Give peace a chance: Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0's reworked Gulag will let players call a truce

Warzone 2.0 is receiving a big shakeup to its second chance system ahead of its launch, introducing PvE elements and an optional cooperative opportunity to its new Gulag. 1v1 duels are gone (for now), replaced with randomly paired teams of two. Players will no longer receive random weaponry, instead having to loot high-powered guns from the middle of the arena. 

The Gulag is also getting a pseudo co-op overhaul in keeping with Warzone 2.0's big bet on populating maps and modes with bots. If combat drags on too long, the Gulag’s Jailer, a high-powered AI combatant, will join the fight. Defeating the jailer earns all four players a ticket back to Al Mazrah. So there are now two paths to a second chance: kill the other prisoners as usual, or team up against the Jailer.

You should really choose one, because failing to defeat Jailer will eliminate all players. Infinity Ward hasn’t provided any details on what combat with the Jailer looks like, but if I had to guess, the Jailer probably resembles the armored-up Juggernauts littered throughout the campaign. 

There’s also no word on how coordination between the two teams will take place, leaving me to speculate that both squads will have to come to a verbal agreement through Warzone's new proximity chat. I can only hope this is the case—Activision Blizzard's new anti-toxicity tools have to be top-of-the-line if they’re confident about implementing a room where four random Warzone players are incentivized to lie to each other.

The overhaul of the Gulag, along with big changes to the loadout and inventory system, are indications that Infinity Ward is eager to take risks with Warzone 2 DMZ, pulling inspiration from games big and small like Destiny 2 and Escape From Tarkov.

Personally, having to broker an agreement between three other players to start an optional PvE boss fight sounds hysterical, especially with all the opportunities for deception and betrayal. It’ll be interesting to see how Warzone 2.0 continues to differentiate itself from its predecessor when it releases November 16.