Season 3 has dropped in Warzone and there are a lot of mixed feelings that have come along with the latest update. Granting the fact that Warzone is free to play, there a lot of people out there that will say no one should complain because it’s a free game, but let’s be honest here, many of us that do play CoD titles, sink a little bit (or a lot) of cash on microtransactions and the season pass every couple of months. As a paring consumer and video game journalist, I am more than qualified and entitled to complain. So let’s get down to it!
Verdansk: 1984 is the same map with some changes. It’s springtime and the map is a lot brighter and more colorful. So much so, that when you aim down sites, it can seem like the sun glaring a bit too much in your lens and distorts the picture a little bit. Soldiers seem easier to spit out of buildings and that’s kind of nice. Of course when a player is using that good ol ‘Rose skin and hiding in a shady dark corner, it can be really difficult to see them, but that’s not anything new, just been noticing it a little more often lately.
Some of the buildings we are used to seeing and even taking cover in, are under development such as the stadium. Stadium looks to be much smaller of an area than it once was and that’s not because it’s missing the dome cover. It’s missing almost everything. Not to mention the damn is completely gone and has been replaced with Summit. We’re assuming we’ll be getting a back story as to what happened to Summit and why the damn would replace its existence sometime beyond 1984, but maybe they’ll save that one for season 4?
The quarry has become the salt mines and there’s definitely some things I’m missing here, but you get the picture and you’ve probably already played and seen the changes to the map, but there isn’t much more to add to the subject. So, if you felt like the Call of Duty franchise has a nasty habit of recycling maps, this one takes the cake for you. Honestly, it takes the cake for me, but I have my reasons, so hear me out.
The idea that we got the same map with a paint job is irritating to me. It’s been an entire year and while they have done things to try and keep the map fresh, Verdansk: 1984 feels lazy and unoriginal. I know the pandemic hit a lot of developers hard and they have had to work from home and that separation can really put a damper on things, but we’re talking a new map after a year, not a whole new game. I don’t even really hold the developers accountable. I hold Activision’s execs accountable because these are the same people that drove Vince Zampella away from Infinity Ward in the first place. Activision really likes to control and suppress the creativity their development teams should be allowed to utilize. Bunch of jerks in my opinion…
Anyway, for a lot of people that were hoping we would get a whole new experience, disappointment was given instead. I am disappointed in myself because it doesn’t feel new at all. After playing a few days of season three, the excitement wore off fast. I’ve been killed by so many cheaters lately, it’s gotten ridiculous. Players shooting me from underneath the map in all kinds of different areas. Even worse, I’ve been killed by falling through the map when I was just sprinting to cover or working my way from the gas circle and then boom. Fall through the map to my death. What the heck just happened there?
Now, Raven has produced a patch that has closed up some of these exploits and that’s nice, but there’s still many new exploits to fix. One thing that was fixed (from what I understand) is an unlimited gas mask. When I was playing with my homies, we would notice people purposely running into the gas and it didn’t make sense to us, until we started getting killed by bullets that would wiz out of the gas and into our ambushed and helpless virtual bodies. Watching kill cams and realizing their masks weren’t breaking after they depleted, well, that’s pretty damn annoying. I have no respect for cheaters and I’m gonna let them in a little secret, you cheat because players like myself are 10 times better than you without your little hacks. Try winning a legit match sometime. Better yet, try playing legit all of the time and see how well you do. I hold my own against the cheats in this game fairly often, but win or lose, I still find cheaters to be disgusting and obviously untrustworthy people in real life as well. Harsh, I know, but it is how I feel about it. Winning a game through real teamwork and effort always trumps the feeling of a cheap win, I’m sure.
It was however announced that the development team behind Crash Bandicoot 4 (Toys for Bob), has been added to the Warzone team to help support Raven Software. It sounds nice that they are going to add to that team, but what will come if it? Most of us want nothing less than a completely new map, but we waited a year and got reskin, so who knows what the future of Warzone actually holds? With Battlefield 6 on the horizon this year and the free to play Battle Royals game that will dropping along with it or around that time, Activision better green light some originality soon or they may actually be in trouble down the line.
Are satisfied with Verdansk 84 or would you rather see a new map released? Let us know in the comments!