If you’re a Call of Duty veteran with fond memories of 2009’s Modern Warfare 2, the Classic Ghost Pack that’s now available in the more-recent Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 is a fantastic cosmetics bundle. However, as popular as these Ghost operator skins are, the bundle itself is proving problematic. Why? Well, Infinity Ward has continued to build upon it’s pay-to-win offerings with more content designed to give players an advantage in DMZ. We’re not talking about a particularly hard-to-spot skin, either. This is something that offers you a real advantage in-game; no one’s happy about that.
If you’re wondering why people are annoyed at this, you only have to look at what actually comes in the Classic Ghost Pack for MW2 and Warzone 2. Whether you’re looking at your own in-game store page right now, or checking out the contents of the 2,400 COD Points bundle on this Modern Warfare 2 item store database site here, you’ll be able to see that this bundle comes with two operator skins, two weapon blueprints, an emblem, a sticker, a loading screen, and a weapon charm.
However, it also comes with an additional Active Duty slot for DMZ – something that players who jump into this extraction mode a lot will benefit greatly from – and both the operator skins and the weapon blueprints come with unique DMZ benefits attached.
Specifically, both the Classic Ghost and Hood Up Classic Ghost operator skins come with 2-Plate Armor in DMZ by default. In addition to this, both the Loose Ends ISO Hemlock blueprint and the Fond Memories EBR-14 blueprint will only have a 15-minute cooldown if they’re in your insured weapon slot.
This might not sound like a lot, but it’s still a paid in-game bundle that offers DMZ players an advantage. We know Warzone 2 kicked off it’s DMZ pay-to-win monetization with the Bomb Squad bundle, but fans feel exploited even more given the fact that this pay-to-win content is attached to a bundle rich with nostalgia.
If you’re looking for examples, just check out the comments on this post from CharlieIntel or this post from TaskForceNews online. Call of Duty content creator Cameron ‘Westie’ West is one content creator who’s joined the calls to remove this content from Warzone 2, stating that “we now have an unfair playing field” as a result of the bundles.
Pay-to-win bundles that guarantee loot items in an extraction shooter, like DMZ, feel as though they’re in complete antithesis of what the mode is about. However, we can’t imagine Infinity Ward is going to remove these items anytime soon. It’s a shame to see something like this introduced to a game that has the potential to be one of the best competitive FPS games available.
If that isn’t sad enough, when you think about how Warzone 2’s mysterious Blackcell was just more cosmetics, it’s safe to say that this is most-likely going to continue to worsen. At least Warzone 2 DMZ is getting the extraction shooter formula right, up until a point.