It's fair to say that Verdansk is injecting a fresh burst of excitement into Call of Duty: Warzone, and it couldn't have come at a more opportune moment. The online community had previously declared Activision's now five-year-old battle royale as "cooked" before the nostalgia-driven revival of Verdansk turned things around. Now, the internet is buzzing, declaring Warzone "back." Sure, Activision did nuke Verdansk, but that doesn't seem to matter. Lapsed players, who fondly remember Warzone as their go-to lockdown game, are returning to the map that started it all. Meanwhile, loyal fans who have stuck with the game through thick and thin over the past five years are saying that Warzone is more enjoyable now than it has been since its explosive debut in 2020.
This return to a back-to-basics gameplay experience was a deliberate design decision by the developers at Raven and Beenox. Pete Actipis, the game director on Warzone at Raven, and Etienne Pouliot, creative director at Beenox, spearheaded the multi-studio effort to revitalize Warzone. In an extensive interview with IGN, the duo delved into the process of bringing back Verdansk, the success of Verdansk's Casual mode, and whether they considered limiting operator skins to mil-sim to capture the essence of the 2020 experience. They also tackled the crucial question on everyone's mind: is Verdansk here to stay?
Read on to discover more.
