By most accounts, Call of Duty: Warzone ranks high in the echelon of major battle royale games, and Game Rant has even called it “top tier.” Alas, in the opinion of one major streamer, it is decidedly “the worst battle royale that exists today, hands down.”
This may come as a surprise for many, considering just how insanely popular Warzone has become in just under two months. That alone makes the game a contender with the likes of PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends, but not according to veteran Twitch gamer Jaryd “Summit1g” Lazar, who this week called out a major problem that he feels has been keeping the game from true greatness from the beginning: its map design. More specifically, the map’s abundance of rooftops, and how those rooftops have become a magnet for campers.
The gist of his argument is that Verdansk’s sheer number of tall buildings whose rooftops are only really accessible via helicopter has been encouraging camping, as it provides campers with high vantage points that let them pick at opponents from a comfortable distance, all while leaving players on the ground with few ways to counter them.
His point was perfectly illustrated while streaming yesterday, during which he was driving around when an unseen rooftop enemy started firing on him, “Guy on top of a roof, who’d have thought?” he said sarcastically as he drove away. This gave way to an epic rant where he vented his annoyance at Infinity Ward for its design choices, all while other rooftop campers took shots at him as he passed. “Why do you guys have a game with just building-tops everywhere, that you can just sit on top of. Nobody thought of that? Nobody thought like ‘hey this is probably gonna be more campy than PUBG?’” This led Summit1g to dismiss the game as a “camping simulator."
This isn’t exactly a new complaint. With all of the potential camping spots Verdansk has to offer, it’s fairly common for players to find themselves being sniped at from on high, to the frustration of many. Not only are campers difficult to counter, they also tend to mess with Call of Duty: Warzone’s fast-paced gameplay flow, where players are encouraged to be constantly moving as the circle shrinks and the battlefield changes unpredictably, not bunkering down in a hard-to-reach spot.
It’s possible that fixing this problem could be as simple as giving players grappling hooks, or adjusting the map to make more rooftops accessible on foot. Additionally, rumor has it that Infinity Ward may add a new map to the game as soon as next season, so if nothing else, players may soon be able to get away from rooftop campers by migrating to a new battlefield.
Call of Duty: Warzone is free-to-play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.