Highlights
- Modern Warfare 3’s new update to Warzone has an unskippable intro cinematic, with players complaining about the visuals.
- The new cinematic is less smooth compared to the previous intro, frustrating Warzone players.
- Players find it strange that a character without authority over Task 141 is giving orders to respected characters like Captain Price and Ghost if players are wearing those skins.
Modern Warfare 3‘s iteration of Call of Duty: Warzone has just launched, and its new unskippable intro cinematic is the source of complaints from the community. The new season marks the debut of the Urzikstan map along with its new Gulag in Call of Duty: Warzone. Urzikstan had previously launched with Modern Warfare 3 in November as the playground for the game’s popular MWZ co-op mode, but will now also be available in Warzone next to Vondel and Ashika Island.
Over the years since 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot, Warzone has become a permanent fixture as part of the annual Call of Duty product. A year ago, Warzone 2.0 launched alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, bringing with it new Warzone Battle Royale maps and a wide variety of quality-of-life updates. Part of this update was an all-new pre-match cinematic, showing the squad readying up together in the drop plane before deploying onto the battlefield. It was brief, simple, and didn’t feature any dialogue, allowing squadmates to chat through it uninterrupted.
Call of Duty: Warzone Highlights Season 1 Content and New Urzikstan Map
Activision showcases upcoming Call of Duty: Warzone content, including the new Urzikstan map that’s about to replace Al Mazrah.
Modern Warfare 3‘s new update to Call of Duty: Warzone replaced Warzone 2.0‘s pre-match cutscene with a new one, and it’s causing headaches across the community. Instead of starting on the drop plane, this new cinematic begins on the ground at a military base where the prominent Modern Warfare 2 and 3 character, Philip Graves, quickly briefs the squad before players watch the drop plane take off. The main criticism of the cutscene, highlighted by TheDeadlyAvenger’s Reddit post, deals with its poor visuals. Modern Warfare 3′s campaign contains some breathtaking cinematics, but players are harshly equating this new Warzone cutscene to something out of Call of Duty: Mobile.
Another reason for players’ discontent towards the cinematic is that it feels too long compared to the Warzone 2.0 intro. This new cinematic is just a second or two longer than its predecessor, yet it doesn’t flow nearly as smoothly. Firstly, the new scene begins on the ground, then cuts to the takeoff sequence before the plane is finally shown in the air. Comparatively, Warzone 2.0‘s entire intro took place in a single location: the plane’s cargo bay. Add to that Graves spouting the same generic military speak to players every time before they drop, and it’s easy to see why many Warzone players are frustrated.
Furthermore, it’s strange to see Graves giving orders to player skins like Captain Price and Ghost, considering he doesn’t hold any authority over Task 141 in the Modern Warfare storyline, especially with the bad blood between them. Unfortunately, since this new unskippable Warzone intro acts as a loading screen, players will need to put up with it for the time being. Perhaps Warzone will replace it with a new one that looks and flows better in a future season of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Call of Duty: Warzone
Warzone is a free-to-play battle royale game in the long-running Call of Duty series. The game has seen over 100 million active players and features several different gameplay modes.
- Released
- March 10, 2020
- Metascore
- 79
