Welcome to Call of Duty: Warzone — Glitches, Hackers, and Overpowered Weapons
The competitive scene faces an uphill battle due to the current issues
Recently, Raven Software tweeted that many CoD: Black Ops weapons would be nerfed because of the outrage from the CoD community. The current state of the game includes using only five to six of the 30 new weapons from the CoD: Black Ops integration into Warzone. Like most players, I was excited for the gun nerfs because the guns were overpowered to the point where if you didn’t run them, you would be at a disadvantage. On January 6th, Raven announced the DMR 14, Type 63, Dual Pistols, and the Mac-10 were all getting a rework for headshot damage and recoil.
It turned out to be a disappointment because the gun changes barely affected the power of these weapons. Whether you are new to the game or a veteran, the time to kill is approximately the same, so the update will not change the state of the game for the better.
The main reason for these Black Ops Cold War weapons being strong is seemingly because Treyarch wants to provide players with an incentive to purchase the $60 main game, so leveling the guns is easier. In CoD: Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War, leveling up your guns means unlocking more gun attachments. There is a massive difference between using the DMR 14 without all the attachments compared to using a fully-kitted version. It can make the difference between winning or losing a gunfight. It is possible to level up guns in Warzone, but it requires hours and hours of gameplay to obtain all the attachments compared to 1 hour on a multiplayer map in the main game. The people who are affected are the ones who play occasionally for a few hours per week on Warzone only.
Overpowered guns are currently being worked on by Raven Software, but that isn’t the only thing plaguing Warzone at the moment, as hackers are still running rampant. The anti-hacking/cheating system has not even been addressed by any of the game publishers or creators. Although most hackers only play on the PC, it is still an important issue to address. The banning system bans new player accounts if they get reported or the system detects a hack in use. However, the hackers could easily create a new account and run the hacks on that account. There are rarely any IP bans or computer hardware bans in place to prevent hackers from creating new accounts.
Twitch and YouTube streamers continue to end up with stream snipers (people who try to get into the same lobbies as the player) who are hackers with aimbot, wall-hacks, and other unfair advantages. This ruins the gaming experience for the people who play Warzone for a living. Streamers are trying to get “friendly hackers” who dispose of the hackers that are eliminating the entire lobby. Most old CoD games on last-gen consoles are filled with hackers because the games are not supported anymore, but it is not excusable for the most current game.
Warzone tournaments and competitions used to be so popular among the gaming community, but they have been in great decline recently because of game-breaking glitches. One example of this is a router that connects you to places with fewer players, which matches you with low-skill level players because there are not enough players in your skill level. Small streamers and professional gamers can utilize this router during their tournament games like kill-races to have an advantage over others in the tournament.
There are many tweets from the game publishers and creators simply stating the problem and not providing any real response to these issues. The casual player who plays with their friends for a few hours per week will not have an enjoyable experience compared just a few months ago. We can only hope for updates in the near future for weapon changes, patches, and a better anti-cheat system. Warzone can definitely last for another good five more years if the problems are addressed and fixed quickly.
