Warzone 2 is making a huge change to the battle royale’s circles

Call of Duty Warzone 2 is rolling out some major changes to the battle royale’s circles.

While the original Warzone followed the standard battle royale formula – in which players are penned in to an ever-shrinking area, forcing them to bunch up – Warzone 2 is taking a different approach. As revealed during Call of Duty Next, players won’t just be funneled into a single circle, but multiple areas that will eventually merge.

“The circle’s been a staple of Battle Royales, it’s really hard to move away from it,” said game director Jack O’Hara, “so we talked about ‘What could we do to mix things up?’”

“We’ve got this new mechanic where the circle can actually split, almost like a cell splits, into two, three or even four circles, and then those circles close down. What it does is segregates teams and you have these micro battles in those circles. At a certain point, those circles merge.”

Directed and deadly

It’s not just a superficial change. While players are initially split between circles, the moment they come together will make for a climactic final battle.

“At a certain point you’re like ‘Ok, we’ve cleared out our circle, we think we’re good’. Then those circles merge, they come back together and you have this very directed fight,” said O’Hara.

“You’re gearing up in buildings, thinking ‘Here we go, it’s about to get confidence’. As soon as those circles hit, you have that final fight. It’s another twist in the gameplay that we feel is a cool world event that would happen.”

You won’t have to wait long to experience that for yourself. Warzone 2’s release date is right around the corner. We’ve already had a good look at the battle royale’s new map, which makes effective use of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s improved aquatic gunplay.