Call of Duty: Warzone is getting updates and quality-of-life improvements for players with the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
At a press event in Las Vegas, Francesco Galletti, a senior engineer at Raven Software, a division of Activision, said that the effort will keep Warzone fresh and engaging for fans as it gets close to its sixth year since launching in the midst of the pandemic in 2020.
Among the updates: A new mid-sized Resurgence map called Haven’s Hollow, set in the Appalachian Mountains.
“Our guiding star this year is to evolve carefully and intentionally. We’re so excited to be bringing in new elements of the core Warzone experience that we believe brings justice to Black Ops 7,” he said. “We’re going to be very careful of the things we bring in to make sure that we keep things fresh and engaging but also somewhat familiar to returning players and not alter the horizon too much.”
As for the new Warzone map, Haven’s Hollow is a smaller map, Appalachian Mountain scenery, colorful lighting and more. It is inspired by two favorite RBZ maps, Liberty Falls and Shattered Veil. It has nine points of interest.
There are points of interest on the map like Liberty Falls, the train station, the pond and a riverboat. There’s a high-tech research center with an open courtyard as well as rooftops where snipers can rule. The map is smaller than the existing Warzone map Fortune’s Keep. Two Verdansk POIs coming in Season 01 are a new Signal Station and a Remastered Factory.
For weapons, Warzone is going back to five attachments, with an overhaul on attachment balance. The Overkill perk will be available to everyone, allowing players to wield two primary weapons (like an assault rifle and a sniper rifle) at the same time. This is ideal for players like me. Wildcards are not available in loadout customization.
And now, for the first time in Warzone history, Activision will tune all the attachments independently of other titles. The movement changes have been applied for baseline spread increase while Tactical Sprint is only available via the Sprinter Perk. There is a new Combat Roll in Mountaineer Perk.
“What that means is that an attachment in multiplayer may have completely different stats on boards. The team is super excited about this. It’s going to allow us to give you guys faster attachment tuning, faster meta shifts, and tune things specifically for the unique play styles in Warzone,” Galleti said.
As for ground loot, there are also some changes. Players will be able to get more powerful attachments, like larger magazine sizes, earlier. and if the game has a stealth theme in a particular season, you might find more weapons with suppressors on them.
The goal with movement is to have fluid and responsive movements. This year, tactical sprint will not be a default for everyone. Instead, players will be able to run faster, and there’s a new combo roll mechanic. There are also some new perks.
“Our goal this year for perks is for you guys have to make the most competitive choices when it comes to which perks,” said Galleti.
There will be more powerful equipment to find in ground loot. But you can’t put it into your loadout. So that puts more importance on looting for things like pinpoint grenades until the very end of the game.
There’s a new Needle Drone Lethal; new Phantom Signal and Pinpoint Grenade Tactical; new Echo Unit Field Upgrade; and equipment counter-play.
Disclosure: Activision paid my way to Las Vegas for Call of Duty Next.