The new Warzone Verdansk map has arrived, and to no one’s surprise, the Call of Duty community is going wild for it. However, having been scarred by the state of several major updates in the battle royale game’s history, I and many others were bracing for something to go wrong. Broken servers? Game-breaking bugs, perhaps? Well, it seems that I should’ve had a bit more faith, because aside from a few smaller issues and grumbles, Warzone Season 3’s Verdansk update appears to be an all-round triumph.
If you haven’t heard about Verdansk’s return to Call of Duty Warzone by now, then you must be residing under an extremely large, soundproofed, and isolated rock somewhere. Following in the footsteps of similar nostalgia hits from rivals like Fortnite and Apex Legends, Warzone Season 3 brings back the battle royale’s iconic first map and overhauls many of its recent gameplay innovations to try and replicate the original feel of the game. Given how popular Warzone was in the Verdansk era, its comeback was always going to be a popular one. I’m already seeing a lot of ‘we’re so back’ posts on social media.
It’s always hard to get a read on Warzone’s player count specifically. This is in part due to it being on multiple platforms, but also because it’s rolled into the general Call of Duty application that gets tracked on sites like SteamDB, which includes Black Ops 6 and other recent games in the series too. However, using the info we do have, it’s clear that its Steam player count has picked up. Admittedly, it’s not quite the spike I expected (although the weekend may see things surge again) but there’s a clear uplift following the Verdansk update going live.
Twitch viewership for Warzone has skyrocketed too. At the time of writing, it’s the most watched gaming category on the streaming platform ahead of GTA 5 and the recent breakout hit Schedule 1.
Interest is high, but that’s not exactly surprising. What is surprising though, considering some of the past disasters that have befallen new Warzone updates, is that everything seems to be running extremely smoothly. I’m not seeing complaints over server problems or performance issues, and while there are a few notable bugs, none of them are causing widespread frustration. Call of Duty Warzone, it seems, is healing…
As I just mentioned though, there are a few little hiccups. The most pressing involves a bug that’s resetting people’s custom loadouts, but while Raven Software patches it up, it has shared a workaround that should help if you’re being affected by it: “Customize your Loadout in the Gunsmith, return all the way to the COD HQ menu, restart your game – be sure to close it entirely.” According to Raven’s Trello board that tracks bug reports, there are also some issues with the new SWAT 5.56 Conversion Kit that makes the gun feel like the Grau assault rifle from the old Verdansk days, and a couple of problems with Contract rewards and spawns. However, none of these are detracting from the overwhelming enjoyment I’m seeing online.
I was also worried that all the fiddling around with gameplay mechanics would create some issues, but on the whole people seem really satisfied with the state of things initially.
After what feels like months of declining interest and grumbling about the state of the game, it feels quite odd to see most of the Call of Duty community happy. I pray it lasts, and that Verdansk’s return could kickstart a new, more positive era for Warzone, but only time will tell.
If you’re already exploring the shiny new Verdansk, or you’re thinking of dropping in soon, make sure you’re using the best builds for the new weapons. Take a look at our best Warzone Kilo loadout and best Warzone HDR loadout guides.
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