Call of Duty’s free-to-play Warzone is getting its first big update in a while next week for season one of Black Ops 7, and one of the new CoD’s best features is making the jump.
Unfortunately, I’m not talking about wall-jumping. Curiously, that mechanic won’t be coming to Warzone. That’s a bummer, but the news that Open Matchmaking (where skill is minimally considered) is coming to the BR mode as well.
Open Matchmaking has been a game-changer in BO7’s multiplayer, where matches feel random with who you are matched with and against rather than feeling like you get punished for performing well and rewarded for doing poorly, as has been the formula over the past few years.
The hope now is that Warzone’s lobbies will feel a bit less sweaty too, albeit with the occasional all-star squad that randomly ends up in your lobby to chokeslam you into the Gulag. Warzone dev Raven Softwae confirmed the news in a new Dev Talk video today, which can be seen below.
Elswhere in the new update, Warzone will get all of BO7’s weapons including the new ones in season one, a new Resurgence map called Haven’s Hollow, and some map changes to the BR location of Verdansk, along with limited time modes and a re-balancing of Perks and equipment.
I have to say, the lack of wall-jumping in Warzone doesn’t make much sense to me. Last year, Warzone got BO6’s omnimovement capabilities that added a skill gap in combat, so not adding BO7’s new movement mechanic is a head-scratcher.
Most of the hype from Verdansk’s reintroduction to Warzone earlier this year has died down, so I will be watching closely to see if this new update brings gamers back into the fold. Raven promises more frequent weapon tuning updates this year, so hopefully that will help keep things fresh as content is added every month or so.
The new Warzone content and BO7’s first season arrive next week on Dec. 4.
