After an ineffective nerf, Roze is still hard to see in Call of Duty: Warzone

Players rejoiced two weeks ago when developer Raven Software announced that Call of Duty: Warzone's despised Roze skin would finally be addressed in the next patch. For months, the popularity of Roze's Rook skin has been a major source of frustration as Roze players have exploited the outfit's all-black appearance to disappear against dark backdrops and shadowy corners in Verdansk. With the skin on, it's very easy to blend into the interior of buildings, and unfortunately, that hasn't really changed since Season 3 began.

I had hoped that changes to Roze meant some sort of alteration to her uniform or its color, but it turns out Raven didn't have anything that drastic in mind. "We’ve adjusted Roze in order to improve the Operators readability/visibility where sources of light are available," reads last week's Season 3 patch notes. My first impression was that Roze's visibility is only really a problem in dark areas, so increasing her visibility in the light doesn't really tackle the problem. Post-patch, the Rook outfit is as dark as ever.

That's more or less the conclusion Warzone analyst TheXclusiveAce came to in his recent breakdown of Roze's post-nerf visibility. The changes employed since the start of Season 3 seem to have less to do with the Roze skin itself and more to do with the new map, Verdansk '84. The '80s remix map is generally brighter and I've definitely noticed that building interiors are more brightly lit. This naturally means that Roze players will find fewer opportunities to shroud themselves in darkness, but there are still plenty of common areas where she's still a major pain.

Ace did cite some minor improvements in situations where Roze would've previously been near-impossible to see. Seeing her is now less impossible, though I'd argue she's far from a reasonable state.

The larger issue at play here is Warzone's global lighting. Even after the big rewind that melted Verdansk's icy river and let the sun shine a bit brighter, Warzone is still a dark-ass game. Any operator with dark clothing can find success hiding in dark corners—the Rook skin only represents the worst example of a larger issue.

It'd take a more holistic change to Warzone's look to forever nerf dark outfits. Darkness is the enemy of readability in competitive shooters. Ubisoft learned this when it brightened Rainbow Six Siege's global lighting in 2017. I still think the game looked better before the change, but the improvements to readability were way worth it.

I think I'd accept the same tradeoff in Warzone, especially if it means this can't happen to me ever again.