Call of Duty’s DMZ mode is back in Modern Warfare 4, and the landscape of extraction shooters has changed quite a bit since the franchise’s first try at it four years ago.
Since the DMZ beta in 2022’s Modern Warfare II, extraction shooters have become all the rage. Escape From Tarkov may have started the craze, but games like ARC Raiders and Marathon have furthered it. The Hunt: Showdown, Gray Zone Warfare, and Delta Force are some others that have widened the genre into something big since DMZ last got updated.
Last month, I visited Infinity Ward to learn about MW4 and even played some of its multiplayer modes early. While we didn’t get to play the newest version of DMZ, we did see a presentation about it, and I got to speak to some developers about what to expect from it. And honestly, it’s sounding pretty sick.
While MW2’s DMZ was something like a proof of concept, or a “proving ground” as Infinity Ward said to us, this new iteration is a “full-featured” extraction game inside MW4: as deep, if not deeper, than the Black Ops’ series Zombies mode.
It has a narrative-driven story that takes place in a “rich sandbox with escalating AI threats, dangerous losses, environmental puzzles, and raid-like operations.” And like other CoD modes, progression is “at the heart” of everything DMZ is.
A new battlefield
MW4’s DMZ takes place on a map called Hajin, a location that’s become an exclusion zone after the events of the game’s main campaign. It is a war-torn battlefield polluted by radiation, but it’s also very much an active zone of war, including AI enemies, other players, air traffic above, and vehicle convoys driving around. Interestingly, Infinity Ward says the map is made up of regions not only in both North and South Korea, but also in Russia.
Like other games in the genre, DMZ includes proximity chat, so you’ll be able to talk trash, plead your case, or anything in between to the enemy players you meet. But a new stealth system means that you won’t always immediately kick into battle against AI foes, instead giving you a chance to hide if you don’t want to fight or simply want to reposition.
Previously in MW2’s DMZ, being spotted by AI meant all hell broke loose. Now, you have the option to disengage (Infinity Ward teased a visual indicator that shows when you’re about to be spotted) by going prone or taking cover, and they may lose sight of you, allowing you to emulate Solid Snake in an effort to keep your new star rating level down. The more enemies you kill and quests you complete, the higher your star rating goes, and the tougher enemies you will have to fight while also contending with other players.
Examples of enemies Infinity Ward gave as your star rating goes up include everything from low-level grunts, to “dangerous lieutenants that are even scarier,” and “roaming command” enemies like heavy tanks, agile helicopters, drone swarms, or seven-foot-tall juggernauts.
Each match of DMZ also has its own dedicated progression of dynamic weather, so sometimes you will spawn into rain or fog, and other times it will be a sunny day. But the longer a match goes, the chances of the weather becoming more severe will increase, eventually forcing you to exfil or die at the risk of losing all of your hard-earned gear or high-level operator. All of it is pushing you into conflict.
Dying doesn’t mean the end, though. This time around, DMZ sports a new M.I.A. system, which will allow you to rescue one of your lost operators, but the higher that operator’s level, the more expensive it will become, and it all uses in-game currency, so you can farm up to get your favorite characters back. But it will cost you.
A full-fledged extraction experience
MW4 DMZ furthers the extraction shooter experience with a rank, Traits, and forward operating base, or FOB, where you can unlock and progress more features, like a 3D printer that you can use to craft items and gear.
The system sounds similar to what’s in place in ARC Raiders or just about any other game in the genre, where you have a home base of operations in which you can replenish your stocks, buy gear, and more. The upgrade system in the FOB included several different installations that build out your progression as you level up, like vendors and the gunsmith, so the barebones extraction experience of MW2 is a thing of the past.
DMZ’s looting is “pretty straightforward” when it comes to finding things like a better armor carrier, weapons, a backpack, or a killstreak. But Hajin also has caches and containers throughout the world that will have materials or ingredients you need to craft better weapons and gear. And all of it goes to your stash, so you keep an overall progression and can decide what items to dole out to which operator on your roster once you’ve crafted or looted them.
The Traits system where your operators unlock skills to increase your chances of survival, and each operator has their own dedicated trait tree. Each individual operator is its own character, like in the original DMZ, but you can build them specifically for different play styles, and losing that operator means losing their XP and progress if you can’t buy them back with the M.I.A. system.
Take heed if you want to go out into Hajin and start murdering other players recklessly, though: DMZ now has a PvP bounty system, where the more enemy players you kill, the higher your bounty will go. Players can then kill you and extract with your “Wanted” dog tags for big value.
But to emphasize PvP, DMZ will have its own leaderboards of at least a top-50, featuring the best bounty hunters and killers in the world.
Multiple ways to play
Before deploying into Hajin, a choice must be made. MW4’s DMZ is broken up into different playlist options: Story Missions, Dynamic Operations, and Free Roam.
Story Missions tell an ongoing narrative after MW4’s campaign, and it will continue to be updated with seasonal updates in the game. One example given was a mission where players need to rescue an ally general behind enemy lines stored in a vault.
Dynamic Operations are similar to contracts in MW2 DMZ, but with a bit of randomness tied to them. Whereas the original game randomized locations of objectives, but the steps were always the same, MW4 DMZ randomizes the steps, so the potential is that no two Dynamic Operations will be the same.
Free Roam, as the name suggests, lets you loose in Hajin with the freedom to do whatever you want. You can try to hunt down HVT enemies or other players for their loot, scavenge for supplies, or find valuables to try and get your money up.
I’m excited to learn more about DMZ soon and hopefully play it, but it will be available for everybody in MW4 on day one of launch on Oct. 23.
