Activision unveils extended look at new Verdansk in Warzone, but it won’t be an exact replica

Call of Duty players have been asking for the return of Verdansk to Warzone for years, and it’s finally happening next week. But, of course, there is an asterisk.

Activision today unveiled a first look at the new Verdansk, launching alongside Black Ops 6 and Warzone season three, but with some new additions, undoubtedly ruffling the feathers of purists who want an exact replica of the 2020 experience.

In the videos released on YouTube and on X/Twitter via CharlieIntel, Beenox confirmed that the team has added a lot of cover for players to hide behind in areas of Verdansk that used to be wide open, changing up how the game may feel when compared to 2020, but the devs say it’s for the better.

“We wanted to make sure that when you transit from one POI to another POI, you’re not a sitting duck,” said Beenox lead designer Thierry Lauret. “So, you have more cover around the map.” More cover equals new additions, which equals not the same exact Verdansk, which to be fair, shouldn’t have been expected, but it’s what a lot of players have been calling for.

“For example, in the original Verdansk, rotating from Farmlands to Downtown left players really exposed,” said another Beenox designer in the video. “Now there’s new cars and buses that have been added to provide better cover. It makes the rotations safer and a lot more strategic, especially when you’re crossing the aqueducts.”

Warzone was a smash hit in 2020 as the first free-to-play CoD experience and successor to Blackout as a battle royale mode, but a good unquantifiable amount of its success early on likely had to do with gamers being stuck inside during COVID-19 quarantines around the world. This created lots of memories as players grouped up with friends and made new ones to stay social throughout the ordeal.

No one wants to recreate quarantine, but players looking to recreate how Warzone felt back then likely now have another reason to be skeptical of the map’s return now that we know it won’t be a one-to-one copy like so many hoped for.

Myself? I’m remaining optimistic that Beenox and Activision made the map better to play for all players. Regardless, we’ll all be able to judge for ourselves when Verdansk launches on April 3.