I’m not crying, you’re crying – Call of Duty Warzone is finally bringing back fan-favorite map Rebirth Island for Warzone Season 3 on April 3, and I for one can’t wait. For nostalgic fans on PS5 and Xbox, Rebirth’s return should bring back the feeling of the good ol’ days of the first iteration of Warzone. However, the map’s new trailer shows some major changes from the original version, including the destruction of its biggest (and sweatiest) POI, Prison.
Call of Duty Warzone currently has two great small maps – Ashika Island and the reimagined Fortune’s Keep both do a good job at entertaining fans of close-quarters battles and the Resurgence game mode. However, nothing has ever hit quite like Rebirth Island. It was the battle royale game’s first small-scale map, and fans have been waiting for its return for a long while. Well, the wait is almost over.
When Season 3 kicks off in one of the best FPS games, the doors to Rebirth Island will be flung back open. While the map seems largely similar to the old version, there are two very big differences you need to be aware of.
First, new underwater swimming sections have been added. Until we get a full tac map or breakdown blog from Activision, we won’t know exactly where these underwater sections lead to or how many there are, but footage from the trailer clearly shows operators taking a dip. Swimming and water combat were some of the main additions to the second iteration of Warzone that launched in 2022 alongside Modern Warfare 2, so I’m not surprised it’s made its way into Rebirth.
The second is that there seems to be some kind of major destruction event on the map that completely changes two prime hot spots. Footage in the trailer shows an air strike being called in on the lighthouse tower – a popular location for snipers – which brings it tumbling down. There are also shots of the main central POI, Prison, with a massive hole blown into the roof. Prison was always a favorite destination for hot droppers, and some of the sweatiest battles in Warzone history have occurred both on the roof and within its interior. To see this POI getting a massive shake up is very interesting indeed.
It appears that the damage caused to the lighthouse and Prison will occur mid-game, as there are a lot of shots during the trailer that show both locations intact. It’s currently unclear if it’ll automatically happen at a certain point every match, if a player calling in an air strike killstreak will cause the damage, or if it requires some kind of new easter egg to trigger. Over the years we’ve seen some awesome easter eggs in the multiplayer game, so I’m quietly hoping it’s the latter.
Aside from this leaked anniversary weapon skin, we’re yet to hear much more about what Warzone Season 3 has in store, but Rebirth’s return will be a big step towards this hopefully being its best season of the MW3 era so far. I’ve also got my fingers crossed that it’s not too long until the true OG map of Warzone, Verdansk, joins Rebirth in making a triumphant return.
For more news on other free shooting games, a top dev has pushed back on claims that XDefiant’s latest setback was due to it trying to copy features from Call of Duty, and Fortnite’s first-person mode has finally been revealed.