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Fans of Call of Duty: Warzone are busy preparing for all the changes that will come to the game when Call of Duty: Vanguard is integrated with Vanguard season one on December 2. In Vanguard, players can now play a brand-new campaign set across WW2, a new Zombies experience developed by Treyarch, and battle across 20 multiplayer maps at launch with new locations and old favorites. Players are enjoying the multiplayer returning to WW2 action, but for many, their focus is on getting ready for all the changes coming to the Call of Duty battle royale.
Warzone launched in 2020 a few months after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had launched with the Verdansk map serving as the setting for large-scale squad-based gameplay that proved an instant hit. Warzone has been incredibly popular, attracting millions of players and becoming one of the highest-earning games of 2020. Recently, however, many players have become frustrated with the game as they have become bored with the Verdansk map, irritated with bugs not being fixed, and frustrated by the non-stop hacking problem.
When Vanguard is fully integrated into Warzone, there will be a number of massive changes that will make the game feel brand-new. Since it first launched, Warzone has evolved a lot, including additions such as the Rebirth Island map and game mode, integration with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and various limited-time events (such as The Haunting and Ghosts of Verdansk) have kept the game fresh and exciting. Recently these changes have slowed down, leaving the game feeling stale and many players are instead focusing on Vanguard's new multiplayer.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard Says Goodbye To Verdansk & Hello To Caldera
In Season One of Vanguard and Warzone, action will shift from the streets and countryside of Verdansk in the 1980s to the Pacific jungle of Caldera in World War 2. Since launching in March 2020, Warzone's Verdansk map has seen a lot of progressive changes. Areas have had buildings removed or added, Die Hard's Nakatomi Tower was added to Downtown, and in Season 6 most of Verdansk has been destroyed with buildings collapsed and the ground split open. Now it is confirmed Verdansk will be completely destroyed in the finale of Season 6, and the action will continue in Caldera.
Caldera is a brand-new map built from the ground up. From the reveal trailer and early screenshots, it looks strikingly different from Verdansk, with a bright color palette and lots of trees and grass instead of grey concrete buildings and roads. The reveal has gathered a lot of praise from popular Call of Duty streamers, comparing it to when PUBG released its jungle-themed Sanhok map. A brand new map is exciting, as players will have to spend lots of time learning the layout and discovering new ways to gain advantages against their opponents.
Warzone Hackers Are Finally Dealt With In CoD: Vanguard
Perhaps the most requested thing from Call of Duty players in recent months is for the developers to deal with Warzone's enormous hacking problem. Hackers have plagued Warzone for over a year now, and already hackers have been ruining matches in Vanguard only a week after its release. A solution is coming soon, however, with the brand new RICOCHET anti-cheat coming to Warzone first in Season 1, and at a later date for Vanguard.
The new RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is developed by a separate team specifically to combat cheaters in Warzone. The program features a kernel-level driver, which has "a high level of access to monitor and manage software and applications on a PC." The anti-cheat will also bring server enhancements to Warzone and Vanguard, making it easier to detect any cheaters on the servers. Warzone's cheating problem has been its biggest weakness, causing many players to give up the game until it is fixed. RICOCHET aims to stop Call of Duty hackers for good, and if it can deliver on those promises, it will be the best thing to happen to Call of Duty since Warzone was launched.
CoD: Vanguard Engine Updates Will Make Warzone Feel New Again
Warzone has been running on Infinity Ward's IW 8.0 engine, which was developed over 5 years for the launch of Modern Warfare in 2019. Vanguard also uses this engine but it has been adjusted and Warzone will see these changes too. The differences between Modern Warfare and Vanguard are not huge, but they are noticeable. The engine has been optimized for photo-realistic videos, the sounds are louder and more defined, and overall the game feels like an upgrade from Modern Warfare.
Dedicated Call of Duty fans are wasting no time in getting to grips with the updated engine and gameplay by playing Vanguard. When integration starts in season one, Vanguard players should have the upper hand against those who have not played on the updated engine. Regardless, updates to Warzone's engine should remove bugs from the game, make things like mantling over rocks and walls smoother, and could include some destructible environments for people to experiment with. Updating the game's engine will make it feel fresh and reward those who learn to master its features.
CoD: Vanguard Adds WW2 Weapons To Players' Arsenals
Gunplay is key in the success of a Call of Duty game, and Warzone has succeeded by having so many weapon options over its life cycle, now Vanguard will add lots of classic weapons to the game. At launch, Warzone had a good amount of options and players quickly worked out what was the best. When Black Ops Cold War was integrated, the process began again with an even greater number of weapons that continued to grow with each battle pass. After a year of Black Ops Cold War weapons dominating the meta, players are once again itching for new combinations to use and to find what guns are best.
Vanguard's guns will go a step further with their integration, as the create-a-class system in Vanguard allows players to put up to 10 attachments on their gun without any penalty. Until now, players could only add 5 attachments to their guns in Warzone, but it is confirmed that Call of Duty: Vanguard weapons will have up to ten attachments in the game when they are all integrated. This is a huge change to the game, as players will no doubt discover attachments combinations with devastating effects. Warzone faces an issue with the massive number of weapons that will be available and will have to find a way to cleanly separate the options available to players so choices are not overwhelming.
Call of Duty: Warzone is going to be a very different game once Vanguard is integrated with Season One on December 2. A new map, new weapons, and more content should attract new players and bring back old players - and, hopefully, they will stick around if there are fewer hackers ruining the experience. The excitement is building, but some people may not like the new changes or be able to level up the Vanguard weapons quickly enough to compete with those who have played Call of Duty: Vanguard from launch. It could be beneficial for Warzone to split up its playlists at the start, giving players a choice between current and new Warzone experiences.