What’s the most fun thing about Warzone? Is it the battle royale gameplay? Or is it the choice you have with building a loadout and playing with your friends? We’re over a year into the experiment and Warzone is a rousing success. Now we’re getting a similar event to the Haunting of Verdansk event from last October. This time around it’s all about the 80’s action stars, namely, John Rambo and John McClane. Coming from Rambo/First Blood and Die Hard, these two heroes are the signature operators of this midseason event for Season Three.

Their arrival brings new locales in Verdansk as well. From Die Hard we’re getting Nakatomi Plaza. Rambo: First Blood Part II brings up survivor camps that give out rewards when you visit them. This is likely just the beginning based off reaction from this announcement. What exactly does this mean for Warzone going forward though?

New Locations Every Season, Means More Variety

Now, these might be small changes to the overall map. You have these new camps to fight over and Nakatomi Plaza to visit. But this means that they can add new locations to freshen up the map. The reaction to Verdansk ’84 has been pretty positive. Outside of the usual problems with people camping tall buildings with snipers, we have a pretty well regarded map. If they keep adding things like this to the map, it can only make the game that much better.

The sky is the limit for 80’s action venues, and if they don’t shackle themselves to keeping the map the same, you can make some really interesting design choices.

This Is Likely The Best Midseason Event In Warzone’s Short History

If you wanted to keep people’s attention in Warzone, this was the way to do it. If the 80’s action stars aren’t your thing, we’re getting a couple new set pieces. There’s going to be something for every type of Warzone player. Call of Duty needs to captivate it’s audience constantly. There are plenty of other games out there, and there’s huge competition on the horizon. Halo: Infinite and Battlefield 6 are both going to challenge the playerbase for attention. If they include battle royale modes, then that’s even more people who can be siphoned off.

This could be the start of a tonal shift for the franchise that it so desperately needs. Think about it, how many “completely serious” shooter games are there out in the market? There’s a million. Call of Duty can carve out a spot with less serious affair and really grab people’s attention. What do I mean by this? Take a look at how the Midseason event was presented. You can check out the trailer here.

Modern Warfare was presented in that uber serious manner, sure, that’s the most successful game in the franchise, but Treyarch’s bread and butter is with the more arcade style. If you remember back to Infinite Warfare, while that game might have it’s warts, the gameplay of that title is not the pinnacle of realism. That’s what made it fun.

Call Of Duty Isn’t Supposed To Be Overly Serious

You can look at the gameplay of every successful Call of Duty game, and what does it mean? They’re all based on arcade-ish gameplay and especially the Treyarch games, they have lots of color. If everything is a shade of grey, green, and brown, the games all look the same. When you add flair and color to the games, they pop out way more in a line. Obviously the Call of Duty brand is going to be a money maker no matter what, but there’s a point where it just becomes too much of the same.

We’re at a crossroads, with Sledgehammer Games working on what’s rumored to be a WWII game, and the next Infinity Ward title being Modern Warfare 2, we have to think about the future of the franchise. You can keep going down the same path, or you can veer into the vibrant and new.

The choice is yours Activision.

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