Call of Duty Warzone Should Embrace its Crazier, Over-the-Top Crossovers and Events

There are some broad comparisons out there that try to paint Call of Duty Warzone as the mature FPS version of Epic’s more family friendly Fortnite. While many of those comparisons are fair, the reality is much more nuanced, particularly in the broader goals of the two enormous games. Still, as different as Warzone is from Fortnite, there are certain lessons that can be learned, and influences that could carry Warzone to new heights that it wouldn’t be able to achieve otherwise. Which is why Call of Duty Warzone needs to embrace its crazier ideas and the over-the-top collaborations that could bring in a whole new audience.

At this point for Fortnite, crazy is the new normal. It’s not surprising anymore to see the metaverse get popular superheroes, characters from other games, or have an entire alien invasion as the crux of its latest season. In fact, the latest season adding both Superman and Rick and Morty’s Rick Sanchez is cool, but entirely expected in that it’s strange and unexpected. It would be weirder if Fortnite didn’t have these kinds of crossovers and collaborations at this point. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in these pitch meetings to find out just how they all come together in such a spectacular fashion. Because of these collaborations, people—even people who don’t typically like Fortnite—pay attention to Fortnite.

Fortnite has brought together the PlayStation-exclusive Kratos and Xbox-exclusive Master Chief in one game. It’s hosted virtual concerts with larger than life stars using the game’s world as their stage. It’s screened films for players. It’s been a key piece of social influence in Epic’s fight against Apple. Its seen bizarro events that change up the very fundamental elements of gameplay in big ways. It’s sucked the entire game into a black hole and shut it down for a couple of days while waiting for the next iteration of the game to launch. Fortnite is constantly trying to one up itself, surprising players with shocking new events and ways of evolving the game.

Call of Duty Warzone has gently explored these kinds of surprising and shocking moments, crossovers, and events, and they’ve consistently been some of the best experiences Warzone has ever had. They used Warzone to reveal Black Ops Cold War via a thrilling in-game event. Verdansk was cast into night and became haunted, crossing over with horror franchises Saw and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Verdansk was infested with Zombies (via a ship that traveled through the aether from the past), and was subsequently nuked to handle the situation. While the culminating event was ultimately not all that engaging, the season-long lead up to the destruction of Verdansk was a fascinating series of events.

Source: Playstationlifestyle