In 2020, free-to-play battle royale gameCall of Duty: Warzonewas released to complement 2019’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfare.Intending to compete against the likes ofFortnite,PUBG, andApex Legends,it’s no surprise that the game is nowset to receive a mobile port sometime in the near future.Warzonewas especially praised for its map upon launch. However, Verdansk, was eventually discarded in favor of a new map, Caldera.
Verdansk was a fan-favorite map for its diversity between cities and other locales, leading to unique gunfights. Following the Destruction of Verdansk event, the original Verdansk map was replaced with Verdansk ‘84 in Season 3. However,Verdansk was entirely discarded in favor of the Caldera mapin the Pacific Season 1 update, alongside the release ofCall of Duty: Vanguard.The new map has had its fair share of issues, and a certain nostalgia for Verdansk installed itself in the fandom since its discontinuation. Hence,Call of Duty: Warzoneshould seek to reinstate the Verdansk map with theWarzonemobile port.
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Verdansk In Call of Duty
Verdansk is a city is the fictional country of Kastovia, a former Soviet Republic.The city ties theBlack OpsandModern Warfareuniverses together. It’s in Verdansk that CIA operative Russell Adler was held by Perseus agent Stitch, and used as a guinea pig for Dragovich’s mind control program that Perseus was trying to improve. He would be rescued by Frank Woods a week after the destruction of Yamantau. Adler would later rig the entire city to stop Stitch, which resulted in its complete destruction. The location of those events is the Verdansk ‘84 map, taking place in 1984.
After the Cold War, Verdansk would be rebuilt collaboratively by Russia and Western nations. However, the city would become the center of another conflict 35 years after the events ofBlack Ops: Cold War, when Al-Qatala invaded Kastovia and seized the city. An international coalition, Armistice, would take on Al-Qatala to stop it from pushing into Urzikstan. However, a chemical attack by Al-Qatala, anda subsequent zombie outbreakforced the Russian government to order a nuclear strike on the city, which were depicted in Destruction of Verdansk. That modern Verdansk map is largely based on the real city of Donetsk in the Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
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Issues With Caldera
Verdansk was a dynamic map with 22 named areas where players could land, loot, and fight in. Additionally, a high number of buildings allowed for high octane close quarters urban firefights. In contrast, Caldera only has 15 named areas, and awhole lot of empty space. In terms of level design, Verdansk’s empty space was limited to the outer periphery of the map, while Caldera has a large amount of empty space in the center of the map. As a result, players who don’t land on the outskirts of Caldera are bound to encounter a lot of barren land.
The storm tends to push players towards the center of Caldera, and away from the fight over loot on the edges of the map. The large volcano, while aesthetically pleasing, does nothing to optimize level design in a battle royale game; it might as well be an invisible wall. Overall, fighting in Caldera’s more open tropical environment requires less skill than it did in the urban setting of Verdansk. Essentially, Caldera simply isn’t as dynamic as Verdansk. As such, scores of fans, and even prominent streamers likeTimTheTatman found Caldera quite boring.
Bringing Back Verdansk
Replacing Verdansk in the first placewas a risky move. After all, if the new map did not live up to its predecessor, it could’ve signed the death warrant ofWarzone. Fortunately, Caldera wasn’t bad enough to ruin the game, but issues with the map and cheaters festering in the game did push some to quit. Of course, replacing a map that players spent hours learning with a completely new one was always going to ruffle a few feathers, but that didn’t mean that it should’ve remained forever.
As the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side. Veteran gamers always feel nostalgic about old features even if they were contemporaneously critical of them.Verdansk is no exception to that trend; fans made tributes to the map in its last hours, and one player even wrote an “Ode to Verdansk” in the form of a poem. However, it would be unfair to dismiss the emotional factor in such instances. After all, Verdansk is more than solid level design and beautiful architecture. There’s also all the lore behind the city, and the moments spent fighting with friends on the map. Verdansk, Kastovia is where it all started.
Had Caldera lived up to its predecessor, perhaps there wouldn’t have been as much of a backlash, but in the wise words of Dr Disrespect, “The state of this game, for me, it’s almost unplayable. I’ve got network issues, I can’t see ****. My game’s rubberbanding, there’s no audio. [Caldera]? I’d scrap it right now.“Call of Duty: Warzone Mobileis the perfect opportunity toget rid of Caldera, and bring fans back to Verdansk.
