Al Mazrah is the jewel in the center of the Warzone 2.0 launch, a massive map filled with different points of interest and new geographic features that mix things up in a major way. We’re loving it so far, but what does one of the genre’s best players think?
To find out, we caught up with Redbull’s Jukeyz ahead of Warzone 2.0’s public release to get his thoughts. Having played this map long before most of the public, they came to sensible conclusions about this map very early on. Their conclusion was that it was fine and his type of map.
“I never want to go to the forest again. I love buildings and windows that you can jump over, stairs, buildings that you can climb to the top,” Jukeyz said. The environments of Warzone 2.0 have been drastically changed, as the series leaps from the jungles of the crater and the dangerous wilderness. Al Mazrah features not the sprawling, fauna-covered landscapes that often lead to accidental shootouts, but the sprawling urban sprawl within its boundaries.
Of course, those are still places where combat can happen in the open, but it’s a lot lighter for players like Jukeyz who like to run and shoot while loading up close. If this map can be compared to any past landscape that Warzone has taken us to, it’s Verdansk, a map players have sorely missed since the game pushed it into the past.
“When Warzone first came out, we didn’t know what to expect. There were too many high-rises at first, things like that. Then when Caldera came out, we were willing to do anything to go back.” He would go on to claim this stark difference from Caldera , a map he felt kept many players away from Warzone, which led to the hype surrounding the new release.
Then there’s the new features for Warzone 2. A weaker addition to the Caldera is the water game (no, not that). Back then, crouching across streams would keep you away from drones and the like, which was for playing this tracking game designed for the map. It didn’t really succeed like that, but Al Mazrah is pulling out all the stops with more underwater sports and combat.
For Jukeyz, this is a perfect opportunity to both amuse players and beat opponents, and bring them back to OG Blackout mode. Whereas back then any weapon could be used, now there are only pistols, so players will have to play smart or get drowned from the shore. This, along with the enhanced vehicle mechanics, convinced Jukeyz that the Al Mazrah was ripe for “out of the box”, something the Caldera had been lacking for the last year.
“In the crater, there’s a building all the way there, and another building all the way in the other direction, just a rock and a tent. I thought, what can I do here? But I’m going to try tricks, right? I’m going to Run into the tent to try and shake people off, but I get shot when the Combat Scout shows up. So a team of guys with LMGs blasts me through the tent. That sucks. With Combat Scout, and More buildings coming out … I feel confident in my performance.”
However, one aspect of the map caused Jukeyz to physically flinch when asked. stronghold. PVE buildings are overcrowded with AI, and players need to break through and clear them to ensure an early loadout. “Ai! It’s the AI. It reminds me of Caldera, and being shot in the back. It just annoys me. I’m going to turn around, smoke a cigarette, and start yelling at the AI.” For the foreseeable future, they Having to deal with these computer-controlled enemies was a fate he had to accept, and he ended the interview excited about the full version and what it contained.
We very much agree with him. It’s only been one day, and we’re sure some crap will get to us in the next few weeks, but for now we’re having a lot of fun just hanging out at Al Mazrah and trying stuff out there. Let us know what you think below!
For more on Warzone 2.0, check out our list of the best meta loadout pages and ranks, as well as our breakdown of the Modern Warfare 2 / MW2 patch notes.
