"I promise I won't kill you": Warzone 2 proximity chat is working as intended

Warzone 2
(Image credit: Activision)

Warzone 2 has introduced proximity chat as an option, and interactions between players are every bit as unhinged as you'd expect.

For the uninitiated, proximity chat lets you talk to other players within your vicinity even if they aren't in your party. The feature lets you communicate with members of your team without having to squad up, but it also lets you be a merciless troll, which is basically the unspoken purpose of proximity chat. 

There's even a playlist called Unhinged BR Trios built around proximity chat. And although Warzone 2 has been live for just a few hours at this point, we're already seeing proximity chat produce some highly entertaining clips. 

This first one has a pretty long setup but the payoff is 1000% worth it. Here, we see popular streamer and 100 Thieves co-owner Jack "CouRage" Dunlop ruthlessly trick a player into lowering their defenses before killing them dead and laughing maniacally. "Welcome to Warzone 2, bitch," he says at the end of the clip.

This one from TimTheTatman is a lot less organized but just shows how proximity chat can add some, uh, color to an otherwise pretty standard situation in Warzone.

This interaction between streamer Stallion and some random players he'd just killed is probably my favorite of them all. The clip shows Stallion standing over a pair of dead Operators and asking how he can bring them back. "I feel bad for killing you," he says to laughs. "How do I bring you back?"

"You can't!" one of the players responds. "Once you're dead you're dead... you blew us up."

Stallion then asks politely if he can teabag their corpses. You know, as one does.

We could go on and on here. A quick search for 'Warzone 2 proximity chat' on Twitter already yields dozens of results. I'll note that a shameful proportion of them are just pure toxic filth - as you might expect from a free-to-play Call of Duty game - but I was able to sift through and find some genuine gold.

In case you aren't vibing with the Warzone 2 community's decidedly chaotic evil use of proximity chat, not to mention echoing mics and shoddy sound quality, you can turn off the feature in the game's settings. Do keep in mind that proximity chat appears to be the default setting in the main battle royale mode as well as the new narrative-focused Warzone 2 DMZ mode, so you'll have to toggle it off should you choose to opt out.

These Call of Duty Warzone tips are essential whether you're dropping down in Caldera or the new Warzone 2 map Al Mazrah.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.