Call of Duty: Vanguard’s final Season begins on August 24, and it will also serve as the final Season for the original version of Call of Duty: Warzone. With Warzone 2.0 right around the corner, Activision, Raven Software, and other developers will seemingly be hitting a reset button on the ongoing story, with weapons and skins also rumored to be reset. Before this happens, the original Warzone will be going out with a bang, though many longtime fans are confused by the approach.
Call of Duty: Warzone Season 5, otherwise known as Last Stand, is set to bring back several iconic villains from past entries in the Call of Duty series. However, some of these characters have birthdates that do not line up with the established canon, or they come from universes that are very much separate from those that have been tied to Warzone thus far. With the EM1 energy rifle from Advanced Warfare being renamed the EX1 and coming to Warzone in Season 5 as well, any bit of realism or continuity has gone out the window. With Warzone 2.0, this mistake should not be repeated.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 Needs a Clear Identity
Prior to Call of Duty: Vanguard’s segment of the Warzone storyline, players were given some clear plots to follow with both Modern Warfare 2019 and Black Ops Cold War. Expanding the narrative through post-launch updates is a solid approach for a live service title, as games like Fortnite have grown enough to tell an intriguing story through seasonal events, cutscenes, and quests. After Modern Warfare got the ball rolling by showing Captain Price’s mission to stop Victor Zakhaev, Black Ops Cold War took things a step further by showcasing Stitch’s plan.
The rivalry between Stitch and Adler was genuinely gripping and kept players invested, serving as a solid extension of the Black Ops Cold War campaign that provided answers about Perseus. Unfortunately, the concept of a clear story that keeps things relatively grounded was thrown out the window with Call of Duty: Vanguard, as the narrative has only grown more absurd with every passing Season.
Carver Butcher’s recollection of events seemed interesting and believable early on, as he stumbled upon a secret Nazi bunker on an island. Unfortunately, things quickly took a turn toward the absurd, as Godzilla and Kong appeared on Caldera in Season 3. The next Season took an odd detour to focus on money, while Season 5 has seemingly gone out of its way to go against the Call of Duty franchise’s established canon.
Players can control Rorke from the Call of Duty: Ghosts universe, Menendez from the Black Ops 2 campaign, and Seraph from Black Ops 3 and 4 multiplayer. Not only is the Ghosts universe separate from the Modern Warfare 2019 timeline, but Seraph’s birthdate is 2027. Clearly, Raven just wanted to have a bit of fun by featuring an assortment of villains from across the series, but it feels extremely unnatural following the serious stories of Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War. Raul Menendez randomly appearing cheapens his conflict with Woods, too, and the only way to justify Butcher’s story is by revealing that he was making things up - something that would make everything from the past year feel pointless.
With Warzone 2.0, Activision, Raven, and all the developers involved with the battle royale game need to decide on a single approach. Attempting to tell proper stories in the first two integrated games, only to randomly throw legacy content into Warzone like it’s Call of Duty Mobile, is a truly odd decision. If Activision wants Warzone to be a collection of CoD content and random, fun events, it should go all-in on the idea from the beginning. Similarly, if the publisher wants Warzone 2.0 to tell a story, it needs to avoid inexplicable appearances from characters that have no involvement with the story. The tonal shifts between Stitch’s death scene and Godzilla vs. Kong are too extreme, and the game feels unfocused because of them. Season 5’s random villain cameos are the latest example of the problem, and they serve as a slap in the face to those who have cared about the stories told within Warzone.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.