MW3 Season 3 continues to neglect Warzone Battle Royale in favor of small-map Resurgence mode

As with every new season of Call of Duty: Warzone, Season 3 is adding a ton of new content. Players can look forward to new weapons, the return of Rebirth Island, and much more. However, there’s one interesting part that’s been neglected for quite some time: standard Battle Royale. Players have started to complain, and it’s getting a little frustrating to see such a lack of love given to the BR game mode and Urzikstan map.

All new Season 3 Warzone content is for Resurgence

The developers finally gave us a glimpse into what’s coming with the big Season 3 content update on April 3. Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer players are ecstatic, as there’s plenty to love about the new content and changes. Additionally, those who primarily play Resurgence game modes in Warzone should be pleased too. However, the big-map game mode, Battle Royale, remains the same.

• Rebirth Island, a fan-favorite Resurgence map is making its return. Some changes to the map will keep it fresh while providing the same fast-paced gameplay players grew to love during previous iterations of the game.
• New modes and gameplay features include variants for Resurgence, and Rebirth Island specifically. The game mode will now have Biometric Scanners, Smart Displays, and Weapon Trade Stations around the map. There will also be variable conditions during different times of the day, a new Champion’s Quest, and ‘infil strikes.’ These strikes are meant to change the gameplay, as they can do things like knock over the lighthouse and crash it into prison, creating all new ways to fight and move around the Points of Interest (POIs).
• Warzone Ranked Play – Ranked play continues with Season 3, only now it’s moving from the Fortune’s Keep Resurgence map to Rebirth Island.

There are also a host of other changes and updates which are all almost entirely made for Resurgence game modes. Unfortunately, it looks like players like me who love the big-map Battle Royale on Urzikstan are forgotten.

Is anything new coming to Urzikstan?

In the long list of updates coming with Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 3, only a select few apply to Urzikstan. The first is a new game mode called Boot Camp, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a Warzone training ground for new players, where they can drop in and fight against bots in the regular Battle Royale game mode. In quads-only, 20 players and 24 bots will face off in a noob-friendly version of the Urzikstan game mode. Player, weapon, and battle pass XP is very limited in this game mode so experienced players can’t farm for fast leveling.

Next, Urzikstan and Vondel are both getting a new event added to their gulag system. Fighting to the death is no longer the only option, as both players can now agree to leave together. When two ladders drop from the roof, both players can climb out to safety, or lie to the other and kill them before they escape. A similar mechanic was present in the gulag of previous Warzone versions, which was removed and now added back.

Lastly, some bunkers have now opened on Urzikstan, as they did on Verdansk and Caldera in the past. What’s inside is unknown as of yet, but the devs warn of imminent threats lurking in the area. We’d wager there are valuable rewards inside, if you’re able to get past whatever is in the way. As with every BR map to date, Urzikstan needed its bunker to open, get loot, and hide in. Though it doesn’t provide anything new to gameplay or the map itself, it’s an easy way for the devs to get ‘new content’ into Urzikstan.

Warzone Battle Royale needs the Resurgence treatment

As you can see, there’s quite a bit more significant content coming to other game modes for Season 3. The standard Battle Royale players are undoubtedly feeling left out. The list of missing content available elsewhere continues growing with each passing season.

• Ranked mode is still only available in Resurgence. Without a big-map ranked mode in Season 3, it looks like we’re, at minimum, another few months away from ever seeing it again.
• One map is still the only option while playing Battle Royale game modes. Resurgence players now have another map, Rebirth Island, to enjoy alongside Vondel, Fortune’s Keep, and Ashika Island. Urzikstan isn’t bad, but would anyone complain about a rotation of it with Verdansk and Caldera? Or maybe even a brand new map?
• A lack of POI changes or the new infil strikes happening on Rebirth Island. Although bunker access is always a fun Easter egg to discover with some cool rewards, it doesn’t change the way the map plays. Urzikstan has gone mostly unchanged for a long time. It needs new or heavily altered POIs, which seemingly could happen the same way it is on Rebirth Island based on time of day and other factors. Though that would obviously be on a much larger scale.
• No new or exciting equipment, like a frequently suggested Blackout grapple gun or another innovative, game-changing item. Even when things come out, it’s often recycled, like the portable buy stations from Caldera.

Some big name streamers have even taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the lack of changes or ranked mode in big-map Battle Royale. One even said it seems like the devs are “going all-in on Resurgence,” which is certainly a difficult point to argue. Has Call of Duty truly forgotten about standard Battle Royale? Or is something huge in the works that we’re not allowed to know about yet? We hope it’s the latter, but we’ll have to wait until at least Season 4 before anything exciting in Warzone can come to fruition.