Infinity Ward and Raven Software just released a huge mid-season update for Warzone. The Halloween-themed event, The Haunting, brings a massive change to Al Mazrah, the main map for Warzone and DMZ.
The Haunting dropped yesterday and introduced a handful of new creepy activities, new bosses, skins, and rewards. The event is available in multiplayer, Battle Royale, and DMZ game modes. The Haunting event has been well received by its community, with players praising the amount of content added during the update. Many players see the new update as the biggest one so far in the six seasons of Modern Warfare 2, especially with the changes to Warzone and DMZ. Many see the new content as a preview to Zombies for Modern Warfare 3.
The Haunting adds a nighttime map of Al Mazrah to Warzone and DMZ, completely altering the landscape and the gameplay experience. The update doesn’t just change the time of day but adds a lot of creepy design details including blood splatter, corpses, and sound effects. The nighttime experience adds to the thrill of gunfights as it makes it harder to see enemies creeping up while gunfire and lasers give away a player’s position.
Continuing with the Halloween theme, The Haunting adds new bosses that players have to eliminate to get the event rewards. The Pharaoh, which can be found in the ruins near Oasis, is an undead mummy protected by zombies wielding fire shotguns. There is also a UFO floating around the southern portion of the map that players have to shoot down.
The Ghost Train roams around the Al Mazrah map and is filled with traps and jump scares. There are also Swamp Creatures that can be found in Mawizeh Marsh which can be summoned by offering the right item. There are also evil spirits found on the map that players can shoot down.
At the center of Al Mazrah city is a platform with altars of Lilith. Players have to perform a ritual to open a portal to another area where they can fight The Butcher. Successfully taking down the massive boss will reward players with unique items in Diablo 4. Operators have to be wary though, other players can jump into the portal when it is open to steal the kill.
While a majority of the new content has been appreciated by fans, one thing that gamers dislike about the new update is the added jumpscare when opening loot boxes. All lootable boxes have a chance to trigger a jumpscare which gets old pretty quickly and can be very annoying. Players have said that it makes DMZ unplayable as it makes looting pretty tedious.
One other thing that players complain about a lot is the “boss location campers” that take down teams looking to complete the Halloween content. However, others argue that camping spots have been part of the Warzone and DMZ experience from the beginning. Players simply have to be more mindful of their surroundings during the nighttime or pop a UAV to check if there is an ambush waiting to happen.
Next week, players can expect the nighttime map to come to Vondel, now called Vondead due to the influx of zombies in the area. The Butcher will also be in Vondel for operators to defeat. There are also activities for players to complete on the Vondead map.
Battling in the nighttime map is fun and refreshing for longtime players. We especially like the difficulty of spotting and tracking operators during nighttime incursions, leading to some exciting gunfights. It would be really cool if Infinity Ward would continue to add more nighttime maps to Warzone and DMZ in the future.
