In Call of Duty: Warzone the Halloween event is currently running and disturbs MeinMMO author Maik Schneider. He believes the developers have created a truly scary experience that every thrill-seeker should check out. However, long-term players may face their challenges.
What’s going on in CoD? Right now, the scariest time of the year has arrived at Call of Duty and the Halloween event influences some parts of the gameplay.
The event last year was for me the highlight in the release year of Warzone, and this year I hoped for a nasty event mode that would teach me fear. And I was not disappointed.
Because the event mode “The Ghosts of Verdansk” is currently running, with a few special gameplay twists:
- The mode takes place at night, everything is darker
- If you go down, you come back as a ghost
- Ghosts can attack players and revive themselves
- A “Fear-O-Meter” constantly rises and leads to hallucinations
Compared to the zombie event from the first year of Warzone, this time it’s about ghosts and while the rules have hardly changed, the event still feels fresh and is significantly scarier than the zombie variant. However, for long-term players with victory ambitions, the Halloween mode is nothing at all – you need to be in the mood for horror.
The Halloween event is pure psychological terror
Why is Warzone currently a horror MMO? The ghost mode relies entirely on psychological terror and throughout the entire match, you are continuously subjected to auditory and visual disturbances:
- The announcer “Ghostface” whispers in your ear
- Large animations cover your screen
- Loot crates can trigger a jump scare
- Hostile ghosts are closing in on you
This creates a suffocating atmosphere, especially since the city of Verdansk is completely shrouded in darkness. The constant, sometimes random disturbances lead to a great uncertainty, which for me actually brings more tension into the game and totally wears me out – and also many content creators:
How can you enjoy this? At first glance, it seems very overloaded and somewhat unfair. And it is indeed like that. But if you approach the mode in a special way, the ghost mode becomes a horror shock: try playing Solo.
The mode is designed for teams of 3 players in the first days. But you can also go in alone and fill the team with random players. In this way, the spooky adventure takes on a whole new dynamic.
Solo, I can rely less or not at all on my teammates, and even if I try to keep the random team together, I still feel alone. And playing a battle royale like Warzone alone is almost like a horror game.
Danger can lurk around every corner, every roof can harbor a camper, and every sound can be an opponent.
The optical and visual effects add another element that supports the scare moments. That drove my pulse to unhealthy heights and I had to pause more often to calm my nerves so I could hit something at all.
If you get into it, the ghost mode is a terrifying experience. I found some of the displays too funny or exaggerated; I would have preferred subtler animations here. But overall, the mode creates a new kind of tension that invites shivers.
High frustration potential for committed players
Who should keep their distance? What I like about the mode may particularly annoy players with high victory ambitions. Because the optical and acoustic disturbances do just that: they disturb, and not minimally. It’s not uncommon for a guaranteed kill to be prevented by one of the displays:
If you play for victory, you tend to go into the game with a complete 3-player team. But there is a reason why groups in horror films almost always separate or get separated from the killer: it’s scarier than in a large, strong group.
If you feel a certain fear rising, a short dialogue with a team member can cause the tension to be lost immediately. That may help your aiming, but it also takes the creepy atmosphere out of the game, and thus the appeal of the event mode “Ghosts of Verdansk”.
If you go in with a team, then bring a newcomer along – that at least is fun. On the first event day, I played a few rounds with MeinMMO author Max Handwerk and had more fun listening to his clear overwhelm than the match itself.
Especially when Max had discovered a mysterious red door and suddenly found himself on the other side of the map, the chaos was perfect – but it wasn’t particularly scary for me.
With over 100 million registered players, Warzone is currently the largest horror MMO in the world – if you approach it the right way. The event mode completely wore me out in the form of the solo experience and momentarily satisfied my craving for horror films. However, a lot of the tension is lost in a team.
We also love to hear your creepy thoughts about the Halloween event in the comments. Did you also find the mode scary, or do all the disturbances annoy you too much?
If you’re now looking for multiplayer games that spread horror all year round, check here: The 5 best horror games in multiplayer for PC, PS4, and Xbox One
