Call of Duty, and especially Warzone, have a serious problem with cheaters. At least before the launch of the Season 1 Reloaded, the number of cheaters has been increasing. Ricochet, the game’s anti-cheat system, has improved greatly, but is often slower than those that make cheat software.
However, beyond the hacks, there is another element that drives players crazy and is massively used: third-party hardware and software that allow adding extra functionalities that, without being cheats directly in the sense of wallhack or of aimbotis an advantage against legitimate players.
Since last year, Activision has implemented a policy to ban third-party hardware such as Cronus, although it is still widely used. More complicated is the software, which circumvents the game’s prohibitions and generally goes faster than Acitivison can limit.
Of all of them, and for a few weeks now, there is a popular software called ReWASD which, unlike classic hacks, is extremely cheap and easy to use. In fact, it has become quite popular in games like The Finals and Call of Dutyand was not considered a cheat by the games’ anti-cheat engines. Basically, what this software offers is to add a layer that tricks the game by faking the input methods.
Or put another way, it allows the game to believe that it is played with a controller when, in reality, it is done with a keyboard and mouse. And logically, when the game believes that a controller is used, the aim-assist. With it, cheaters not only benefited from the speed and precision of using a keyboard and mouse (flicking, better control of movement, using macros…), but also from the aim-assist and the rotation of the controls:
Small steps, but totally insufficient for the number of cheaters in Call of Duty
Now Call of Duty has announced that if its anti-cheat system, Ricochet, detects software of this type, it will automatically close the game. It is a good step, but insufficient. A large part of the community, including some of the most important competitive players, are asking that, when one of these software, or Cronus-type hardware, is detected, ban directly to the user and their system, and they cannot play again.
The truth is that with these simple limitations, many voices believe that the game is punishing innocent legitimate players more for the massive reports and their consequent shadowbanthat to the rampant cheaters, which generally have no real consequences.
Something that, in the case of consoles where there are no traditional hacks, should be easier to directly ban players who use third-party hardware from playing again. After all, it shouldn’t be that complicated to forever ban users who use a device whose USB ID is on the blacklist, knowing, in addition, that the system detects it perfectly.
The truth is that as things stand, it seems that the only way to avoid cheaters is to take the Valorant path, which the anti-cheat is at the highest privilege level of the rootwith the privacy problems that this entails.