[GameSpot] - CoD: Warzone's New The Boys Superpowers Are Great--But They Don't Belong Everywhere

[343iBot]

The Season 4 Reloaded update is live in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2, bringing a mid-season crossover with The Boys that fuels much of the content with fancy operator bundles, map changes, themed camos, and superpowers taking over Warzone 2. However, the superpowered fun is annoyingly invading too many maps and modes, and it would make more sense as a standalone playlist.

Season 4 Reloaded temporarily adds the new Temp V field upgrade, which is named after the super serum used in The Boys to give anyone a random superpower for just 24 hours. Temp V works well as a field upgrade for Call of Duty because it gives you one of four random superpowers with one activation. Once you use it, you'll lose the ability and need to find another dose of Temp V. This helps keep the superpowers from being overused and spammy.

Injecting Temp V will give you either an electric shockwave attack, laser vision, teleportation, or a charged jump attack. These superpowered field upgrades are pretty abundant in battle royale, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding Temp V, and if you don't like the random ability, you can swap the equipped field upgrade for another randomized power.

Of course, you can still pick other field upgrades if you need to grab something like the munition or armor box to gear up your squad, but just like any other field upgrade, you will be swapping out your Temp V ability.

Using random superpowers in Warzone might feel a little outlandish for the battle royale, but they are a lot of fun to use and don't feel quite as overpowered as something like Fortnite's Dragon Ball Z crossover with the Kamehameha ability, which, prior to getting nerfed, could easily decimate an entire squad. The most powerful here in terms of damage is Homelander's laser eye attack, but it's definitely a high-risk/high-reward type of power, because you float up and become vulnerable while you rotate, aim, and sear your opponents with lasers. This can, however, be a frustrating power to go head-to-head with, as the laser ability can feel like insta-death even if you have armor and full health.

Teleportation is one of the most practical and useful powers for Warzone, which will let you quickly evade an enemy or simply just reposition yourself on the map by redeploying in the sky. The charged jump attack will also let you attack or evade a gunfight, and you'll avoid any fall damage from your Hulk-sized jump. I think the electric shockwave attack can work well for disabling enemy vehicles approaching your squad, but it seems like you need to be in really close proximity to fry anyone's ride.

While Temp V provides useful tactics or high-risk for high-reward damage, I don't think laser eyes and teleportation need to be on every map and almost every playlist in battle royale. There are many different maps and modes for Warzone 2, but you don't get much of an escape from the randomness that comes from facing off against superpowers.

The Boys ads and billboards in Warzone 2

The one place superpowers really seem out of place is DMZ, where dying means you lose all the gear you've worked to accumulate. Spending a match or two getting kitted out with the best armor vest, backpack, and more will feel awfully defeating if you face a sudden death from Homelander's laser eyes. On the bright side, Temp V is extremely rare here. In my handful of DMZ matches played, my squad and I didn't find any Temp V or encounter any Supes during our missions. DMZ still felt like business as usual. There is the possibility I just got lucky in my matches, but I do think it should be removed from DMZ completely and left to the randomness of specific battle royale playlists.

It's also worth noting there are map changes with billboards that feature the Justice League-style ensemble of superheroes featured in The Boys, as well as ads promoting the show's fictional movie Dawn of the Seven. The themed decor is very subtle, and I wish there were more environmental changes to pull you into the show's fictional world and add to the experience for fans of the show.

I'm a huge fan of moments when Call of Duty gets a little silly, especially with limited-time modes like multiplayer's Prop Hunt (based on a Garry's Mod mode), where players turn into various decor "props" on the map for a game of hide-and-seek, or when Warzone lets Godzilla and King Kong stomp across Caldera. And as someone who is a fan of superheroes and The Boys, Season 4 Reloaded's crossover event is a satisfying time, but this definitely feels like something that should've been offered as a limited-time mode in its own specific playlist.

Currently, the only option for players to get a standard battle royale experience is to play the sweaty competitive Ranked Play mode; otherwise their matches will be met with superhero shenanigans. If the developer would at least switch things up to provide one standard, non-Ranked Play playlist without The Boys crossover and remove the abilities from DMZ, I would count this update as a fully-Suped-up success.

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