Call of Duty: Warzone is the latest iteration of the battle royale formula and shows how the genre has continuously evolved, perhaps in a roundabout way. Early battle royale games were praised by stripping away certain elements of multiplayer games, such as respawns and weapon loadouts, to put an emphasis on teamwork, skill, and a little touch of variety and RNG to get the victory. Over time, this has changed, with Apex Legends being praised for adding a respawn system when it launched (which was later adapted into Fortnite, with that system revamped via CoD: Warzone's Gulag system).
As this circular evolution continues, per se, Warzone is seeing changes in the variety of a battle royale game as well. One beloved yet criticized feature is Call of Duty: Warzone's loadouts, as they strip away at the randomness and RNG that defined the battle royale genre, but also add a new twist that only really makes sense with the CoD franchise. With that in mind, it seems that the various bunkers found around the map, that which many have been curious about, could simply be a more common feature in the vein of this BR circle: loot vaults.
Loot Vaults in Apex Legends, Fortnite
Unlike the loadouts, Loot Vaults haven't really been criticized as there is some degree of randomness to them. Loot Vaults first appeared in the genre with the advent of Apex Legends' season 3. The World's Edge map has a couple scattered throughout the map and require players to first find a Vault Key. As such, there's a couple of randomness factors here: players need to be within an area to get to it easily enough, players need to have a key, and even when they are inside and it is guaranteed top-tier loot, there's no promises of what is actually inside. Even gold and purple items aren't helpful if they don't suit a player's current set-up.
Fortnite would introduce feature with the launch of Chapter 2 Season 2. It came with 5 different vaults: The Agency Vault, the Yacht Vault, the Grotto Vault, the Rig Vault, and the Shark Vault. These require players to kill certain Fortnite bosses, while also performing another task or two to open. Considering the biggest names in the BR genre have these loot vaults now, it wouldn't be surprising if these are what the Call of Duty: Warzone Bunkers prove to be.
Call of Duty: Warzone Bunkers as Loot Vaults
Right now, there's not a lot to go on with Warzone's Bunkers. It's entirely possible that the in-game locations and seemingly correlated items cannot be activated yet, may not correspond as everyone thinks, or just haven't been figured out yet. But there's Vaults Bunkers across the map, which require a code to get into, and there's cell phones and laptops many think are somehow connected to said code. The basic premise seems plausible: teams of 3 would likely need to find 3-4 digits to get into the Bunker, and if they are successful, there's a solid chance of good loot inside.
As it stands, though, this is mere speculation. Call of Duty: Warzone players have glitched into the bunkers to find a small tunnel leading nowhere, so it seems the gameplay mechanic, whatever it may be, is not ready. Of course, there are a plethora of other possibilities as well; for example, it could be involved with some sort of limited-time mode, could be party of some bigger gameplay mechanic that isn't so predictable, or be safe spaces from nukes or something of the like (in the future). Bunkers being Loot Vaults essentially, though, does seem like a safe bet, so players will just have to wait, see , and/or figure out what's on the other side of those doors.
Call of Duty: Warzone is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.