Call of Duty’s long-teased Warzone event may finally come to fruition on April 21, with a nuke threat that might bring an end to the map of Verdansk as we know it. A fresh battleground would definitely spice things up, but I think Warzone needs more than just a different map.
Originally, the rumor mill was brewing with talks of Warzone getting a completely new, Cold War-themed map based in the Ural Mountains. Now, leaks and teases have surfaced to show Warzone is likely getting a 1980s-themed reskin for Verdansk. Regardless of whether we time travel back to the ’80s or get surprised with a completely new map, there are some ways to improve the quality of life for Warzone.
For being such a huge contender in the battle royale space, Warzone can oftentimes feel very stale. Personally, I expected more drastic changes to be implemented with Black Ops: Cold War’s integration, but we mostly just got the Cold War weapon pool added into the mix. A lot of what I’d like to see is simply geared towards keeping Warzone fresh for future seasons.
Warzone needs more impactful map updates. Verdansk got a train and subway system last year, but adding additional transit didn’t make a huge impact on the map. The landscape isn’t much different now than it was on day one. I’m still waiting for a Fortnite-style event that shows a point of interest get demolished and replaced. At the very least, developer Raven Software should add some new points of interest and landscape changes, so the map feels like it evolves over the seasons. Otherwise, players just drop in a few familiar spots, and half the map just goes untouched until the circle of gas forces the fight there.
In addition to map changes, I’d love to see more events. Warzone is over a year old now, and we’ve only seen two major events: the really exciting but limited-time Black Ops: Cold War teaser mode, and the Halloween-themed “Haunting of Verdansk” event. The Haunting of Verdansk was a great seasonal event that brought nighttime modes with added tension and jump scares. I want Warzone to have fun with more seasonal events in the future.
Warzone also needs more frequent gun balancing to keep the meta fresh. Far too often we’ve seen one or two overpowered guns take over the gun meta for weeks on end. Season 1 was dominated by the DMR 14 tactical rifle and the MAC-10 submachine gun. Currently in Season 2, lobbies are filled with players running with Cold War’s FFAR 1 assault rifle. It’s hard to even consider other gun options right now, as the FFAR 1 offers the best combination of speed and fire rate, and the right attachments can make it feel like a no-recoil laser beam. I’d love to see the developers step in quicker to balance guns. Warzone just feels more interesting when there’s a good mix of guns in play.
And assuming Warzone keeps all the same bells and whistles, just on a different visual landscape, the developers should consider removing the Stim, which is a piece of tactical equipment used for quick healing. Unfortunately, players keep finding ways to abuse the equipment for infinite heals to cheat their way to a victory royale. Warzone’s “Stim glitch” is definitely one of the game’s most notorious exploits, and the equipment isn’t even vital to the game. If it can’t permanently be free of exploit, just remove the Stim equipment from the game.
And speaking of cheaters, it’s hard to discuss ways to improve the Warzone experience and not at least mention the need for better anti-cheat solutions. Activision and Raven Software have been vocal about the latest anti-cheat efforts, but it seems to be a constant battle. I hope to see a stronger fight against the cheaters for Season 3 and beyond.
My last wish is probably unlikely, but I’d love to see Black Ops 4’s Blackout map return as a secondary option for Warzone. This wouldn’t be completely outlandish since the developers did reskin Black Ops 4’s smaller Alcatraz map as the now Cold War-themed Rebirth Island map. Rebirth gives a nice change of pace and scenery, and I think having the option to flip flop between an ’80s Verdansk and the vibrant Blackout map would be a nice contrast as well. This would be great to see happen even if it was only available for a limited time, especially while there are other battle royale games like Apex Legends that juggle multiple maps just fine. And there are likely players that never got to experience Blackout because it wasn’t a free-to-play game.
Warzone is one of my favorite battle royales, but compared to some of the competition, it definitely falls short in the updates department. To truly stay fresh, I think Warzone needs to bring more than just fancy neon lights and bomber jackets for Season 3. If the developers can come out swinging with a new map and bring more impactful seasonal updates, year two of Warzone can be even stronger than the first.
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