Call of Duty: Warzone 2's newest island map, Ashika Island is set to launch soon, and it's worth taking a look at how it compares to Rebirth Island. Call of Duty: Warzone 2 released in 2022 as a sequel to the free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone, which was released in March 2020 and has since become a huge hit among players. Call of Duty: Warzone's original map, Verdansk, was a huge map designed for a massive battle royale. However, Rebirth Island is a different story.
Rebirth Island however was smaller in size but features an intense and fast-paced battle royale experience, and many remember it fondly because it provided gameplay more like the typical Call of Duty experience. Recently, Ashika Island was first announced with a trailer and overview on the Call of Duty website on February 1st, 2023. The Ashika Island overview page includes lore and backstory of the island, as well as showcasing and teasing specific parts of the new map - giving fans a clear idea of what to expect and how much it compares to its fellow Resurgence map Rebirth Island.
Both Call of Dutry: Warzone Islands Feature Their Own Distinct Style
Rebirth Island is a small, tight-quarters map that became a staple of the Call of Duty franchise when it released. Rebirth Island is styled as a prison island and is famously known for its fast-paced and intense gameplay, making it a popular choice among players looking for an adrenaline-fueled experience. Ashika Island, on the other hand, is a brand-new addition to Call of Duty: Warzone 2 and is set on a tropical island with diverse terrain, including lush jungles, sandy beaches, and towering cliffs. Both share the similarity of being islands, however, are different in many aspects such as size, features, and more. According to Youtuber JGOD, the new map measures around 222,002m^2 compared to Fortune's Keep's 240,790m^2.
However, both maps are a part of Call of Duty: Warzone 2's resurgence game mode, which is a much more faster-paced game mode compared to the traditional Battle Royale game mode. Resurgence features a respawn system after a player dies, instead of being sent to the Gulag or being permanently removed from the match. Although the Call of Duty community has seen all the major parts of the map, the developers have yet to detail how big exactly Ashika Island is compared to Call of Duty: Warzone 2's other maps. However, one gamer in particular, Deffsquid, has managed to find an approximate possible size of how big Ashika Island may be based on the size of the game's shipping container models - although this will obviously not be exact and accurate, the information is interesting.
New Landmarks and Battle Areas in Ashika Island
A key difference between Ashika Island and Rebirth Island is Ashika Island's landmarks and space. Ashika Island contains a much larger range of terrains players can fight their way on, spanning from water to grass to rock and so much more. This means that players will have more room to maneuver and fight their way on Ashika Island, and Ashika island will also have a wider variety of points of interest to do so in.
The highlighted points of interest for Ashika Island include a shoreline farm to fight at, numerous enormous towers to scale as a way to scout out the entire island, a beach club with an aquarium, and most notably, a huge castle that lies on top of a hill that will most likely be a huge ground for battle. While Rebirth Island's points of interest were very close together, Ashika Island's points of interest appear to be much greater distances between each point of interest. Players that are planning to rotate across the new map will have to cover more space to reach different points of interest.
How The Map Design of Rebirth and Ashika Island Impacts Players Differently
Another key difference between Ashika Island and Rebirth Island is their overall design and layout. Rebirth Island is a very compact, circular map that is designed to facilitate fast-paced and intense gameplay, while Ashika Island as an overall map is much more sprawling and features a variety of different environments, including jungles, beaches, and cliffs. This means that Ashika Island players will have to adapt to new strategies in order to be successful, as the environment will have a much bigger impact on their gameplay experience. Operator skins also might need to be considered, determining what skins may match the new Ashika Island environment.
Operator skins in Call of Duty: Warzone 2 can affect gameplay and strategies among squads, so players should be sure to prepare for Ashika Island's new environments to battle in. The larger size of Ashika Island also means that players will have more opportunities to take advantage of its diverse terrain and use it to their advantage, especially in the contrast to how small Rebirth Island is as a resurgence map. For example, players will be able to use the jungle to hide from enemies and avoid detection or use the cliffs to gain a high vantage point and pick off enemies from a distance. They could hide and fortify themselves by the ocean walls or aquarium, or perhaps use a Call of Duty: Warzone 2 vehicle for an advantage - options that simply were not possible in the industrial map that was Rebirth Island.
All in all, the comparison between Ashika Island and Rebirth Island highlights the different approaches that Call of Duty: Warzone 2 has taken in its design and development as a battle royale game. While Rebirth Island is a compact and intense map that is designed to provide players with a fast-paced and adrenaline-fueled experience, Ashika Island is by far a much larger and more diverse map that offers players a wider range of opportunities and environments to explore and get a victory. Whether players prefer the compact and intense gameplay of Rebirth Island or the more open and varied gameplay of Ashika Island will largely depend on their personal preferences and play style.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X