Call of Duty's Black Ops Royale is the kind of rulebook-burning experience Warzone needs

Just the mention of a Call of Duty Blackout revival last year was enough to get me amped, and now that Activision has revealed exactly what Black Ops Royale will entail, I’m even more excited. Call of Duty Warzone has felt pretty stale recently – the return of Verdansk last year was huge, but since then, there hasn’t been a similar, landmark moment that really got tongues wagging about the game. However, I think Black Ops Royale could end that rut. Sure, some personal nostalgia for the original CoD battle royale is going to help, but the fact that this new mode is tearing up a lot of the Warzone rulebook could be the very thing that brings players back to it.

I’ve never wanted to become one of those ‘it was better in my day’ kinda guys, but in the case of Call of Duty’s history with battle royales, I think it certainly applies. That first stint of Covid Warzone was a truly special time, but Black Ops 4’s Blackout set the tone even before that. Being an additional mode in BO4, and not a standalone free-to-play game, a lot of folks missed out on it, but Blackout really was an amazing experience.

Activision has now set its stall out for Black Ops Royale, and while it’s by no means a totally faithful reimagining of Blackout, it finds a sweet spot in the middle of the original game mode and the amalgam of systems and content that is current day Warzone. I’m not going to hyper-analyze every gameplay quirk of Black Ops Royale (as you’ll see from the length of Activision’s new blog post, we’d be here all day otherwise) but there’s one very important change from the current Warzone experience I’m thrilled about – there will be no loadouts.

I genuinely feel the most exhausting thing about playing Call of Duty (whether that be Warzone or mainline multiplayer games) is the constant tinkering, overhauling, and optimizing of loadouts. While the initial stages of most Warzone matches feel typically battle-royale-like, with a lot of loot scavenging and wielding whatever you happen to come across, the focus is always on getting to your loadout. And you know what? I’m bored of that loop.

Black Ops Royale, however, is purely loot-based. There are no custom loadouts that drop in after ring closures, contract completions, or Buy Station visits. You find a gun, which will be pre-equipped with a set of attachments that lean into a certain playstyle (or ‘Build Archetype’) and you simply hunt for Attachment Kits to increase the quality of the weapon. Yes, yes, yes! Taking things largely back to basics, focusing on looting, but keeping a small tactical element in there with those Build Archetypes sounds like a winning combination to me, but of course the proof will be in the playing.

While there are four upgradeable tiers, there’s also an elusive fifth, golden tier called Ultra, which is a maxed-out, eight-attachment gun that will randomly spawn somewhere on the map. Activision teases that “there may only be one available per match,” which will make the moment you do find one even more special.

It’s the same deal with equipment, perks, and killstreaks – everything is loot. Unlike most Warzone matches, where you can be fairly confident after a few minutes you’ll have your favorite, dependable, pre-built loadout in your hands, Black Ops Royale will be more about adaptability (or simply looting like crazy until you get the exact gear you want every time).

I get it – the modern era of Call of Duty hinges a lot on that incredibly deep, detailed loadout system. It’s not going away. But I really hope Black Ops Royale proves to be popular, and shows that there’s value to be had outside of all that meta optimizing and attachment-tweaking. Maybe it can open doors for more simplified, throwback experiences in CoD’s annual games too, if it is a success.

When I asked Treyarch at the time of Black Ops 7’s launch whether it would ever move away from the current loadout system, associate creative director Miles Leslie told me that the devs “talk about this every game,” and teased there may be limited time modes down the line that “hit different feelings and wants.” Hopefully, Black Ops Royale can be the catalyst that makes these experiences actually appear.