Warzone's New Anti-Cheat Is Literally A Game-Changer

The "Call of Duty" franchise's record has been less than stellar when it comes to cheating over the last few years. "Call of Duty: Vanguard" had issues with cheaters ruining the game before it even came out, but "Warzone" has had more issues than most. The game has had a hacker problem that it just hasn't been able to shake, with issues involving everything from in-game cheats and exploitation to bitcoin ransomed account fraud and hackers deliberately spreading viruses to other players. Hackers have even gone as far as forcing some of the biggest "Warzone" players to cheat by boosting their in-game level without the streamer's permission and others have been so bold as to post about their hacks online. Many players believe that cheating has become so rampant that it has ruined the game.

Infinity Ward came out stating that it had a plan for these cheaters back in March. The developer added several security updates to its Ricochet Anti-Cheat that identified players who were breaking the rules and kicked them out of the game. Eventually, Infinity Ward even got to the point where it wanted to be able to use its anti-cheat software identification to ban cheaters from the whole franchise. Now, it seems the members of Team Ricochet have developed a new tactic for combatting cheaters: they call it the Damage Shield.

Team Ricochet has experimented with several new methods of discouraging players from breaking the rules, but the Damage Shield is definitely one of their more creative endeavors. According to the official "Call of Duty" blog, it works like this: "When the server detects a cheater is tampering with the game in real-time, it disables the cheater's ability to inflict critical damage on other players. This mitigation leaves the cheater vulnerable to real players and allows #TeamRICOCHET to collect information about a cheater's system." That means that players who use cheats will be at a distinct disadvantage to players who don't. There's a kind of beautiful irony in that. It serves to give them a taste of their own medicine rather than simply booting them.

Team Ricochet made it clear that this is not based on the players' performance, however. The blog read, "We track these encounters to ensure there is no possibility for the game to apply a Damage Shield randomly or by accident, no matter the skill level. To be clear, we will never interfere in gunfights between law-abiding community members." That's definitely good to hear since players don't want to get nerfed just for popping off one too many headshots.

It remains to be seen how effective this new anti-cheat method will be, but it seems clear that Team Ricochet is committed to making sure that cheaters never prosper.