After months of speculation,Call of Duty: Warzoneplayers will finally be able toplay the original Verdansk map againwhen Season 3 arrives on April 3. Verdansk’s return is exciting asthe battle royale celebrates its fifth anniversary. Still, there is a lot of pressure on Verdansk and Season 3 to hit the ground running asWarzonehas struggled since the launch ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Activision knows this, choosing to delay the launch of Season 3 by two weeks to make sure it is smooth and up to players' expectations. If Verdansk arrives and is relatively problem-free at the start of Season 3, it could succeed in bringing a lot of players back, butWarzonewill need to add a lot more to save itself.
Verdansk Won’t Save Call Of Duty By Itself
There Are Fundamental Problems With Warzone
It’s no secret thatWarzone, andCall of Dutyin general, has been struggling withplayer counts falling sinceBlack Ops 6’s strong launch.Warzonein particular has suffered from a lack of new content compared toBlack Ops 6, which has had multiple new Zombies maps and limited-timegame modes in multiplayer for its crossover events.
Verdansk’s return creates an opportunity for someWarzone-exclusive content for players to engage with during the launch, and there should be a focus onWarzonecontent going forward to keep players coming back. However, if Activision doesn’t address thestill-prevalent cheating problem inCall of Duty, thenplayers won’t stick around regardless of whether there is new content or not.
Warzone Is Completely Different Now
So Much Has Changed In Five Years
Another big obstacle Verdansk has to overcome is thatthe game it’s returning to isn’t the same as it was in 2020. SinceWarzone’soriginal release, there have been new maps and changes to the engine the game runs on. The arrival ofWarzone Pacificand the Caldera mapgave the game a new lease on life, but it was eventually shut down and players couldn’t use the skins and weapons they had unlocked and purchased in the new version of the game.
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Since then,Call of Duty’smonetization has become more aggressive and the collaboration events have brought in lots of new weapon and character skins that have nothing to do withCall of Duty.Warzonedid have purchasable skins in 2020, butthey were much more subtle and military-themed. Having a lobby full of players dressed as The Terminator or a Ninja Turtle is going to take away a lot of the nostalgia players will initially feel when they start playing on Verdansk.
ThecurrentWarzonemap Urzikstanis a good map overall, with a nice balance of open and closed areas that have some resemblance to Verdansk. However, the addition of redeploy drones and ziplines, and the weakness of the vehicles have had a detrimental impact on the pacing of the gameplay.
In 2020, players had to really plan out their movement across Verdansk and make use of vehicles to beat the circle, while looking out for explosive attacks from hidden enemies. The originalWarzone’s slower pacing was one of Verdansk’s best features, andif all the modern features are kept in the game when Verdansk returns, it won’t feel the same.
A Barebones Mode Would Give Players An Old-School Challenge
Sometimes Less Is More
One simple additionWarzonecan make to get more players in Verdansk is to add a playlist option that takes away some of the modernWarzoneelements to recreate the originalWarzonefeeling even more,similar to the old barebones game modes that were available in the originalModern Warfare 2andBlack Opsgames.
A barebones mode forWarzonewould only be playable on the Verdansk map and would remove lots of the current equipment and killstreaks available in Urzikstan, like redeploy drones and Utility Boxes. Removing those and improving the resilience of vehicles would go a long way to recreating the flow ofWarzone’soriginal gameplay, and are easy to implement.
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The barebones mode could go even further and restrict what weapons are available, both as ground loot and in players' loadouts.Character skins could be restricted too, with the more outlandish skins thatCall of Dutyis now filled with being replaced with the military-themed skins that were popular during the start ofCall of Duty:Warzone. These changes would go a long way to recreating the experience of the original Verdansk, but are unlikely to happen as players don’t like not being able to use things they’ve already paid for.
Call of Duty: Warzone
Call of Duty’s first significant foray into the battle royale genre arrives as Call of Duty: Warzone, an action, first-person shooter from the Infinity Ward and Raven Software development teams. Warzone arrived as part of the 2019 installment of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, allowing for 200+ player games. The game allows players to go it alone or go in teams as they battle against various elements and other players working against them in an attempt to be the last warrior standing.
