Before March 10, 2020, the battle royale genre was being absolutely dominated by Fortnite. While Fortnite is still undeniably in control of the market, it's found itself a little competition from one of the largest gaming franchises on the planet in Call of Duty: Warzone.
Warzone's first map, "Verdansk," gave players a huge island battlefield, capable of hosting up to 150 players. Verdansk was filled with varied locations and environments, many of them quickly becoming some of the most memorable areas in all of Call of Duty. From the tall and icy heights of "Dam" to the always-chaotic winding streets of "Downtown," Warzone players soon became very familiar with all of Verdansk's various nooks and crannies. Still, all good things must come to an end.
Verdansk's Bittersweet, Slightly Anticlimactic Ending
A few months ago, it was announced that a new "Pacific" map would be brought to Warzone, along with Call of Duty: Vanguard's first multiplayer season. Immediately, there was some speculation that this new map would replace Verdansk entirely, and a few weeks ago, this was confirmed.
It was revealed that the new Vanguard-themed map, named "Caldera," was going to be the sole map in Warzone, with players' last chance to visit Verdansk being set to December 7, in an event called the "Last Hours of Verdansk." Whilst Warzone players had been longing for a new map for a while, the announcement was a bittersweet one; Verdansk had given a lot of players some extremely unique and fun memories over the last year and a half, and the notion of losing it entirely was undeniably a bit rough to think about for many fans.
But regardless of any fan trepidation about the new map and the loss of Verdansk, that final day arrived all the same. Fans flooded the game's servers, desperate for a chance to drop in with their friends one last time. Upon entering a match, a screen overlay stated "A few hours before leaving Verdansk," followed by some on-screen instructions that laid out the rules of this final match. While the final match was still a classic match of battle royale, there were a few little tweaks to the objectives and map-events.
As players spawned in to their final match, planes could be seen being shot out of the sky. Upon landing, players could rush to these crash sites and activate a Scavenger Contract that tasked the player with finding four supply boxes across the map within just six minutes. Getting all of these supply boxes gave the player a Loadout Drop Marker, along with a Legendary vehicle skin that could be used in the upcoming Caldera map.
As surviving players held out a little longer, bombing runs would start to become more frequent. These essentially acted like Warzone's Cluster Strikes, with explosives randomly raining down within a small, circular zone of the map. As the match drew to a close, the playzone narrowed down to a bunker, and an emergency siren could be heard. A screen overlay then read "Survive the bombing," and players now had to fight their way into the bunker. Once inside, the player team were tasked with holding the room until a progress bar filled. Once full, the match was over, and the player team were rewarded with a neat Calling Card, and a screen overlay exclaiming that "they will go down in history as the last victors of Verdansk."
The match then ended with a brief trailer for the new Caldera map, showcasing its brighter color palette and varied tropical locations. While this trailer was a nice little reward for those who stuck the match out till the end, many fans found the cutscene a little underwhelming. After all, this map had been played daily by die-hard fans for over a year, and there was little in the way of an actual, meaningful send off.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.