Call of Duty: Warzoneis in a frustrating position right now. The mix of dramatic balance shifts and technical issues introduced with the launch of theCall of Duty: Warzone Pacificupdate have led to a lot of frustrated players. But it’s the rise of newCall of Duty: Warzonehacks and an increase in hacker numbers that has proven most controversial. That’s in no small part due to Activision’s introduction of its Ricochet anti-cheat, a system players are now telling Activision needs to be dramatically improved.
The Ricochet anti-cheat systemlaunched forCall of Duty: Warzonein early December. It introduced a kernel-level driver for those that playCall of Duty: Warzoneintended to ensure that anything alteringCall of Duty: Warzone’s gameplay while the game was running would lead to a quick ban. Yet while the effectiveness of Ricochet is difficult to evaluate,Call of Duty: Warzoneplayers are claiming that hacking appears to have only increased since Ricochet’s introduction.
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Social media, including Twitter andWarzone’s Reddit communities, see many posts nearly every day taking issue with cheating in the game. Both ofWarzone’s maps, Caldera and Rebirth, are now being impacted by cheaters. That includes typical styles of chest including wallhacks and aimbots, as well as newer “rage” hackers that instantly kill any enemy that come into the hackers' vision. The most egregious hack, however, seeshackers in flying vehiclesmanipulating the game’s physics to create a field of damage in front of them.
With frustration over the amount and outrageousness ofWarzone’s hacks, anger is also brewing paranoia. ManyCall of Duty: Warzoneplayers are beginning to question whether theRicochet anti-cheatis doing anything.
The frustration and paranoia are leading to a widespread wave of anti-Ricochet sentiment. Most of it comes in the form of memes, withWarzoneplayersmocking Ricochet’s effectiveness in response to clips of hackers. But there are some asking Activision to pull it all together. There’s a growing breakdown in trust.
The truth of the situation is difficult to ascertain. It’s possible that Ricochet is genuinely working well and that cheaters of all kinds are being quickly punished.Call of Duty: Warzoneplayers may just never see the punishment happening; they only see thehacking. Even in that case, there are issues, however, as cheaters are still able to get new copies of the game fast enough that it feels like they never left. At this point, it’s safe to assume thatCall of Duty: Warzoneneeds improvements in all of these areas. Whether that will happen is unclear.
Call of Duty: Warzoneis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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