Call Of Duty: Warzone's Shift To The Pacific Is An Upgrade From Verdansk

Call of Duty's new Warzone Pacific map Caldera is now available with the launch of Vanguard's Season 1. The shift to the Pacific World War II setting is a refreshing change while retaining the best parts of the game to ensure it still feels like you're playing Warzone.

A new look for Warzone

The trip to Caldera's Pacific island setting brings a much-needed change of scenery after the nearly two years of Verdansk's drab colors. It's a map that is really easy on the eyes. And the setting isn't just great visually because it's a tropical and lush environment, but also the lighting has better balance in Caldera. Even the interior settings have much better lighting than the shadowy corners of Verdansk's buildings. Verdansk never seemed to find good light balance. Sometimes the map looked really washed out, especially after the Black Ops Cold War integration, while some areas had sunlight that was just too bright. Interior buildings could often suffer from visibility issues from having too many dark areas. The buildings all seem well-lit in Caldera.

The island has a lot of open space and obviously lacks some of the dense and high-scale city structures of Verdansk, but there is decent cover around most points of interest. And there is still opportunity for verticality in gunfights, especially in areas like Mining and the volcano peak, which have various elevations to fight from.

Caldera makes familiar gameplay fresh

Beyond the change in environments, players should still feel at home in Warzone Pacific. Thematically, Caldera is designed to look like Vanguard's counterpart, but the feel of movement, sliding, and jumping are still what you remember, rather than veering into being more like Vanguard's multiplayer. I really thought it would feel more like Vanguard, but instead it's as if I'm playing Modern Warfare's version of Warzone in a new tropical setting. One really nice improvement Caldera makes is the ability to climb and mantle over rocks in a way you'd never be able to scale obstacles on Verdansk.

Warzone Pacific also keeps all of Warzone's perks and equipment. However, the semtex grenade and Heartbeat Sensor equipment aren't available in the early access playlist of Vanguard Royale, because the playlist only features Vanguard weapons and equipment. When the standard battle royale mode drops, all past Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War guns and equipment will be available. Otherwise, most of the game's core features like the Gulag, Buy Stations, Loadouts, and vehicles are all still featured here in Caldera for Vanguard Royale--it's a good mix of fresh and familiar. While the vehicles are mostly the same offerings reskinned for the World War II setting, it's worth noting that the Bertha cargo truck now allows a passenger inside the cab, whereas Verdansk's Bertha only allowed the driver inside.

Changes bring aerial fights and faster matches

The Gulag returns to Caldera to give players a second chance in the fight, but now any player who wins their Gulag showdown drops back in the match with the weapon loadout provided during their 1v1. It's unclear if we'll get seasonal Gulag changes like we saw with Black Ops Cold War's integration, but currently, Caldera's Gulag takes down inside the Phosphate Mines.

The only playlist currently available in Warzone for Caldera's early access is the new Vanguard Royale. Additionally, Rebirth Island is still available for anyone to play and offers the familiar Resurgence Quads and Mini Royale Trios playlists.

Vanguard Royale is Warzone Pacific's new dogfighting mode, allowing players to take to the skies in planes. There's also the option to maneuver AA guns to combat aerial attacks. I think this makes for an interesting new layer to Warzone combat, and it might be great for fans of Sledgehammer Games' dogfighting multiplayer mode from Call of Duty: World War II. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of aerial combat, so I don't think I'll spend too much time in the sky. However, my matches of Vanguard Royale still offered plenty of boots-on-the-ground action, so I could still see myself playing this mode if friends wanted to take their fights to the skies. Despite the ability to use planes, it still feels like a pretty standard match.

The pacing of the matches in Vanguard Royale definitely feel different than a standard match on Verdansk, as the mode features faster circle collapses, and a random event triggers for each collapse. This is much like Warzone's Operation: Flashback limited-time mode, and having those extra events make the matches feel fresh and exciting. It also changes the economy for Warzone, as players can earn more money through some of the events like the Cash Drops. The UAV streak costs $6,000 from the Buy Station, whereas it cost $4,000 previously, but the change doesn't have a huge impact with the extra cash flow.

Additionally, Warzone Pacific also makes a change to Loadout Drops, as players can no longer purchase one as soon as they have the cash to do so. Instead, Loadout Drops are restricted from the Buy Stations until after the first free loadout arrives. This makes the first few minutes of the match a bit more tense because you're holding on to ground loot longer and left to the fate of RNG. However, I don't think this is a change that will make a huge negative impact on matches.

Some positive changes in the Pacific version of Warzone include the removal of Verdansk's controversial and overpowered Stopping Power field upgrade. Players can also expect nerfs to the Dead Silence field upgrade and much-needed tweaks to the gas mask. Previously, the gas mask animation led to many untimely deaths as the gas caused the operator to automatically put on or pull off the mask mid-fight. But now, the mask doesn't interrupt as many actions as it did previously, resulting in fewer frustrating deaths.

On the downside, the console version of Warzone still lacks a Field of View slider. Console players have the option to adjust the Field of View setting on Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard, but the feature remains missing for battle royale. Another small annoyance is that Zombies camos are not available for weapons in Warzone. This is something that took far too long to arrive in Warzone after Black Ops Cold War's integration, but hopefully Caldera will see Zombies camos become available much quicker.

A proper successor to Verdansk

Overall, my first day in Caldera has been a positive one. I had a few graphical bugs that popped up in a few matches and textures that didn't load, but it seemed to be really rare instances. Of course, these are just day one impressions, and there could be more bugs and issues that pop up on this new map. It's also unclear how quickly and efficiently the new anti-cheat system will impact the game, and whether Warzone will once again be plagued by cheaters. But as it stands now, Caldera feels like an upgrade and proper successor to Warzone's Verdansk.

Unfortunately, this map arrives as walkouts continue in protest of surprise contract terminations within Raven Software's QA team that began late last week. Call of Duty updates continues as Activision Blizzard faces lawsuits and other investigations related to alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women.