For over a decade, Call of Duty has dominated the first-person military shooter market, especially when it comes to multiplayer. And over the years, Call of Duty's unique fast-paced approach to gameplay has become a staple of the brand. With faster movement than its competition and a shorter time-to-kill, Call of Duty has become viewed as more of a casual shooter, with players simply needing to aim and pull the trigger to win a firefight. Call of Duty: Warzone 2 carries over this same fast-paced gameplay, but it doesn't always work with its larger scale.
Being bigger than both of its predecessors, Call of Duty: Warzone 2's Al Mazrah map is truly vast. With 18 points of interest, Al Mazrah has a lot for players to explore, but it can also lead to some empty-feeling matches. Players can often go for long stretches without seeing another player, and when they finally do, that infamous Call of Duty time-to-kill can cut a firefight short, leading to some real frustration.
Call of Duty's TTK Doesn't Work For Warzone 2
When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 released a few weeks ago, one of its most divisive elements was its movement speed. Trying to encourage more tactical, thought-out gameplay, Infinity Ward decided to reduce Modern Warfare 2's movement speed by a tiny amount from its predecessor's. While some fans liked the slower-paced gameplay, some did not, claiming that the time-to-kill was too quick for a slower game.
Infinity Ward has not only decided to stick to its guns for Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer mode, but also bring that same pacing to Call of Duty: Warzone 2, and it doesn't work nearly as well here. Al Mazrah is a gigantic map, and getting between POIs can take multiple minutes. The massive scale of Al Mazrah can also mean that players don't encounter each other for quite some time. In some instances, players can go about 10 whole minutes before seeing even one enemy player.
After spending 10 minutes looting, with no one else in sight, players can get a little restless. This can lead some players to get a bit more reckless, and start sprinting around the map to try and find someone to fight. Warzone 2's mechanics want players to do the opposite. Players are encouraged to check around every corner, and sneak carefully into every building. But that's frustrating and dull for players to do non-stop for long durations of time. But the more reckless players get, the easier they're spotted, and unfortunately, Warzone 2's time-to-kill is still insanely quick.
It's a common occurrence in Call of Duty: Warzone 2 to spend about 10-15 minutes looting, not seeing another soul, only to be picked off by a hidden player in seconds. This can get extremely frustrating. To make matters worse, it can also take quite a while for players to load into a new match, with the party needing to leave the game upon defeat, load into another, and wait for the pre-game lobby to fill up. Throw on top of this a bevy of connection and server issues, and Warzone 2 can be a pretty infuriating game at times. While Warzone 2 gives players armor and plenty of cover, its time-to-kill is still incredibly quick when compared to other battle royales, and it just doesn't fit well with Al Mazrah's larger scale or Modern Warfare 2's slower movement speed.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.