In a stealthy move, it seems that Call of Duty Warzone developers Infinity Ward recently decided to lower the graphical quality of their title. Players have been posting screenshots of the two side-by-side and showing that, after the most recent patch, the game decidedly dropped heavily in visual quality.
Patch 1.13 brought a good number of changes, but it looks like they weren’t all announced. Players have been pointing out the drastic decrease in graphics since the patch was installed, but more than anything, can’t seem to find anything about it in the patch notes or any other official channels.
BREAKING: Duos is coming to Call of Duty Warzone in Modern Warfare Season 3, according to the official website.
This has since been removed from the website. #Warzone pic.twitter.com/rTBSAuzD4Q
— Warzone Intel (@WarzoneIntel) April 8, 2020
The main complaints seem to be focused in on issues like draw distance, object detail, and the volumetric lighting of the game. While there are other issues being pointed out, these seem to be the qualities that were hit the hardest.
These aren’t small issues to have in a game like Warzone, either. Lowering draw distance makes kills from afar much more difficult, and combined with the lowering of the object detail and general decrease of the lighting, differentiating enemies and terrain becomes increasingly difficult as well. This isn’t just a question of “why isn’t my game as pretty as I want it to be?” but an actual gameplay issue as well.
Fans have found this especially notable in forested areas, where the lighting downgrade becomes much more noticeable. In areas with naturally poor lighting such as indoors, the issue becomes exacerbated even further.
But the main problem fans are having isn’t the changes, so much as the absolute silence from Activision and Infinity Ward. There’s no note of this in recent patch notes, and there’s been no discussion of it via social media outlets. Much of the fanbase feels like the developers are simply pulling the wool over their audiences’ collective eyes and leaving them to accept the changes without explaining them.
This is even more obnoxious when you remember that Warzone itself is nearly 100gb, which can be one big headache at times. While the game is free, many players have to make sacrifices to play it, and when someone has done all of that just to have the quality of the game inexplicably lowered, people are sure to be upset.
It remains to be seen if the developers intend to release any sort of statement or announcement in regards to the changes. While they’ve not made any sort of announcement yet, they could be waiting to discuss it further in-depth. Either way, the fan base deserves an explanation as soon as possible.
