The moment many Call of Duty Warzone fans have waited for is almost here. The original Verdansk wasn’t just a great, debut map for the popular battle royale game – for many, it was a cultural moment and a space for people to forget about a certain deadly virus that had just come on the scene. Its return has been anticipated ever since the ‘Warzone 2.0’ era began, and next week you’ll finally be able to drop into Stadium, Storage, or whatever your squad’s favorite drop spot was. Ahead of the launch of the new Warzone Verdansk map, its creators have revealed a first proper in-game look at it – and it’s exactly how you remember it, only better.
Of course, with it being several years since a variation of Verdansk was playable, there is an expectation for the new Warzone map to look much better than it did back in the day. It’s safe to say that’s certainly the case. Built “from the ground up” by a trio of Activision studios – Beenox, High Moon, and Warzone’s main custodians Raven Software – the new Verdansk features “stunning new textures,” new tech that allows for better rendering and visual effects, a more detailed skybox, and “rebuilt” lighting, the iconic battle royale map is looking pretty splendid.
While the remake is looking extremely faithful to the original Verdansk, it’s not without some tweaks to make for an improved gameplay experience. “Every building, every road, every detail has been refined,” Beenox’s environment artist Simon Duschesne says in the new reveal video.
Although the Intel Drop below doesn’t give any specifics when it comes to the refinements that have been made, an example can be found in a separate, now deleted snippet posted to Call of Duty’s social media channels. This clip confirms that more cover has been added to some notoriously barren areas to help keep players a bit more protected when rotating between POIs. The area between Farmland and Downtown is mentioned specifically, and footage shows that a bunch of destroyed vehicles now litter this part of the map, which used to be incredibly precarious and dangerous to cross.
The remake of Verdansk goes live in Call of Duty Warzone at the start of Season 3 on Thursday, April 3.
If you’ve been on a bit of a hiatus but you’re thinking of jumping back in for Verdansk, make sure to start leveling up some of the best Warzone guns ahead of time. Keep our best Warzone loadouts guide handy for when the new season drops, as we’ll update it with the latest meta classes
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