Activision announced they will add a rather intrusive anti-cheat to Call of Duty: Warzone but it might be the only way to fight the cheater infestation the game is suffering.
Cheating in video games is old news but the ways some of them are trying to ruin everyone's fun are always getting more sophisticated. Some of this software is running with elevated privileges on the cheaters' rigs, maybe even without them realising it, and anti-cheat solutions usually hit a brick wall at this point since they don't have the same access.
Eventually, Riot Games threw away the training wheels and straight-up slapped together a Valorant anti-cheat that is invasive for the players' rigs but it also became what is undoubtedly the most effective anti-cheat on the market. Activision are now taking notes from their playbook and the company has announced a kernel-level anti-cheat for Call of Duty : Warzone and Vanguard, called Ricochet.
Unlike Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat, Ricochet will not attempt to run at all times and you can boot without the software active, which is great for the players' systems but this can prove to be the Achilles' Heel in the fight against the cheaters.
That said, the high level of access will definitely give Ricochet an edge in fighting the illegal software that baddies use to compensate for their ineptitude.
Anyway, the short version is that kernel-level anti-cheat is intrusive but it's also the most effective way to combat cheating.
Whether you like it or not, Ricochet is coming and it's bound to swing that ban hammer hard. Let's just hope some HWID bans will kick in soon, given the fact Warzone accounts can be obtained for free.
