Back at launch in November, this game was rough to the point where a lot of people just uninstalled and walked away, but the Season 1 Reloaded patch really does feel like a second attempt, especially if you mix in a softer grind through something like a CoD BO7 Bot Lobby instead of throwing yourself at sweaty public lobbies every night.
Weapon Balance And Pace Of Fights
The biggest shift you notice right away is the weapon tuning, because the Akita shotgun is no longer running every close‑quarters fight. Before the update you could not push a building without getting deleted from ranges that made no sense, and most matches turned into "who abuses Akita first" rather than who actually plays better. After the patch the effective range is trimmed, the view kick is harsher, and suddenly it is not auto‑lock for anyone who picks it. That change alone lets SMGs like the Kogot‑7 and Ryden breathe again, and you can feel it when you start taking fights inside chokepoints instead of just backing off and hoping the shotgun user whiffs a shot.
SMGs, Movement And Loadouts
Once the shotgun got pulled back a bit, the movement and gunfeel changes started to make more sense too, because SMG builds can actually shine now. If you throw the new recoil grips on the Kogot‑7, you get this really clean combo of low recoil and fast handling, and because they killed off the ugly ADS penalties it does not feel like you are dragging a fridge around the map. It rewards you for playing on the front foot rather than sitting in a corner with a one‑shot gun, so you end up chaining sprints, slides, and quick peeks instead of creeping around scared of the next doorway. It is not perfect, and there are still meta loadouts you see every match, but at least you do not feel locked into one or two busted setups.
Maps, Zombies And Quality Of Life
The content side has quietly improved a lot as well, and the map rotation finally feels alive again instead of looping the same two arenas. Fate stands out as a proper highlight: a twisted Menendez estate where you are dealing with reality glitches one second and trying not to get chopped by machete traps the next, which is hilarious when you bait an overconfident player into one. Standoff and Meltdown getting remastered with the 2025 movement system is a weird kind of nostalgia, because those classic lanes now play completely differently once people start abusing omnidirectional sliding and chaining routes you never used in the original versions. On top of that, Zombies fans got a big win with Mule Kick back on Astra Malorum, and being able to carry a third gun matters once elite waves stack up and you need a panic weapon plus a boss‑burner ready to go, while simple things like pausing solo runs and having offline campaign checkpoints finally make the game fit around real‑life schedules.
Matchmaking Pressure And A Different Way To Grind
There is still one big caveat, and it is the same one you hear in every party chat: SBMM hits hard now that the player count is climbing again and the movement buffs have gone live, so a casual evening match can easily feel like a scrim with players slide‑canceling and wall‑bouncing like they are trialing for a pro spot. If you are grinding camos on guns like the XM4 or trying to level off‑meta weapons, the mix of tight matchmaking and sweaty builds can drain you fast, and you end up staring at a slow progression bar instead of actually enjoying the game. That is why some people quietly lean on bot lobbies or other shortcuts, so they can focus on testing attachments and unlocking mastery camos without the constant stress; if you are in that camp and you also like having the option to buy in‑game currency or items from a dedicated service, a site such as RSVSR can sit alongside your usual grind and help you keep up without needing every session to feel like a tournament.
