Call of Duty: Warzone is always growing, and while that growth is usually a good thing, the game’s integration with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been a mixed bag. While there are several positives, like leveling up across games and the introduction of more weaponry, Operators, and challenges, there are some noteworthy negatives as well. As such, Activision and Raven Software need to be careful with more integration in the future.
Currently, post-integration Call of Duty: Warzone menus are messy, so much so that those that do not regularly play the game will likely be lost when first logging in. Going forward, there are several integration-related issues that need to be fixed. While Raven seems to be focused on doing this, more problems could appear in the future, especially with Activision planning to keep Call of Duty: Warzone going for years to come. If this is the plan, integration adjustments will become even more important.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Integration Issues
With all of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s content now seen inside Call of Duty: Warzone, there is an absurd number of Operators and weapons in the game. While this has its upsides, navigating the game’s menus has become a genuine challenge since the integration. Finding an Operator takes more time than it should, as options that allow players to limit the page to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are not enough to make a difference. Weapons are an even bigger issue, especially with the two Call of Duty titles having some repeat guns like the MP5, AUG, and AK-47. Scrolling through all the choices is overwhelming, and an argument can be made that there is now too much content in the battle royale title.
Apart from crowded menus, it is hard not to address the elephant in the room that has come with integration. Weapon balancing has been a major issue with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s additions. The much-maligned DMR 14 dominated the meta for over a month, while a suppressor nerf saw most weapons from the latest Black Ops game becoming entirely useless. Now, the FFAR is dominating, and while it will likely be nerfed, that process will probably come later than many fans would like.
Since Call of Duty: Warzone’s integration, weapon changes seem to be coming in at a slower rate. Sadly, the same can also be said for bug fixes, with issues like Rebirth Island’s wall glitch taking far more time to fix than one would normally expect. While this is understandable, as Raven Software has more to manage than ever before, it is quickly becoming one of the biggest downsides to the integration. While important fixes and requested changes are eventually made, overpowered guns and prevalent cheats are lasting longer than they used to. On top of this, issues like forced advertising within Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and challenges forcing players to play Call of Duty: Warzone in the first place have received negative feedback from fans.
The Danger of Call of Duty 2021’s Integration
According to several leaks from reputable sources, Call of Duty 2021 will have integration with Call of Duty: Warzone. While this is a good thing on paper, as it shows that Activision is keeping its promise of continued support for the game, it is hard not to think of the potential negatives that come with even more integration. Bigger is not always better, after all, and if Call of Duty: Warzone feels cramped right now, that belief could only become more common with a dozen extra Operators and several additional guns.
Being able to find a weapon of choice could feel like a project, as players will be stuck scrolling through pages of Assault Rifles, SMGs, or Tactical Rifles. With so many weapons, a proper meta may go out the window. Keeping track of special weapon blueprints inside Call of Duty: Warzone is already a tough task in the current version of the game, but adding hundreds of additional blueprints could only serve to make this more cumbersome. If the menus remain as they are now, handling all these weapons will be impossible, and the same sentiment applies to Operators.
While players having too much to manage is a real issue, as fans could spend more time in the menus than playing, the bigger fear with Call of Duty 2021’s debut leading to more integration is that it can exasperate the current issues. Raven Software may struggle even more with timely weapon balancing, as yet another batch of guns would need to be added. More equipment, vehicles, and blueprints will also come, something that could easily create more bugs inside Call of Duty: Warzone. The game could simply become too much to handle, quickly becoming a mess due to the amount of content that is thrown into the game.
How Call of Duty: Warzone Integration Could Be Improved
Fortunately, Call of Duty: Warzone is not the only game with this kind of problem. Destiny 2 had a similar issue, as the game’s abundance of content became too much for Bungie to manage. This resulted in the Destiny 2 content vault, and while it does have its flaws, the concept is a solid approach to the problem. If Raven Software were to add a content vault for Call of Duty: Warzone, it could better manage the game’s abundance of weapons, Operators, and blueprints.
While this would undoubtedly be controversial, as many players paid for items tied directly to content that could be vaulted, such a system could allow Raven Software to focus on supporting newer content — hopefully getting updates out more frequently in the process. To start, a content vault could see duplicate weapons removed, with Raven possibly even allowing players to vote on whether the Modern Warfare or Black Ops version of a gun stays in the game. From there, unpopular weapon choices could be put out to pasture, freeing up space for new additions to be made.
If a content vault is not added, though, separate playlists could be introduced instead. Each playlist could focus on a game, with a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare playlist restricting access to weapons and Operators from that game. Verdansk could also be the play space for this play space, while the rumored 250 player Ural Mountains map could be used for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s playlist. This could effectively give players two different versions of Call of Duty: Warzone without taking any content out of the game, while Call of Duty 2021 could be given a playlist of its own.
Regardless of how it is handled, though, Call of Duty: Warzone’s integration needs to be handled better going forward. If things are done in the same way as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty 2021 could break the popular battle royale title, causing far more harm than good. Even if changes are as simple as challenge adjustments and a brand-new UI that actually works with all the content, Raven Software needs to show that it is listening to fans later this year. If it does, players will not need to fear another batch of integration-related problems.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.