I visited the Steam page for Call of Duty: Warzone 2 today, and two big orange letters jumped out at me. Any player can leave a review on Steam, and the platform will summarize the overall mood, but it is not uncommon for a high-profile game released with problems to be flooded with negative reviews at launch, only to return to some equilibrium when everything calms down. Warzone 2 certainly has its problems, but I'm really enjoying it. What is everyone complaining about?

Some of the reviews are monosyllabic." Ricochet Anti-Cheat" is the full text of one negative review, referring to the anti-chat system that some accuse of banning innocent players. Many mention crashes, some of them out of restraint and courtesy (only tombstones are allowed full-width sentences), while others post ASCII art of human anatomy (opens in new tab) to express their opinions.

"My squad is the only battle royale where the game crashed and we dropped out one by one," Linko64 wrote.

"It's buggy, full of crashes, and has the nerve to shove DLC in your face when you boot up the game. It crashes more than crypto."

At least there's some buzz. "This game sucks." It's been on sale for three weeks and I still get stuck in the parachute animation or have to wait at least 45 seconds for the map in front of me to render before I can land."

I have experienced no performance issues with Warzone 2, except for a bug that prevented me from inviting my friends to a party after the first day or so. However, recent negative reviews have mentioned general connection issues, performance issues, and loading issues as well as crashes, so clearly problems are happening. Many also complain that the game forces players to change their names and is generally difficult to access with a COD account.

Of course, there is another aspect to this. These include a new loot system, movement tweaks, and not liking the new maps. The most common complaints are related to looting, specifically situations where players get frustrated trying to loot items they want, or are glitched through the surface (this bug happened in one of my matches).

There is also the factor that the COD fan base, like many gaming communities, spends a lot of time complaining about the game they love. Rinja jokes, "I want to stay loyal to COD." Many are less aware and simply leave reviews with schoolyard insults, "lazy developer" clichés, and various angry invocations of God.

"Can you please delete this and return Warzone one back," pleads Freakshow 371.

There is fun as well as vitriol. "This review needs a reboot," writes OMGitsbees, and Surado has gone for the bait-and-switch: "Activision has made some really cool changes in Warzone 2.0! I really like the Coraline-inspired 15fps claymation art style they were going for. Can't wait for Warzone 3.0 to be released next year.

"The real PVP in this game is navigating endless menus that are both useless and unintuitive," Dadderall wrote.

As of this writing, Warzone 2 has approximately 14,500 reviews, 9,200 of which are negative. This seems odd, since technical issues aside, the general reception to Warzone 2 seems to be quite positive. However, its current status on Steam suggests that the game still has considerable technical problems, and it will likely take some time before it gains more public support.