Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is still going strong even after the launch of last year's Call of Duty: Vanguard and the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II coming in late 2022. It's long since been rumored the game would see new content during its second year out on the market, and many different remastered classic maps were teased as possible new content. Now, the first new remastered map is out Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In this article, we'll explain Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's new remastered map WMD as well as give you year two content updates in general.
Black Ops Cold War's New Remastered Map WMD
WMD is the latest map to make it to Black Ops Cold War, and it's another remaster. Like Zoo, WMD is from the original Black Ops that came out way back when in 2010. It was originally supposed to come out earlier in March, but Treyarch delayed its release. There hasn't been an official reason given for the delay, but some online suspect it's to tweak some of the art on the map in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
This is rather large, snowy with lots of places for snipers alongside space for close-quarters combat near the middle of the map. Considering the game's other snowy maps like Crossroads Strike or Yamantau are both pretty small, it makes sense a new map with a similar locale would have a different feel to it.
Related: Free-to-Play Call of Duty 2023 Explained (No, Call of Duty Isn't Skipping a Year)
This is likely part of the reason why WMD was chosen over more popular snowy Black Ops maps like Summit or more popular Black Ops maps in general like Firing Range. However, the smaller the map the more the Call of Duty fanbase tends to love it, so there's probably little reason to be concerned about overloading Cold War with smaller maps.
WMD slots into the Cold War map ensemble pretty neatly, but the game's problem with sniper balance isn't made any better with another map filled with excellent sniper spots. Snipers in Cold War are a bit of a hot topic in the game's current meta.
While snipers are a bit slower and tougher to handle than snipers in Call of Duty are traditionally, they're extraordinarily powerful in Cold War. If you know how to snipe in Cold War, you can almost effortlessly outgun SMGs, shotguns, ARs, anything, even in close-quarters. Whether you like snipers being powerful or would rather they get nerfed, their overuse can be frustrating.
Related: Will Microsoft Make Call of Duty a Free To Play Exclusive?
The above may be true, but WMD is a decently large map with a good variety of cover and structures, so flanking around your enemies is certainly viable. With multiple routes through the map, it's sure to be at least another map in the Cold War queue players don't feel obligated to skip.
Black Ops Cold War Year 2 Content
Earlier in March, a new assault rifle, the Vargo 52, was added to Cold War as the first major new piece of content to get added to the game in its second year, which you can also use in Warzone, but more is to come, though official details are pretty slim at the moment.
More remastered maps are rumored to make their way to Cold War, but it's not yet clear what those will be. Many maps from Black Ops 2 have made their way into Cold War, but fewer maps from the original Black Ops have, which makes a little less sense when you remember that Cold War is rebooting the Black Ops franchise.
Related: Call of Duty Will Be an Xbox Exclusive
Accordingly, many are anticipating more Black Ops remasters. Particularly either Launch, Summit, or Jungle. Launch and Summit are particularly iconic Black Ops maps (Summit being used a bunch in the game's marketing in the lead up to release), and Jungle is another fan favorite that looks like it would be a good fit for Cold War.
Apocalypse, an original jungle map in Cold War, is generally well-liked by the community, so another jungle map would almost certainly be well-received. Plus, Jungle is a good-sized map, and Treyarch continues to be reluctant to introduce particularly small traditional 6v6 maps in Cold War recently.
However, some also speculate that more semi-futuristic maps a la Black Ops 2 will come to Cold War as Treyarch's next Call of Duty game, which has been delayed from 2023 into 2024, will be another boots-on-the-ground semi-futuristic game like Black Ops 2. Maps like these could serve to slowly build interest in the setting for fans of Treyarch Call of Duty.
Related: How Microsoft Can Fix Call of Duty and Why It Might Happen
Treyarch is also reportedly working on the new free-to-play Call of Duty experience coming out in 2023 instead of a traditional mainline Call of Duty game, so this work could also influence what maps they choose to bring back to Cold War. Maybe some of the more iconic Call of Duty maps left to be remastered are being saved for this 2023 release.
On top of more maps, it's also likely we'll see a few new weapons added over the course of the year. Most recently it was a new assault rifle. It's not unreasonable to expect we'll see a new SMG, and a new sniper as well. Some new version of each of the main weapon classes to try out.
Treyarch's been pretty tight-lipped about exactly what's coming, so make sure to keep an eye out for Cold War news as the year goes on.
Related: Is Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies Good?
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!