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Call of Duty: Warzone's new Pacific-based map Caldera made a lot of good changes to the game, but the map needs some tweaks of its own to fulfill its potential. Caldera is the new setting for CoD's free-to-play battle royale title, with the previous map, Verdansk, having hosted some of Warzone's best moments over the course of two years. The new map arrived with Season One of Call of Duty: Vanguard, which also integrated Vanguard's weapons, operators, and new perks to the game.
Caldera is a big change from Verdansk, with a very different layout, new points of interest, and a bright color palette that contrasts nicely with the murkier look seen in the previous location. Verdansk had undergone a lot of changes itself, but a new map was long overdue in Warzone and with Vanguard being set in World War 2 it makes sense to bring the battle royale into that time period as well. Along with the new map, Vanguard and Warzone Season One added the much-needed RICOCHET anti-cheat, hopefully removing its biggest and oldest issue.
Caldera has brought a lot of positive changes to Warzone, but the map is not perfect and needs some changes of its own to become greater than Verdansk. Verdansk was not perfect when it launched back in March 2020, and required lots of changes over time before it became a consistent experience. Caldera already has some problems that are making the game difficult to enjoy, including bugs and glitches that are bewildering players. The new weapons are also causing some issues, currently, as they outclass most of the weapons from previous games because they can have 10 attachments. However, one of CoD: Vanguard's most annoying mechanics is stopping them from taking over completely.
Vanguard's Weapon Bloom Needs To Go From Warzone
The new Vanguard weapons are a lot of fun to use in Warzone and can be much stronger than anything currently in the game, but a lot of players aren't using them because of the bloom mechanic. Weapon bloom is different from traditional recoil; recoil is when a gun moves up and down as it is shot, whereas bloom affects the spread of where the bullets land. For example, if a player shoots a gun with zero recoil at the same spot on a target, weapon bloom will make it so the bullets do not all hit the same spot.
Weapon bloom hasn't been in Call of Duty before, and many players are annoyed that it has been added. Bloom doesn't make a big difference in short-range fights, but on a huge map like Caldera, long-range gunfights can feel almost random in their outcomes. Fortunately, the weapon bloom is going to be significantly reduced according to the Season One patch notes. Warzone can't, however, go back to assault rifles being like laser beams with no recoil. A balance needs to be found that rewards players who can control guns with strong recoil without making long-range fights become sniper-only affairs.
Warzone's Loadout Changes Negatively Affect Pacing
If a player wants the best chance to succeed and win in Warzone battle royale, they will need to get their own loadout, but Caldera made a change that makes that harder to do. Normally, players can call in a loadout for themselves and their team by acquiring $10,000 in-game, then they can equip their own weapons and perks which are better than loot from the ground. With Caldera, players now cannot purchase a loadout drop marker until after the first free one has dropped, which occurs after the first zone has collapsed.
In theory, this should level the playing field in the early part of the game as players rely on skill and ground loot, but so far it has worsened the pacing and increased the randomness. All battle royales have an element of randomness in them, but the loot crates aren't consistent enough in their weapon drops to feel fair. Vanguard has introduced some of Warzone's best loadouts with Caldera, but not being able to get them until later in the game is already frustrating many. The loadouts were not an issue in Verdansk, so reverting it back to how it was shouldn't be an issue, but Warzone could also fix the issue by making the ground-loot a bit stronger.
Caldera Is Producing Some Hilarious Warzone Glitches
Glitches are expected for many new releases or big expansions, and can often be forgiven, but some of Caldera's newest visual bugs are making Warzone difficult to navigate. The load times for textures have been extremely slow, even on high-end systems with the latest graphics cards. Multiple users on Reddit have posted complaining about the map not loading in properly, making buildings impossible to see into and flattening a lot of the terrain. Considering the map has been in development for such a long time, and is running on the same engine from 2019, not the newer Vanguard engine that Warzone was going to get, it is surprising just how buggy it is.
Slow-loading textures and bad frames-per-second are not the only issues players are having, with some objects deciding to render as spiraling, shifting black objects that defy physics themselves, or shadows appearing when objects do not. Even pro players like OpTic Gaming's Seth "Scump" Abner, who plays with as good a computer one could get, have experienced some technical glitches that have made them stop in disbelief. Verdansk had lots of blocky-grey buildings, and lots of open spaces, Caldera, on the other hand, has a huge amount of trees and bushes and other foliage that is likely the cause for these issues. These issues need to be fixed quickly, otherwise, the shine of the new map will begin to wear off fast.
Caldera has been Warzone's best update since the game launched in 2020, but there are plenty of things that need to be fixed for it to reach its full potential. Caldera has made some great changes to Warzone already, but a lot of fans are voicing their frustrations over bugs instead of praising the improvements. Warzone will be receiving content updates over the holiday period, which should also hopefully fix the main issues with the game currently. Some of the changes, like the loadout timer, will be easier to make than others, but the quicker they are done the quicker fans can appreciate Call of Duty: Warzone's best-ever update.