Amos Hodge, lead designer at Raven Software, has shed some light on the creative process behind Call of Duty: Warzone’s Gulag 1v1, as well as confirming a new weapon pool will be coming soon.
The ability to win a 1v1 and drop back in has been compared favorably to other BRs, which tend to feature slower, less active ways of bringing fallen teammates back. Examples include Fortnite’s reboot cards and Apex Legends’ banners.
One topic of debate surrounding the Gulag has been the weapon pool players are given. At the moment this is all handguns and shotguns, but Hodge confirmed that the dev studios will be shaking this up in the near future.
Speaking to GameSpot, Hodge confirmed that new weapons will be coming to the Gulag. However, he said that at any point the weapon pool will be very small, to allow players to get used to it and learn different weapons.
“We are looking at changing up the Gulag starting weapons for future updates to keep things fresh,” Hodge explained. “The goal is to maintain a small set of weapons so players can get familiar with them.”
He did not provide a time-scale on the weapon pool changes, but Season 4 of Modern Warfare is set to start at the beginning of June, which is the most likely time for any significant changes to the Gulag.
Want to get better at winning your Gulag’s in Warzone? Here’s our best tips for always coming out on top in your 1v1.
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Hodge also revealed how the Gulag itself came about. He states that Infinity Ward were working on Gunfight, and the smaller 2v2 mode gave them ideas on how players could determine their own fate.
“First, we didn’t want a mechanic that was dependent on your teammates,” Hodge explained. “Not all players have a full squad working together as a well-oiled machine. And there is a certain poetry to a player earning their own way back into the game. Second, we wanted to focus on what CoD does best, and that is gunplay.”
In other BRs, eliminated players are reliant on their teammates to bring them back. From the beginning, Infinity Ward and Raven knew they wanted eliminated players to take responsibility for dropping back in.
When considering the amount of time and effort Warzone’s developers went to in crafting the Gulag, it’s no surprise that it’s turned out to be one of the most popular features.