Call of Duty needs to remaster its most underrated Modern Warfare and Black Ops maps

Each year, it feels as though there are progressively more map remasters in Call of Duty. While much of the time they are welcome additions to the map pool, the developers must start bringing back some of the best forgotten maps the franchise has.

Every year, it’s unavoidable that we see maps like Rust and Shipment in the map pool, but the likes of Dome, Firing Range, and Nuketown have also been mainstays for well over a decade now.

Not only that, but Modern Warfare 3 (the 2023 version) launched with all 16 classic MW2 maps, an unprecedented move that has never yet happened in COD — but could become a blueprint for future titles, according to latest reports, with leaks hinting at Black Ops 2 remastered maps in 2025.

While they’re all popular maps, especially with remasters like Dome often being recreations rather than 1:1 remasters, the comfort of familiarity doesn’t always result in the most enjoyable experience and can grow stale a tad quicker than with good original maps.

For that reason, all the major Call of Duty developers need to start digging a bit deeper into their history books to find maps that haven’t received the love they deserved with remasters.

The original Modern Warfare 3 had some maps that players rave about to this day, but that haven’t been remastered at all. The likes of Arkaden, Lockdown, Village, Underground, Seatown, Resistance… the list is incredibly long, and they haven’t been given the chance to shine in any modern Call of Duty title.

Even looking forward to the forthcoming 2024 entry, reported to be called Black Ops Gulf War, there are a number of maps from throughout the Black Ops series that could easily be translated into a modern-day COD and be loved.

While Firing Range and Nuketown are iconic, so why can’t we try maps like Havana, Hanoi, Carrier, Plaza, and more?

Better yet, could they be creative and recreate the most popular Black Ops 3 maps for a boots-on-the-ground title? Fringe, Evac, and Breach could be a lot of fun with slight restructuring here and there.

It would be a lie to say that maps like Rust and Shipment aren’t among the most popular in the game, but for both longtime fans of the franchise and newcomers alike, bringing back some of these forgotten maps could prove to be perfect in keeping things fresh going forward.

For newer players, the maps will feel new too: they may not have the memories of traversing the London-based Underground map, or the cross-mall snipes on Arkaden, but the experiences will be the same and could even quickly become fan favorites, just like they were all those years ago.

On the flip side, these are perfect nostalgia plays for those who play every year and want to relive some of their younger days on maps they’ve not seen for years.

While it seems obvious to some players, each dev — Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games — has to start looking more into their history books to bring back maps that players have forgotten how much they loved. There are so many to choose from that it shouldn’t be difficult, and with yearly releases, they could easily be fed in over time.