What should fans expect jumping into Rebirth Island this time?
As we were building Rebirth Island, we had the original and the new version side-by-side to make sure that we captured the same essence, so players return to the map they know and love, while at the same time giving it gameplay and visual improvements to become the best version of Rebirth Island to date. All those little secrets you had in the past will still be there. If a player remembers that they were able to activate the shower over there, well, they still can. That was important to us as players because it’s part of the experience and part of the nostalgia. We made this little detail, people discovered it, and when you wonder, can you still do it? Yes, you can. It’s still there, it’s the same people, it’s the same team. However, just as quickly, you’ll see the improvements (and new secrets…) too.
How did the process start when you were asked to bring the map back?
Rebirth Island was made in the Black Ops era, so it was a good challenge to modernize the old version of the island and bring it to the Modern Warfare III timeline. We always try to put ourselves back in the shoes of the player, so we thought, “What would make sense to a player? It’s Makarov and Konni… why would he be there?”
We needed to find a narrative that would fit with the map, so we iterated on the idea that the island was abandoned for a few years, but now Makarov is back and wants to use it for his own army and his own purposes. That’s why the Chemical Lab has a new Point of Interest (POI) update, because he’s using it for research, for example.