Call of Duty: Vanguard is the next entry in the acclaimed first-person shooter series, and this installment sends players to World War II.
Warzone and Vanguard will be integrated, just like Black Ops Cold War, but this year, the mega-popular battle royale will be getting a fresh map to coincide with the new game. Early reports claimed the new map would be Pacific-themed, and now Activision itself has confirmed this.
This will be the most substantial change in the history of Warzone, as it will mark the departure of Verdansk, which has been in the game since day one. In 2021, Verdansk underwent a slight alteration with its 1984 edition, but the majority of the map layout remained intact.
For the first time ever, Warzone will get a brand new map when the Vanguard integration goes through.
Here, we’ll go through everything we know about the new Warzone Pacific map, including details on its features, and what to expect from it.
Warzone Pacific map release date
During the Vanguard Multiplayer reveal, Raven Software Associate Creative Director Amos Hodge confirmed that Warzone will be getting a brand new map set in the Pacific. Much like the Cold War integration in 2020, the new Pacific map will not launch alongside Vanguard.
Instead, the new map will release “shortly after the launch of Vanguard,” according to Hodge. But we do know it will come out in 2021. Since the Cold War integration occurred in December 2020, it’s possible Activision will stick to a similar release window for the new Pacific map in 2021.
Warzone Pacific map overview
Though specifics weren’t revealed, Activision showed off some new footage of the Warzone Pacific map. Based on that alone, it appears to be a game-changer.
The most obvious change is in the color palette, which will be more vibrant than Verdansk, with a greater emphasis on a variety of biomes you’d see during World War II. Verdansk always looked muted with lots of brown, tan, and grey colors that never looked as good as many other contemporary shooters.
Beyond the colors, the new Warzone Pacific map will have running rivers and waterfalls, which is a huge leap forward. This will hopefully give the map a dynamic feeling, with immersion at the forefront.
The other main takeaway is that the new map seems to be leaning much more into nature than Verdansk. While the Pacific map will certainly have its fair share of buildings and urban areas, much of it is covered in hills, mountains, trees, and varied terrain. There was even a cave that appeared during the short teaser, which could be really interesting from a gameplay perspective.
The emphasis on nature will ideally make traversing the map more fun, since there will presumably be more cover, with multiple ways to get around.
“Our goal was to create a fresh, new experience for Call of Duty players by breaking out of the war-torn world of Verdansk,” said Hodge. “[We wanted to] create an atmosphere that is vibrant, alive, and it really opens the doors to how we can craft the narratives and events.”
Warzone Pacific anti-cheat
Aside from the new Pacific map itself, Warzone will finally get an anti-cheat system alongside the Vanguard integration. Since its launch, Warzone has been plagued by cheaters and as time has gone on, the problem has only gotten worse.
It’s unclear how the new anti-cheat software will work exactly, but it seems to be sophisticated, at least based on the way Activision is discussing it. Keep in mind, this anti-cheat implementation is only for PC, so hopefully, players don’t figure out a way to cheat on consoles.
Call of Duty: Vanguard will launch on November 5, while Warzone Pacific is set to release sometime afterward.
