It's only taken 15 months, but Call of Duty: Warzone's Rebirth Island has finally received its first solo playlist. Oh, and it's freaking awesome too. Rebirth Resurgence Solos arrives as part of Warzone Pacific Season 2 Reloaded, a stim shot to the arm of the game's most criminally underdeveloped map and mode. If you haven't been following the news, this new Warzone update is a generous care package to those who swore off the calculated carnage of battle royale on Caldera for the more fast-paced and frantic action offered to the visitors of Rebirth Island.
Going in, I was worried that Resurgence wouldn't work in a solo setting. The game mode has traditionally tried to blur the lines between the more restrictive rule set of battle royale with the open-play of Team Deathmatch, with players respawning back into battle so long as somebody on their team is still alive – eventually the respawn timer switches off and then it transitions into a fight to the last. Whether it's quads, trios, or duos, the mode has been one of my favorite ways to experience Warzone following its introduction in December 2020.
My concern was that Resurgence wouldn't function in solos without the underlying stress that's generated within team-oriented play. The need to stay alive for just a few more seconds to get your squad back on the battlefield, or those frantic firefights as multiple teams converge over hotly contested territories and loadouts. As it turns out, the multiple development studios responsible for keeping Warzone alive and updated have thought carefully about the spirit of Resurgence and adapted it brilliantly for solo players in search of a new challenge.
Rebirth Resurgence reborn
Operators drop onto the overhauled Rebirth Island with their 'Rebirth meter' already activated, a Self-Revive, and a random starter pistol; from there, it's a scramble for ground loot and survival. You'll burn through that free life soon enough, as even with just 40-or-so other players occupying the map you can't avoid combat encounters for long. Much like regular Resurgence, getting kills, completing contracts, and staying alive will all contribute to the recharge of your respawn timer.
This presents an interesting dynamic. While I felt compelled to wait out the 14-or-so seconds for the respawn timer to complete, ensuring me another life should I get slapped about by rivals who are up to date on the meta (I've been outta the game for a little while, and I'm still walking away from a loadout drop with a Grau 5.56 and Mac-10 – how last season of me), I quickly understood the value in engaging targets ruthlessly. You'll never know whether a player you spot is still on the clock, if you catch my drift, where one well-placed barrage of bullets could send them hurtling back to the menu screen – or whether you should hunker down and prepare for a rematch with an operator now respawning with a vengeance.
There's this push and pull between self-preservation, a compulsion to ruin somebody else's game, and the drive to retain a positive K/D that makes Rebirth Resurgence Solos come to life. Speaking of kill to death ratios, balancing this feels especially tricky when I don't have a squad of decoys— erm, I meant to say, friends… friends of many years who will happily take a couple of bullets on my behalf if it means I can line-up a couple of heads with the iron sights of my Kar98k. Rebirth Resurgence Solos strips away the posturing and puts a renewed emphasis on positioning and accuracy.
I will say this, I may need to rethink the compositions of my loadouts for Rebirth Resurgence Solos. I was surprised to discover just how much larger Rebirth Island felt when every one of its occupants were stalking its streets on their own. Even familiar haunts – locations like the Nova 6 Factory, Decon Zone, Living Quarters, and Harbor, which I've spent hundreds of hours peppering with bullets – suddenly feel more open and unpredictable, while the new lines of sight afforded by the new supply ships docked on the eastern and western flanks have completely reoriented my strategies. Rebirth Island is more competitive in its current composition, an element I'm keen to wrap my head (and loadouts) around in the weeks ahead.
Because of the size and structure of the map, and the rules governing the mode, it can often feel like you're being seamlessly threaded between multiple rounds of Call of Duty's Deathmatch. Albeit one where the environments are shifting around you in real-time as you move between points-of-interest, and where the stakes are raised considerably because of the limited respawns available.
The rounds of Rebirth Resurgence Solos I have played so far have been thrilling, particularly once that Rebirth timer deactivates and the circle starts collapsing, setting up a chaotic free-for-all showdown between any players who have been skillful enough to endure the storm of fast-paced combat encounters. I hope Rebirth Resurgence Solos sticks around, because it might just be my new Warzone obsession.
While you're waiting to jump back into Warzone, why not see how the game ranks on our list of the best Call of Duty games.
