Battlefield RedSec vs Call of Duty: Warzone

Battlefield RedSec is the latest in an already cramped genre of battle royales. Among those who already hold a stake is Call of Duty, whose Warzone has held a consistent player base since 2020.

RedSec and Warzone are very similar games, and you can certainly sense a creeping Call of Duty influence on the Battlefield title, so let’s have a look at which game comes out on top between Battlefield RedSec vs Warzone.

Perhaps this is more a criticism of the communities rather than the games themselves, but in RedSec, teamwork seems a given, whereas in Warzone, you’ll be relying on the luck of the draw. This is especially apparent in Gauntlet, which is one of the most cohesive co-op game modes I’ve experienced in a shooter to date. The skeleton of Battlefield games typically lends itself to teamwork – this goes right down to how the classes complement each other. Call of Duty, on the other hand, has always been about watching your own back and racking up the highest kill streak.

Battlefield’s time-to-kill is particularly low, one of the main reasons it’s regarded as a realistic shooter. However, in a Battle Royale, this isn’t always a desired effect. It’s far too easy to be squad-wiped in seconds by a gun that deals high damage, especially as the game currently uses what feels like the ordinary multiplayer health bar. Balancing combat and missions needs to be upgraded if RedSec wants to compete with Warzone in the long run, which sports a slightly more balanced TTK. Battlefield 6 Season 1 only launched alongside RedSec, so there’s likely to be quite a few more updates due before the game feels balanced.

Compared to Warzone, actually receiving your personal loadout drop in RedSec is particularly rare. The bonus to this is that you will often spend your games with a different set of weapons, which does make each match feel unique. Warzone makes it easier to acquire your ideal loadout, which does add more consistency to each match.

Warzone also features far more casual game modes, making it a more approachable game for less-experienced FPS players.

RedSec: 8/10

Warzone: 8/10

One of the main similarities between RedSec and Warzone is the use of loadouts. In both games, you can build and lock in curated weapon and attachment selections that you can acquire in-game. For Battlefield, you’ll later unlock your builds and loadouts by completing in-game contracts and challenges, though they are quite rare. In Warzone, you can purchase them from buy stations.

There are almost 30 weapons in Warzone, whereas Battlefield RedSec has over 45. The Battlefield franchise has long been known for its dense arsenals, each gun fine-tuned as close to ‘realism’ as possible. Gunplay in RedSec has weight and cost behind it, whereas in Warzone it’s always felt a bit like you’re firing a laser rifle.

Vehicles are one of the deciding factors in choosing between Battlefield 6 vs Call of Duty Warzone, and while they’re a core component of both games, Warzone’s tend to focus more on mobility rather than combat.

You have RHIBs, buggies, cars, bikes, and helicopters, though none of them have artillery or weaponry attached to them. RedSec, on the other hand, relies on the traditional BF formula and includes an arsenal of vehicles that far surpass Warzone’s. Alongside the typical vehicles you’d expect, you’ve also got access to functional tanks, jets and helicopters, each of which will allow you to wipe out entire squads.

This is a hard category to judge. Although the increased catalogue of vehicles in RedSec seems, on paper, better, it’s a double-edged sword. The tank is absurdly overpowered and is honestly not very fun to come up against. This is not an issue in Warzone, in which vehicles won’t necessarily ruin your day. Despite guns feeling better in RedSec, Warzone’s self-restraint when it comes to vehicles makes it a far more enjoyable experience overall.

RedSec: 7/10

Warzone: 8/10

In RedSec, you have a more traditional class system in which each archetype has a Signature Weapon that grants additional perks. Likewise, the specific gadgets you can acquire are also limited by your class, so each player in a squad should have something unique and important to offer.

Warzone does play into some elements of classes through its wide range of loadouts, perks and killstreaks, but there is little cohesion or intentionality here. Warzone’s Operators also exist purely for cosmetic (commercial) reasons. They do not grant individual abilities, nor is there a ‘class’ system as such. 

RedSec: 9/10

Warzone: 5/10

Intimate developer support is vital for live-service games, and so far, Battlefield 6’s launch has laid a strong foundation for this support to continue. It’s only been a few days since RedSec launched, and it’s being co-developed by a studio separate from the base game, though Battlefield Studios are heavily involved. The base game has already seen the implementation of ticket count reversion in Conquest, which was based on community feedback, and an active Discord server has been launched for players to share feedback on RedSec.

Warzone has been in the hands of the community for five years now, and public perceptions of the game are not particularly strong. Thanks to rampant cheating and little effective developer support in response, fans have been unhappy for a while. Despite community engagement projects such as the Feature Request Forum, many of the game’s innate issues have still been left untouched, much to the dismay of its audience. 

RedSec: 9/10

Warzone: 6/10

Adding up all of the category scores sees RedSec several points ahead of Warzone. It’s built on a much newer, tighter engine, and you can see that in the fidelity and performance of the game. It’s less buggy and feels a lot more intense and visceral. Where Warzone lags behind in classes and developer support, it does hold its own in gameplay, which most would argue is the most important.

Warzone has remained fun since its inception, despite flare-ups of imbalances, cheaters, and awkward design choices. It’s lightweight, quick to dip into, and a lot easier to win. RedSec, on the other hand, has a much higher skill curve, and though it’s more engaging, I’d hesitate to say it’s as fun as its Call of Duty counterpart.

It’s still early days, though, and the roadmap for developer support suggests that it’s going to get better. With that in mind, it seems as though in comparing Battlefield vs Call of Duty: Warzone, RedSec comes out on top.