Season 3 of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II has landed with a feast of content and lots of in-season drops coming along the way. After a significantly shorter duration of time for season 2 in comparison to the first, players are always eager to see what the next couple of months brings. The hardcore community has been rather vocal with their feelings surrounding Warzone 2.0 and even streamers have been hanging their controller up and ditching the game for the short term. Whilst the game is far from perfect, something keeps me going back even after 500 hours with this installment. Let’s see what’s new and what is to come over the next 60+ days.

Battle Pass & Blackcell “Premium” BP

It wouldn’t be a new season without another 100-tier battle pass system. Weighing in at the usual 1100 COD points, we see a spread of the usual cosmetics, operators, weapon skins, and XP tokens. As always we know that purchasing this stuff is a choice and luckily you can always accumulate enough points to keep getting the battle pass free from one initial payment if you never spend your points and unlock everything.

This time around we have a new “Premium” layer to the battle pass that doesn’t sit well with me as it is almost predatory in trying to convince players to spend even more money. With the promise of around 7000 COD points worth of content, there is a fair bit of extra gear for your £25-£30 extra. Upon closer inspection though, it is just an extra skin for each of the operator outfits you unlock during the season. So if you want a splash of black and gold on everything then it may be worth the cost to you. For me, it’s a no.

Automatic Redemption

In previous seasons you would get a battle pass token with every level you unlocked to choose your path and cherry-pick what you want to unlock. You can still have this option, the developers, however, have added a new function to allow the battle pass to progress naturally on its own. A minor change, but always nice to have the choice regardless. My only gripe would be how the battle pass screen is displayed, it literally looks like something that has been knocked out in ten minutes on Microsoft Paint, and the presentation is ugly.

Trophy Hunt

At the time of writing this mode isn’t live but begins on Friday 14th April 2o23 as a limited-time event. Players across the game will drop trophies when they are eliminated and they can also be collected when looting. During the multiplayer portion of the game, these are simply collected throughout the match and will be banked at the end of play.

In Warzone to bank trophies, you must use an upload station or win the game with the trophies in your possession. DMZ follows a similar premise, use the upload station or successfully extract with them. Trophies that have been banked will be able to be cashed in at a special event screen for weapon blueprints, vehicle skins, and battle pass tier skips. There are also some operator skins on offer for those who are willing to grind through this event.

Progression

Prestige 10,11, 12, and 13 feature here taking the leveling junkies from level 450 to 650 during the season. 200 levels on offer with those who didn’t max out rolling back to the beginning of the prestige they were on at the end of season two.

New Weaponry 

As always we see a couple of new weapons as part of the battle pass system, these can be unlocked as free tiers if you don’t want to buy in.

FJX Imperium Sniper Rifle

• Engineered destruction at its finest, this anti-personnel, bolt-action Sniper Rifle intervenes in tense situations with hard-hitting .408 rounds.

Cronen Squall Battle Rifle

• A bullpup, semi-automatic rifle chambered in 6.8 Wrath and designed for distance shooting and exceptional damage output.

Gunfight Returns

The popular mode from MW2019 Gunfight returns with four maps in Season 03 with more on the way. For those who adored the intensity of round based 2v2 combat, you’ll be right at home with this. Featuring as a playlist within the multiplayer menus, this is available right now.

Cranked 

Cranked is now available as a multiplayer mode that serves as a team deathmatch with a twist. Gain a kill and then a timer will tick down and if you don’t slay another enemy before the timer reaches zero, then you die. Can you keep the streak going?

New Map – Pelayo’s Lighthouse

At last, a brand new multiplayer map that isn’t something we have played in past years. I will drop a synopsis of this map below as extracted from the COD blog post.

As rain pounds the cliffs of this small, craggy island, a lighthouse offers guidance to passing ships in the night. Even so, nearby shipwrecks tell of the immense danger that comes with navigating the rocky seas.

Welcome to Pelayo’s Lighthouse, one of two new Multiplayer maps arriving with the launch of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II Season 03. Battle in the midst of a storm over uneven terrain and seek shelter in the Main Building at the center of the island. Watch the scattered maintenance buildings as you traverse the map; you never know who might be positioned within.

New Map – Black Gold

Grab your night vision goggles and thermal optics: We’re going dark for a nighttime raid at the Rohan Oil refinery. This is Black Gold, the first iteration of Multiplayer night operations in Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II, set to arrive with the Season 03 launch.

Based on the Rohan Oil section of Al Mazrah, this Core Map represents a critical strategic location for both KorTac and SpecGru. Needless to say, failure is not an option.

Other New Maps

Gunfight sees the introduction of Alley, Shipment, Blacksite, and Exhibit. Ground War and Invasion modes now have Rohan Oil and Sattiq Cave Complex as maps.

Massive Resurgence – Al Mazrah

Perhaps the biggest update for Warzone 2.o at the beginning of Season 03 is bringing the resurgence mode to Al Mazrah. Ashika Island gained huge popularity during the second season for its short yet intense battle royales with the ability to respawn. After playing a few matches with this, I can confirm that this has similar pacing with faster firefights and a circle that will close in on you in quick time.

Plunder Coming Later In Season

The popular mode from the original Warzone is coming back at some stage during Season 03. I’d expect to see Plunder return in a few weeks’ time. I am excited about it as it was always a good go-to mode for the casual player base with no frustration of your run ending.

Warzone Ranked Play

Also coming later on in the season is Warzone ranked play. Similar to ranked play on multiplayer but on the Warzone playlist, battle it out to climb those bronze, silver gold, and beyond rankings. For the elite, you can try for the top 250 in the world, but I’d hazard a guess that you’d need to have no life to make it on that leaderboard.

And Much More

DMZ is getting some more love with mechanical improvements, another faction, workbenches, and more. I have chosen not to sift through all that here since there is so much. You can find more information and the HUGE list of patch notes HERE. Other features I haven’t mentioned are the third raid episode, a new co-op mission, more cosmetic bundles on the store, and an upcoming camo event. This season is packed full of goodness and will lead into an exciting Season 04 for sure!