Let me start by saying that I've played them all. From PUBG to Fortnite to Apex Legends to Blackout and now on to Modern Warfare, the list of AAA Battle Royale games is both long and illustrious. So why is Warzone better than all the rest? Beyond my subjective claims to its superior play mechanics and graphics, it really comes down to simplicity and engagement.
For a game that's incredibly complicated, it's hard to say that it's simple. But really, it is. Instead of spending my time learning how to craft forts or upgrade my avatar, my main focus is on engaging in action, earning loot, and getting kills. My main complaint about Battle Royale games in the early days is that they actually encouraged you to shy away from the action. In Blackout, for instance, it really made no sense to engage in firefights until the very end of a match. If you died, there was no chance of resurrection, and killing other players got you nothing except maybe a few dropped pieces of loot that you could pretty easily obtain otherwise by rummaging in a few buildings. Therefore, playing an aggressive game style really made no sense at all - other than just for the fun of it - and you ultimately were strategizing how NOT to get overly involved in the action to give yourself the best chance of winning the match. This always seemed very counter-intuitive to me.
Warzone is simpler in both its focus and in its mechanics. Drop in, kill others, get loot, keep engaged, and keep playing. No rocket packs or super human play mechanics that make for cheap stunt kills. It's all about leveraging what you have and all players are kept, for the most part, on the same level playing field. And since you have so many opportunities to re-buy your teammates when they die, you're always motivated to complete contracts (which are highly fun and rewarding on their own merit) and stay on the move. There are items you can get from buy stations that you can't get elsewhere on the map, so you have to continue earning cash, completing missions, and killing other players to take their piles of loot. It's a genius system that works perfectly in practice and minimizes the amount of camping taking place across Verdansk.
All that to say, Warzone is simple, and it's engaging. In Blackout or Apex or PUBG especially, you find yourself waiting around A LOT. Waiting for your teammates to finish their game while you sit there twiddling your thumbs. Waiting for games to load. Waiting for matches to fill. Much of your time is not spent actively participating in the game, but rather spectating helplessly. Warzone makes the entire process so engrossing for all players, even those that have been killed early in the game, by giving everybody access to the map and helping spectators participate by letting them mark contracts, spot enemies, fight in the gulag, or plan the best place to camp out during the final circle.
In the end, Warzone has my vote as the most enjoyable, most polished, most perfect incarnation of the BR genre yet. It addresses some of the biggest flaws of its predecessors while focusing on simple, engrossing, fast paced gameplay that isn't overly complicated. 10/10, would recommend. Tell me why you think I'm wrong.
