The Call of Duty franchise has been a pillar of the gaming landscape for many years, and in that time both gaming as a whole and the franchise itself have seen a wide array of milestone moments. Today marks the anniversary of one of those moments, being the third anniversary of one of the franchise’s biggest content shifts to date.
Three years ago was the Destruction of Verdansk event in Warzone, an event which saw the entire map completely obliterated by a nuclear bomb, shifting the setting from the present-day, Modern Warfare-inspired setting it launched with into something new entirely.
Call of Duty’s Warzone Moves Around
With the event, players were placed on a map crowded with zombies and an ever-encroaching circle of safety. Those who got turned could then kill either other still-living players or even other zombies if they wished to.
Once a match ended, a cutscene would play out portraying the destruction of the Verdansk map. This was followed, for a short time, with Aftermath: Rebirth Island, a series of three playlists taking place fifteen minutes after the bomb went off on a slightly altered version of the Rebirth Island map.
It then kicked off a small ARG experience that led players to a website teasing the changes the game would soon experience.
Warzone Goes Back to the Cold War
After the first day, Part 2 of the event began. Lasting only one hour, Part 2 took place ten minutes before the bombing itself, on the altered, nighttime version of Rebirth Island. Players had to compete to be able to maintain a hold on a device that would, naturally, lead to the aforementioned nuclear weaponry being unleashed on the map.
After this, players were once again treated to a cutscene showing the map’s nuclear destruction, but this time, the scene ends flashing back to 1984. Suddenly, the map was altered to a 1984 version of Verdansk, completely altering the map to be more in line with the then-recently released Black Ops: Cold War.
This marked the first major shift for Warzone, which had originally launched in early 2020 and was built off of the basis of the first game in the rebooted Modern Warfare trilogy, and as such featured a setting and mechanics befitting that release. But with the annual changing of the CODs, the battle royale tie-in had to change up, too.
These drastic shifts took a toll on WZ, though, and just over a year and a half following this event, WZ 2.0 was released, replacing the original and tying in with the release of Modern Warfare II in 2022. Rebirth Island recently made its grand return to Warzone, but its new incarnation saw mixed reception from fans.
Were you there to witness Verdansk’s destruction? Did you like the new map, or do you wish the original had stuck around? Let us know in the comments below!
