!

Thirdly, blame Fortnite, blame all these "me too" Battle Royale games. And blame the industry for the crossovers. To be honest, I love crossovers. Like Marvel Vs. Capcom, Smash Bros., etc. But you don't need to shove crossovers into every damn franchise. But blame the industry for it, because the people that want "new" stuff, aren't voting with their wallets. It's the same exact bullshit Infinite Warfare went through. "Oh, I didn't like Infinite Warfare because it was futuristic!" (My tone is mockery here, just so we're clear.) Fortnite kept the popularity because it can get away with a lot. You could make new gameplay, which they've done over the seasons.

Call of Duty can't really do this. Warzone was a good move, in fact... I like the new update that launched with Season 4. The problem is, people just want to go to "x" spot because it's a hotspot. Then camp. In my opinion, going in the direction of "tactical" Battlefield gameplay (I don't mean the word, I mean the franchise.) is the wrong move. Battlefield fans like the slower-style gameplay, the large scale battles (honestly, we all do, but put MORE people into the map, rather than the typical series numbers - in the past, it was a limitation of the hardware, but PS5 and Xbox Series consoles can handle more.)

The point I'm making here is that, Call of Duty can't get away with half of the shit Fortnite can. You can't have Galactus as a final boss in an update. You can't have Kratos as playable character in a MODERN WARFARE game. Call of Duty has always been that... arcade, yet "realistic" game. Zombies got away with it, because it is its own thing. Has no canon into the main campaign.

I bought Call of Duty 4 and games afterwards for the arcade gameplay. I feel like with Modern Warfare 2019, the first thing they hear is "we want tactical gameplay," but Activision hears that, they first go to "Battlefield" for gameplay. What people really wanted was actual tactical gameplay as in gun play, tactical equipment, killstreak, etc.

Okay, back to the thread at head. So, the thread is about the DLC. This is the industry's fault. They got overstimulated with the Fortnite-style crossover(s). Hell, Warner Bros. has a crossover game that's popular: Multiversus. And it's only gonna get worse before it gets better, because the next issue isn't these open world games, it's the Metaverse bullshit.

I 'get' (I mean, I understand...) refreshes, updates are necessary, but these crossovers are getting out of control. It's getting oversaturated. Halloween was the perfect time to bring all these crossovers, but having them included every season is overkill. Sorry, I agree. But this is the fault of the industry itself.