Summary
Slated for a November 10 release date,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3is this year’s entry in the long-running FPS franchise, and it’s set to break quite a few series traditions. Along with a more open-ended single-player campaign, and the ability to transfer all weapons and attachments from the previous entry,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3is shaking things up by having no original 6v6 maps of its own on launch. Instead, it is choosing to bring overall 16 2009Modern Warfare 2maps, remade from the ground up.
This means thatCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3will feature some of the greatest maps in franchise history right out of the gate, including iconic and beloved arenas like Rust, Terminal, Highrise, Estate, and Afghan. But this also means that a few ofModern Warfare 2’s lesser-known maps will also be heading to the game, along with those that have stayed memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.Call of Duty’s Wasteland map, however, sits in a category all its own, being one of the strangest maps ever put in aCall of Dutygame.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is About to Bring Back the Odd Wasteland Map
Technically a remake ofCall of Duty1and2’s Brecourt map,Modern Warfare 2’s Wasteland is never usually brought up when players discuss the best classicCoDmaps, but it’s also still stayed memorable all these years later, and that’s due to a unique design which leads to a certain type of gameplay that isn’t often seen inCall of Dutymultiplayeranymore.
From a purely visual design standpoint,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Wasteland map is practically perfect. Set on the radioactive fields of Chornobyl, Wasteland pays homage toCall of Duty 4’s “All Ghillied Up” mission, which is widely considered to be the greatest mission inCall of Dutycampaign history. Though its colors look a little washed-out now, Wasteland’s brown and gray color palette, mixed with the yellow skybox, perfectly suitedModern Warfare 2’s art style. With a bit of tweaking, it should fit very well with theModern Warfarereboot series' aesthetic also.
But many fans don’t rememberModern Warfare 2’s Wasteland mapfor its visual design, but its intriguing layout, which specifically encourages a specific gameplay type. Wasteland is a fairly symmetrical map, featuring a set of trenches on each side, separated by a three-lane bunker in the middle of the map. These trenches, and the distance between them, naturally encourage sniping, and the darker environment embraces the game’s ghillie suit mechanic very well. This led to some incredibly intense sniper battles, the likes of which haven’t really been seen in aCall of Dutyentry since. And while Wasteland does feature a bunker in the middle of the map, players won’t be able to hide there forever, with it quickly becoming a no man’s land for both sides.
Over the last decade or so,mostCall of Dutymultiplayer mapshave strayed away from sniping gameplay. Though each entry still includes a bevy of sniper rifles, and most maps have at least one sniping spot, this spot can usually be ambushed in a variety of ways, making it nigh-on impossible to set up camp and provide long-range support. Looking back on it now,Modern Warfare 2’s Wasteland map seems like an anomaly, focusing almost entirely on a type of gameplay that just isn’t really seen nowadays. It’s going to be pretty wild seeing Wasteland in a modernCall of Dutygame, and while Sledgehammer could change its layout to encourage a wider variety of playstyles, it shouldn’t. Wasteland should remain its odd, nostalgic self.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3launches on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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