Call of Duty is currently in an important phase: Not only has Season 1 of Vanguard and Warzone Pacific recently brought the biggest changes to the popular Battle Royale, but due to Christmas, more players will have time to spend on CoD. However, the community believes: The franchise has never been in a worse state.
Both developers and fans of Call of Duty have anticipated an exciting restart for the franchise with Vanguard and Warzone Pacific:
With Caldera came the first completely new map to Warzone since release; Vanguard aimed to excite fans with a return to the fast-paced gameplay of the most popular CoDs. A new anti-cheat system was also supposed to improve the gaming experience in both games.
However, despite these attempts to enhance and refresh the gaming experience for fans, frustration prevails just before Christmas. Both Warzone and Vanguard suffer from many issues – sometimes the same.
CoD fans therefore believe that the shooter franchise is in a worse state than ever before. Some players see it as a reflection of the structural problems within the developers themselves.
Warzone is “in the worst state it has ever been”
What are the problems with CoD Warzone? Since the map transition from Verdansk to Caldera, fans barely recognize Warzone. Bugs, unmet expectations, and a disappointing map for many – players find that Warzone is “in the worst state it has ever been” (via reddit).
These issues have been troubling the community the most in recent days:
- The new map changes the gameplay too much for many players. Even the mega-streamer Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar finds that Caldera feels “dead” and “doesn’t even feel like CoD anymore.”
- The highly desired and expected FoV slider for consoles has not come.
- The weapon grind is too long for many players. They find it impossible and therefore demotivating (via reddit)
- In contrast, hacked lobbies allow players to level their weapons completely immediately (via Twitter) – although this delights players, they see it as a disgrace for Warzone.
- Players find the weapon balance broken. Recently, a sniper was massively overpowered, currently, an OP revolver setup annoys players (via Twitter).
- Some attachments are completely OP (via Twitter)
- Many patches in a short time constantly change the meta, but the community regularly finds new OP loadouts. This problem also makes the weapon grind more difficult.
- Krampus has ruined matches for players so much that the Christmas monster, intended for fun, had to be nerfed.
- Continuous server issues, crashes, and bugs have annoyed players since the transition to the new map (via Twitter).
Players on reddit therefore refer to Season 1 of Warzone Pacific as a “shattered heap of bugs” (via reddit). Evil memes about server stability are also making the rounds on reddit:
Vanguard is “no longer fun” for players
What are the problems with CoD Vanguard? CoD Vanguard is also facing massive issues. Specifically, the last week has caused a lot of frustration among players:
- One perk is so broken that it interferes with aim assist
- A new grenade makes the popular small maps almost unplayable
- Disgusting killcam skins actively make the game uglier
- A bug prevents players from unlocking all camos since release (via Twitter)
- €20 blueprints are visually (via reddit) and/or mechanically broken (via reddit)
- Krampus is also an unwelcome guest in Vanguard (via reddit)
- In Vanguard, there are also ongoing issues with servers, crashes, and bugs.
All these problems are also leading players in Vanguard to say: “It’s no longer fun” (via reddit) and that it is currently “unplayable” (via reddit)
Is the CoD frustration stemming from issues at Activision Blizzard?
These lists show that the problems and complaints reflect between Warzone and Vanguard. The community also connects this with the ongoing issues at Activision Blizzard itself. Among other things, game testers at Warzone developer Raven Software were allegedly fired without reason. To what extent the issues with CoD directly reflect those at Activision Blizzard cannot currently be assessed from the outside.
How do you feel about CoD Warzone and Vanguard at the moment? Are you having fun with the games, or do frustration and annoyance prevail? Will you switch to other games during the Christmas season because of this? Let us know in the comments.
If you’re looking for an alternative shooter over the holidays, we’ve put together an overview of 4 other great multiplayer shooters:
Disappointed with CoD Vanguard and Battlefield 2042? These 4 shooters we recommend to you!
