CoD Vanguard & Warzone players slam “desperate” Season 1 Battle Pass
ActivisionSeason 1 of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone has finally dropped, bringing with it a whole new Battle Pass full of weapon blueprints and XP tokens. However, some of the cosmetics that make up the battle pass have sparked an angry reaction from CoD fans, with some calling it a “desperate” cash grab.
Ever since Fortnite popularised the Battle Pass format in gaming, many other big-name titles have jumped on board. The feature is now a common feature across the video game landscape, showing up in paid and free-to-play games alike.
Call of Duty is one of those games. Activision have adopted the model in their last few mainline CoD installments, as well as in Warzone. So, when Vanguard launched in November, players were eager to see the lineup of unlockables they would be grinding for.
However, now that Season 1 is live and the Battle Pass is on sale, many of the unlocks have proved to be disappointing. The community has responded by labeling the Battle Pass as “junk” and accusing Activision of ‘squeezing money’ out of CoD fans.
ActivisionAs seems to be the case with any Battle Pass, major unlocks like Operator skins and weapons are spread between levels of smaller unlocks. This is very much the case in Vanguard and Warzone Season 1, and with items like the Sawtooth Melee Weapon few and far between.
Many of the tiers reward players with sprays and charms, items that are far less desirable than a new weapon blueprint. There are also new killcam cosmetics, which personalize the clip shown when a player is killed.
The latter, in particular, has come under fire, with one Reddit user calling it “one of the worst ideas for a cosmetic I’ve ever seen.” “They are so desperate to find new things to charge money for it’s laughable,” replied another player.
The general consensus was that these less useful cosmetics are being used to pad out the Battle Pass and make it appear like there is more content. “As if it wasn’t enough getting useless stickers and spray paints in $24 bundles, now they can throw this junk in as well and claim you’re getting value,” argued another fan.
The community bemoaned the fact that they now have to grind through tiers of “useless” content to get to the unlocks that are worthwhile. Redditors called for Sledgehammer to release skins on the store so they could be purchased separately.
Others bemoaned that devs didn’t use the Battle Pass to fix the ongoing problem where enemies and teammates look alike. “I’d pay money if they’d just let me make the enemy team be generic Axis soldiers. I don’t even need to play as them, I just hate both sides looking the same.”
Battle Passes have been a contentious issue ever since they became widely used – especially in games that aren’t free-to-play, where they come at an additional cost to the player.
Activision has had great success using the feature in past CoDs, but Vanguard Season 1 is off to a shaky start. Fans will be hoping for a revamp of the tiers in Season 2 and beyond.
For more reaction on Warzone and Vanguard Season 1, be sure to check our coverage of Warzone Pacific:
Dr Disrespect has huge problems with Warzone Pacific | Players questioning the size of Caldera | Aydan hates Caldera so much he might quit | Players amazed by mastery skins
