The writing is on the walls. Call of Duty is undergoing a change and it may really stick this time around.
You can roughly chart the evolution of first-person shooters over the past 1.5 decades with the annual Call of Duty releases. There was an era when everyone was super interested in modern military shooters, followed by a few years when our boots took off and started wallrunning or jetpacking. When hero shooters got big, Treyarch responded with Black Ops 3’s unique characters and ultimates. That was fun for a while, but then the clock was turned back and Activision thought, hey, maybe World War II is going to be fun again. It was not.
This brings us to our current era, the era that I think is going out the door (opens in new tab): battle royale. Activision committed to the battle royale early on and captured a huge audience with its standalone, free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone. The most popular way to play CoD in 2022 is in a lobby with 149 other people, something I could never have imagined in 2007. But now, nearly three years later, I’m noticing a waning interest in the same old battle royale and I think Activision has too. Infinity Ward is bringing Battle Royale back in Warzone 2.0, but at the same time it’s going big on its next bet: AI and PvPvE.
If you haven’t noticed, there are AI fighters all over Modern Warfare 2. In fact, literally every tentpole mode in Modern Warfare 2 implements AI in some way:
- Multiplayer: AI grunts join the fray in 20v20 Ground War modes
- Warzone 2.0: AI is scattered across the new Al Mazrah in strongholds protecting rare loot
- Spec Ops: 2 player co-op missions against AI
- Raids: Destiny-style co-op missions with complex AI encounters and battle puzzles
- DMZ: Warzone’s Mysterious New PvPvE Extraction Mode Launches Alongside Battle Royale
We get our first taste of CoD’s AI push during this weekend’s Modern Warfare 2 beta (opens in new tab). In the new Invasion mode, a take on Titanfall’s Attrition mode, unnamed grunts take part in a large-scale 20v20 team deathmatch where AI kills are worth less points than players. I wasn’t expecting much from Invasion, but it’s my favorite mode of the beta so far. Moment-to-moment it’s still TDM, but the extra bodies walking around saturate the map to such an extent that it gives the illusion of a grand, almost Battlefield-scale conflict in a much smaller space. It’s also just satisfying to mess up a whole bunch of AI going down in one or two bullets.
I’m very interested in how Modern Warfare 2 will handle raids. Infinity Ward deliberately makes comparisons to Destiny 2 in describing raids as “cooperative engagement that requires teamwork and strategic, puzzle-solving thinking in between intense battles.” Destiny raids are almost universally considered to be the best parts of those games, but only a fraction of the people who play it ever see them due to level requirements. Infinity Ward seems to speed up that process by simply creating raid missions that anyone can play.
Beyond Warzone
However, I think the real test of Call of Duty’s AI experiment will have to wait until Warzone 2.0. I’m skeptical that the nameless grunts that roam the map in Battle Royale will add anything more than target practice. Infinity Ward says AI enemies have “different levels of lethality” and “defend their territory like a CDL pro,” but the grunts content streamers encountered during the live Warzone 2.0 reveal were pushovers. I haven’t seen an AI that really threatens players like Hunt: Showdown’s slug monsters, insect killers, and aquatic tentacle freaks do, for example.
If AI is little more than a distraction in Battle Royale, I hope it takes center stage in DMZ. My newfound love of extraction shooters may color this a bit, but I’m getting the sense that DMZ is a big deal for Infinity Ward. There is a growing interest in the format that divides the difference between risky survival shooters and battle royale. A lot of extraction shooters have been popping up lately – characterized by the freedom to roam the map, fight against players, complete objectives and take off whenever you want. The burgeoning genre is dominated by stealthy cowboy shooter Hunt: Showdown (opens in new tab) and milsim Escape From Tarkov, but newer challengers include dieselpunk shooter Marauders (opens in new tab) and The Cycle: Frontier (opens in new tab). Battlefield 2042 even gave the extraction format a spin last year with Hazard Zone (opens in new tab)though it didn’t catch on there.
The Warzone 2.0 announcement blog post describes DMZ as a “passion project” within Infinity Ward and contributing studios, language it doesn’t use for Modern Warfare 2’s two hundred other modes. It’s also the only mode with its own logo, completely separate from the Warzone. branding.
To make DMZ feel different from Warzone, Infinity Ward should really consider getting creative with AI. Think Bigger Than Grunt: One of Hunt’s greatest powers is how the unique behavior of his monsters forces you to change your strategy (like the Human Torch-esque Immolators that explode when you pierce their skin with something sharp). There must be environmental hazards and things to do other than running from one place to another and shooting other players. Think too small with extraction shooters and you’ll end up with Battlefield 2042’s ill-fated Hazard Zone.
If Infinity Ward can do for extraction shooters what it did for Battle Royale, it could be something really special (and even beat Fortnite this time around). I can see this is the right kick-off to a PvPvE trend where all battle royale games are slowly creeping closer to Escape From Tarkov or Hunt. I hope it pays off as I’m definitely done with getting smaller and smaller circles.
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