Just one new feature in Warzone 2 has already changed the way the game is played. Proximity chat (the ability to hear the microphone conversations of nearby enemies) is now on by default in all Warzone modes; a red chat indicator on the left side of the HUD indicates that you can hear your enemies.

In the hours since Warzone 2's launch, encounters in proximity chat have ranged from surprisingly wholesome to heartbreakingly tragic. Players have used their freedom of speech to negotiate truces, form temporary alliances, taunt from afar, and of course stab each other in the back. [This clip shared by Redditor AntiPiety (opens in new tab) warmed my faded Call of Duty heart; Piety tracked two players for several minutes during a battle royal match, following the sound of their voice coms. When Piety finally caught up with the two, he managed to hit them both in the DBNO and chatted with them before finishing them off; the three chatted, laughed over which one had self-resuscitation in his pocket, and Piety decided to let them live.

"Oh, that's great, thanks," says one of the saved players as Paiety leaves them to die.

It is no exaggeration to say that only 24 hours ago, in Warzone 1.0, such an ending would not have been possible. When the enemy has no voice, it is easy to forget that there is a flesh-and-blood person behind the keyboard. I certainly don't expect most of the shootouts in Warzone 2 to end in a cease-fire, but it's nice that they can.

On the other side of the coin, there are players who have discovered the sociopathic potential of using proximity chat to attract allies and then immediately betray them, as demonstrated by CoD streamer Jack "Coolage" Dunlop:

"Be my friend, kill me. I promise I won't kill you. This is my first time playing," an excited fan tells Dunlop's troops.

"We won't kill you, so come to our building," Dunlop insists. Juan complies and offers a humble firearm to the streamer's cause. Dunlop instructs Juan to open the ping wheel and join their squad, and a short time later, they shoot him in the head with every bullet from their AK-47s.

"Welcome to Warzone 2, asshole." Dunlop exclaims before laughing for 12 seconds.

There have been several other examples of this deceptive tactic (open in new tab), mostly by streamers who seem to be looking for an easy-to-share clip opportunity. Streamer DiazBiffle and friends managed to cajole one player off the tower, take his armor plate and make him dance before executing him:

I consider this a "baby's first" reaction to proximity chat. It is one of the first things we think of when given open communication in a competitive environment. The real potential for social engineering (open in new tab) and tactical deception was explored in the early days of DayZ and Rust. I had a Dunlop-like encounter (both as an attacker and a betrayer) with DayZ, but that was 10 years ago. In hindsight, being a clever jerk in a video game is still being a jerk.

On the other hand, I laughed quite a bit at the guy fighting AlmondTV in this clip. He is probably so busy antagonizing the squad outside his building that he has lost focus:

One player uses the chaos of proximity chat as a weapon to successfully convince the enemy that he has the upper hand. In this video, streamer Devvious (whose viewpoint is not shown but can be heard) impersonates an enemy squad member and tells him that there are two downed players inside.

"Two down, two down, push push push," Devvious lies. Shortly thereafter, one enemy approaches the building, taking cover, and is annihilated.

"Wasn't that two people knocked into the building?" a puzzled, dead player shouts.

"That wasn't us," adds a distant voice.

There is beauty and chaos in proximity chat, but there are also plenty of opportunities for it to turn poisonous. We may lose some of the shine in a few weeks, but we're going to keep going while the fun lasts. If you don't want to turn it off forever and worry about having obscenities shouted in your ear, scroll down a bit in the audio settings and you'll find a toggle.