When Warzone first came out in 2020, it brought freshness to the Battle Royale segment with its enormous map, Gulag and looting & buying system. That’s what made it one of the most successful games of 2020 and one of if not the most successful in the COD franchise ever. On November 16, 2020, Call of Duty: Warzone got its biggest update ever in the form of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War integration and everything has gone downhill from then. It has brought with it a host of new bugs, glitches, and balancing issues. We break down everything that’s wrong with Call of Duty: Warzone in its current avatar.
In-game statistics for some blueprints of guns that can be bought in the in-game shop, including the overpowered Mac-10, are better than its base versions. This completely breaks the game and makes it pay to win. I concede that Activision probably (hopefully) didn’t do this on purpose, and it was just some glitch but this isn’t expected from one of the biggest developers of one of the most successful games in the market right now.
When we heard that guns from COD: Cold War would be added to the game we were pretty excited and thought that they would bring some freshness to gunfights. But little did we know that the attachments on these guns are a complete mess! Most attachments do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do. For example, the bruiser foregrip, which is supposed to increase melee speed decreases the recoil better than the base foregrip, which in turn increases recoil. The flashlights, which are a completely new section of attachments in COD: Black Ops Cold War Multiplayer basically do not work in Warzone. Even the optic attachments on the guns don’t work properly and have rendering and glare bugs.
In this Cold War into Warzone integration, we have only received guns from the Cold War and nothing else. The perks in Cold War like Assassin and Gearhead along with the Field Upgrades like Jammers and Field Mics are unique and would have possibly made Warzone play differently, but it is disappointing to see that they haven’t been added to Verdansk. Even the new vehicles in COD: Cold War multiplayer like bikes, tanks and boats would have been exciting new additions.
The game still isn’t free of bugs and glitches. I have died so many times because of said bugs. I think that my gun has reloaded because I saw the animation complete but when I begin to shoot I realize that it only has a few bullets left in the magazine. I have also experienced the loadout glitch which makes me stuck inside the care package until the rest of my team picks their loadout up, which is compounded by the fact that you freeze when picking up your loadout 9 out of the 10 times you try. I haven’t experienced it personally, but there are reports of an invisibility glitch, invincibility glitch, the unlimited stim-shot glitch, and an under the map glitch as well.
The DMR-14 and Diamatti Dual Pistols are definitely the most overpowered guns in the game and when we finally got a nerf to these weapons, especially the DMR, it just made these weapons even stronger. The game developers decided to reduce the DMR-14’s damage, which to be fair is a great way to nerf the weapon, but in doing so they accidentally lowered the recoil making it much easier to handle. This gun also already had amazing ballistics which made it have an almost infinite range with no damage dropoff now making it a great weapon to counter other Assault Rifles, LMGs, Snipers and even SMGs sometimes. It’s insanely fast time to kill makes me feel as if I am playing Hardcore Warzone and makes me want to camp inside buildings more often. But that is when the Diamattis scare me to death because they are burst dual pistols which can deal up to 300 damage in a single burst and since this is a secondary weapon, so I never know when people are pushing me because they don’t turn up on my radar because they are carrying their Ghost Perk. There is no counter to both these weapons and everyone is seemingly forced to use it because the other guns from COD: Cold War are close to useless. The developers definitely need to think about rebalancing because it makes the game almost unplayable.
Call of Duty: Warzone is no stranger to cheating and hacking but since the Cold War integration things have gotten much worse. It seems like everyone playing the game is either an aimbot or has supersonic hearing when in reality they are using hacks to lock to players’ heads or see-through walls. I am always confused whether I have genuinely been outplayed or have been killed by a hacker, so I make sure to check the killcam every time I die in-game. A new way to cheat the system has recently been found which is being exploited by tryhards that use third-party applications to find you “bot” lobbies or lobbies filled with low skilled players. The worst part about this situation is that this is something that we have been talking about cheating in Warzone for months! COD: Warzone has been out for almost a whole year and cheating issues have still not been resolved.
Warzone has been my favourite game of the year, and it feels as if the developers are neglecting it for no apparent reason. I hope they put more effort into this game and fix these issues, starting with cheating, because Warzone is in danger.