There are many things that Call of Duty: Warzone does right. It brought innovation to the battle royal genre with the gulag and has an excellent cross-progression system with Modern Warfare, but without a doubt, the one thing missing is a shooting range to allow players to test different loadouts and practice before diving into the real thing.
This might not seem like a huge deal to veterans of the series who have a firm understanding of what each weapon does, its effective range, and bullet spread after years of playing sequel after sequel in the series. However, Warzone has brought many new players to the franchise, many of which have never played Call of Duty before, and there is quite a bit to learn.
Right now, most players have limited options for testing out their weapons and loadouts, and that is by jumping into a live game of Plunder. On the one hand, this is truly trial by fire, and players will sink or swim. The downside to this however is that not knowing how to use certain weapons may result in swift death, which may in itself turn players away from a weapon, thinking it is bad when really they are in need of more practice.
Several games do this quite well. Fortnite has creator mode where players have made all sorts of outstanding training courses to practice their building, trap placement, and weapon use. Apex Legends also does a great job with this, giving players the opportunity to test weapons and see how they affect opponents in terms of damage, shooting at DUMMIEs with level three body shields.
Apart from the benefit that players would receive in being able to improve on their skills, Infinity Ward could even use the feature to make more money. One option would be to make available all the Blueprints in game so as to be able to test a weapon before making a real-money purchase of a bundle from the store. This would have the dual effect of encouraging purchases once something has been tested and avoiding purchases that could make players feel bad if there is buyer’s remorse.
If anything, this suggestion of yet another way to make money should send Infinity Ward flying down to the development team to make a firing range happen, immediately! Well, probably not, but the above points still stand, and the best way to keep interest high in a free-to-play game is to give players the tools they need to succeed and feel as though they are progressing in skills.
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