The game “Call of Duty: Warzone” will be extremely dark that is what we can expect from Activision’s announcement. Gamers are actively talking about the company announcing night maps of Rebirth Island and the new variant of the ever-popular Verdansk would be available for Battle Royale and Resurgence modes tomorrow. Aesthetic changes like this one can profoundly influence the players’ attitudes towards the iconic Warzone maps, resulting in a situation where everybody will inevitably fight under reduced visibility conditions.
Call of Duty’s official Twitter account hinted at the update with just a few words “Brace for darkness 🌒”, and then posted dark and moody previews of what seem to be maps. The presence of night maps in Warzone is not a new thing; they have been added to limited-time modes in the past, but their incorporation into the core playlists is going to change the daily gameplay pattern completely.
The reaction from the Warzone community is… let us say briefly, mixed, which is very much standard these days for anything related to Call of Duty. There are a number of players who are very much excited about this new changes, one of them is Trilla who expressed his opinion on his Twitter account with a simple message “Excited for rebirth,” and on the other hand there is the player Petes who literally commented with “No one gives a fuck 🤣🤣🤡🤡,” which expresses quite well the way that gaming Twitter handles itself nowadays.
What makes the update’s timing very interesting is the fact that it is happening now when players have begun to make comparisons and say that this is the first big change in Warzone for a long time. Romex commented, “First change all year 😮💨,” while Aaron | Volski12 stated, “The sad news is… it actually is the biggest news we have had in a long time 🫠” which is one way of putting it and reflects well the overall situation of Warzone updates, wouldn’t you agree?
It is for sure that night maps will give a completely new experience with the game. Factors like visibility will play a huge role, thermal scopes will suddenly become unavoidable, and sneaking around in dark corners will not be very effective anymore. Christopher Green did not take long to ask, “How can I improve the image to really see in the dark,” which might be the same thing that many gamers are asking themselves right now. Do we need to adjust our television settings? Are the bright weapon camos going to be too bright now? These are the main questions.
The most noteworthy aspect of the whole discussion is that the community is divided over whether the new situation is a positive one or not. There are players who are calling for the night modes to be made the norm, evidenced by Riley’s tweet that read, “Leave dark mode in the game forever,” while others like KingSchreck simply replied, “Why? They suck.” One cannot be surprised if not all the members of the Call of Duty community are satisfied.
Furthermore, there is an implicit sentiment that Activision could be feeling pressured by the forthcoming competition. Several comments cited Battlefield when a player named Maxi Zamac claimed the game had gotten “so cheesy” that he had to “just delete it” while he was “waiting for Battlefield 6’s BR mode to be released.” SaulSawedoff suggested, “A few good games were all it took for yall to realize hey we better do something,” which certainly sounds right when it comes to the delay in Warzone updates.
The Halloween season might have inspired Activision’s move even though it was a bit late in the spooky time. Players were not happy that the night maps and Halloween content were not made available sooner. Dablakdrphil directed his complaint at the developers: “Yall really drip-fed The Haunting content when yall know the game has been stale for months 😒.” Meanwhile, Timo Gaming asked more Halloween content with a tweet that said, “Let’s goooo add zombies to core playlist for Halloween XP @Treyarch @CallofDuty.”
It is very interesting how different players can adapt to night maps. Those aggressive players who rely mainly on spotting an enemy from a distance might have a hard time, while close-quarters fighters will take advantage of the reduced visibility. The resurgence mode on Rebirth Island at night will surely be chaos—just imagine trying to follow several teams in dark corridors and shadowy buildings. It might turn out to be either really fun or terribly frustrating, but probably both at the same time.
Some players have already started to think in terms of long-term impacts. Mr. H. suggested changes like “Bring back the nuke and it rewards. And change the rewards per season. Remove casuals and change the big map to buyback or massive resurgence.” On the contrary, DEMNIAN was asking, “Am I really going to download wz again just for this?” which actually reflects the truth that there is still a big number of players who have, indeed, stopped playing Warzone lately.
Nostalgia is an emotion that is very powerful. Many comments reminisced about previous Call of Duty Halloween events; for example, Mark Heinen remembered, “This and Purgatory in MW3 on Rebirth were Peak COD Haunting events” and Ross White commented, “Oh, those were the days. Back when they used to put effort into events.” It is quite clear that players are recalling the period when seasonal events were more like a happening and less like an afterthought.
So what does this all mean for the future of Warzone? Night maps may serve as a trial for more radical environmental redesign, or they can simply be an ephemeral Halloween treat that disappears in a few weeks. However, their addition to the core playlists is a clear indicator that they are going to be around for a while, but then again with Call of Duty, one can never tell for sure.
Night variants signify, at the very least, the great transformation that Warzone required to be revived. Whether you are for or against them, they are still a change from the old gaming experience which lasted for several months. For instance, as Xen Berger stated, “W! Would love to see this at the start of the season next time🤝” which to a large extent embodies the sentiment of most reasonable players—it’s a positive change, just not as early as we’d like.
Whether we like it or not, Warzone is going to be shrouded in darkness. It is time to get the thermal scopes out from the closets and make sure we are ready for some very tense and dark gunfights. However, do not get too excited to think that this is the start of regular significant updates—after all, this is Call of Duty and history tells us to keep our expectations low.
