COD Warzone: Features Verdansk’s Return Needs

Season 3 of Call of Duty: Warzone marks the long-awaited return of its original map, Verdansk, as the battleground that defined Warzone’s launch and Activision’s first free-to-play Call of Duty title. Verdansk holds a special place in the community, offering a unique Battle Royale experience that attempted to rival that of Fortnite itself.

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However, after nearly four years, both the game and its player base have evolved through new maps, mechanics, and features, raising questions about whether Verdansk can still deliver the same iconic experience. To make its return successful, Warzone will need to refine the map to fit modern gameplay mechanics while also introducing fresh elements to keep it dynamic and engaging. With that in mind, here are six essential features Warzone needs to get right to make Verdansk’s comeback a success.

6

Reintroducing Easter Eggs with Free Rewards

Offer Side Quests That Players Can Complete to Earn Content

One standout feature of Verdansk in its original version was the free content scattered across the map, which players could obtain by completing various Easter eggs during matches. This added both free rewards and objectives, helping players stay engaged and entertained throughout long matches, despite the vast size of the battle royale map. The rewards varied based on difficulty, with Nakatomi Plaza’s secret vault or the Bunkers being some of the most enjoyable Easter eggs. Players could earn valuable items like large sums of money, scorestreaks, equipment, Perks, and even Weapon Blueprints by completing these challenges and competing against others to reach them first.

Moreover, the time it took the community to uncover each secret added to the excitement, encouraging interaction among players as they worked together to earn rewards. While this feature wasn’t essential to gameplay, it provided extra content and meaningful rewards, allowing players to feel accomplished by completing in-game tasks, while earning functional items to enhance their experience.

5

Limit Respawn Methods

Minimize the Number of Ways Players Can Spawn

Verdansk is closely associated with the Battle Royale experience in Call of Duty: Warzone. As the game has introduced various respawn mechanisms over time, the original map could benefit from minimizing these features to offer a more authentic experience. In the past, the tension of dying was higher, and the stakes were greater, which forced players to approach each match with more intensity and focus.

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Originally, Warzone relied on a few key respawn systems: the Gulag, self-revive, and buy stations if playing with friends. The Gulag was available to all players, where they had to win a 1v1 against another eliminated player to return to the game. However, the introduction of additional respawn mechanics, like Redeploy Flare Guns, Gulag Tokens, and Jailbreak events, has made it easier for players to return, somewhat diminishing the challenge that a battle royale mode should offer. While the game doesn’t need to completely remove these new systems, limiting their use could help restore the sense of urgency and difficulty that Verdansk originally provided, ensuring the map doesn’t feel like a massive Resurgence mode.

4

Effortless Access to Base Content

Provide Players With Essential Content From the Start

Since the removal and return of Verdansk has caused significant fluctuations in Warzone content, players – whether new, veteran, or returning – will need access to core content to dive into the game without feeling at a disadvantage. While this may be a tricky situation, especially considering Modern Warfare (2019) isn’t the game integrated with Warzone when Verdansk 2025 launches, some Black Ops 6 content should be easily accessible for those who want to experience the map as they did in the past.

Balancing the available content and how to unlock it in Warzone will be challenging, especially for long-time players. To avoid making newcomers start from scratch, the game should provide a broad selection of content – such as weapons, gear, perks, and other items – right from the start, ensuring players can enjoy Verdansk without needing to unlock everything again​​, and more importantly, being able to stay playing for a long and sustained period of time.

3

Updated Functional Audio System

Ability to Hear Footsteps and Environmental Sounds Clearly

One of the major issues in the original Warzone, with Verdansk as the main battle royale map, was the poor performance of the game’s audio. Players often struggle to hear and distinguish enemy footsteps from friendly or environmental sounds during matches. Since the objective in Warzone is to be the last player or team standing, any information about enemy positioning or movement is vital to survival. Unfortunately, this has often been unreliable, leaving players frustrated when, despite having a good match, an audio glitch causes an enemy to unexpectedly appear and eliminate them, forcing them to start over from scratch in a new game.

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To prevent this issue with the return of Verdansk, the game needs an updated audio system that helps players distinguish enemy footsteps (with enhanced volume and detail) from friendly movements or ambient sounds, which can be distracting. It’s also crucial that the sound system functions properly, particularly when players are close to enemies, as this is where precision and clear auditory cues are essential to avoid sudden deaths.

2

Server and Stability Improvements

Prevent the Game From Repeatedly Crashing or Failing

If a massive game like Warzone cannot provide a stable and sustainable experience, it will struggle to offer players an enjoyable time – especially when reintroducing a map like Verdansk, which has become a symbol of fun and friendship for many. This is particularly important for games-as-a-service, which often face stability and server issues when many players try to log in simultaneously – something Warzone has previously encountered and could face again.

Ensuring that servers are prepared and maintaining better stability to avoid bugs or server overload is critical, allowing players to enter the game and enjoy Verdansk without worrying about long wait times or uncertainty over whether they’ll be able to access the content. While this issue is easy to identify, addressing it requires a significant effort from both the development teams and the publisher to ensure the Verdansk update is truly ready for release. Only with this careful preparation can the game meet the high expectations set by promotional campaigns and player memories.

1

Significant Enhancements to Anti-Cheat System

Ensuring Hackers Don’t Ruin the Experience

The long-awaited return of Verdansk to Call of Duty: Warzone is a major event, bringing back a map that players have been requesting for years. However, its triumphant comeback could be overshadowed by the ongoing hacker infestation, which the game has struggled to control effectively. While many players will eagerly jump back into the battle royale to revisit familiar battlegrounds or explore them for the first time, their experience could be ruined if Warzone doesn’t implement significant improvements to its RICOCHET anti-cheat system.

Despite the game introducing various countermeasures – including mitigation tools, ban waves, a reporting system, and a Kernel-Level Driver, among others – these efforts will mean little if players don’t see a noticeable reduction in cheaters when they log in. Fortunately, Activision has already taken steps to combat hacking by targeting cheat providers ahead of Verdansk’s return. However, further in-game improvements are still necessary to ensure a fair and enjoyable experience for all players.

First-Person Shooter

Battle Royale

Released

March 10, 2020

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Violence