Developed by Raven Software and Infinity Ward, Call of Duty: Warzone has become one of the biggest free-to-play battle royale titles. The game arrived with several unique gameplay mechanics and an extensively well-designed map. It helped the game stand out from the other popular titles within its genre. Accordingly, Warzone amassed a player count of over 100 million within 13 months of release.
During this period, the game also underwent countless interesting changes over several seasons of gameplay. Warzone initially started as a component of 2019’s Modern Warfare. But it also became integrated with the latest Call of Duty title, Black Ops Cold War, last December. As a result of the intertwined and evolving storylines, Warzone’s transformation has been spectacular from the perspective of narrative and gameplay.
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The changes made to Warzone’s battlefields have been some of the most notable thus far. We saw the developers added new locations while expanding on the existing ones. They also went as far as to completely wipe the original map and unveiled a more historic version of it. In this article, we take a deep dive into the two maps currently present in Call of Duty: Warzone, namely Verdansk ’84 and Rebirth Island.
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Verdansk ’84 map in Call of Duty Warzone
While Verdansk ’84 is currently the primary map in Warzone, it is essentially a new version of the original Verdansk map with a 1980s style makeover. Verdansk is located in Kastovia, the fictional country featured in Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War. This fictional city is actually based on a real one, Donetsk, in Ukraine.
Verdansk went through a host of landscape changes over the progression of the gameplay seasons pertaining to the Modern Warfare storyline. However, the most significant modifications arrived after Warzone’s integration with Black Ops Cold War, which eventually led to the map’s overhaul into its 1980s version.
It all started with the release of Season 2 of BOCW and Warzone when the Vodyanov ship reappeared near Verdansk and crashed into the city’s coastline. The ship brought with it an infestation of Zombies. Although the outbreak was initially confined to the Shipwreck location, it eventually began spreading to other locations in the city.
Ultimately, the Zombies managed to contaminate and overrun the entirety of the Verdansk landscape. Deemed a lost cause, a nuclear strike was subsequently launched to completely devastate the city. This event became known as the Destruction of Verdansk and marked the end of the second season.
Season 3 introduced a new Warzone map in the form of Verdansk ’84. Even though the Call of Duty community had anticipated an entirely new map, the historic setting of Verdansk was well received. The city gave rise to new POIs like the Old Mine, Grid Array, Gora Summit, and Airplane Factory.
Meanwhile, many existing locations like Downtown, Airport, and Stadium, received noticeable facelifts. There were plenty of other smaller changes ranging from the removal or replacement of various buildings and locations with new ones.
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Rebirth Island map in Warzone
Season 1 of Black Ops Cold War introduced a second map to Warzone known as Rebirth Island. Based on the Vozrozhdeniya island, which also features in BOCW’s campaign, this map also has its roots in the real world.
From a design perspective, Rebirth Island is a remake of the Alcatraz map from the Blackout mode in Black Ops 4. Compared to Verdansk, this map is much small in scale and houses a lower player count.
Rebirth Island only queues in a maximum of 40 players per match. On the other hand, Verdansk generally supports 150 players per match, which can go up to 200 players in certain modes.
As for the lore behind this map, the CIA raided and shut down an illegal Soviet base on Rebirth Island in 1968. In the aftermath, Operator Russel Adler apprehended and forcefully interrogated the base commander Vikhor “Stitch” Kuzmin.
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In 1984, Stitch returned to the island to rebuild and recommission the base to produce and test the deadly Nova 6 gas. Rebirth Island features dozens of locations like Bioweapons Lab, Prison Block, Decontamination Zone Building, Engineering Factory, Power Station, Warden’s Entrance, and many more.
The Rebirth Island map has its own unique respawn mechanic. A player can redeploy after a short interval as long as one teammate is alive. Besides, it features its own Gulag system that is available during certain modes.
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Rebirth Island focuses on fast-paced, close-quarters action, and fans have thoroughly enjoyed its addition. Which is your favorite map in Call of Duty: Warzone? Let us know in the comments below.
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