A Call of Duty blog dropped a treasure trove of information for Modern Warfare 4‘s DMZ mode today, including good news for the more eager players. The mode is getting an early-access window starting on Oct. 20, exclusive to those who acquired the game ahead of time.
Modern Warfare 4‘s full release is slated for Friday, Oct. 23, but DMZ is opening its gates three days early if you preordered. The campaign is also available early, on Oct. 16, if you own any edition of the game.
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DMZ is evolving drastically in scope from its old beta into “Call of Duty’s definitive extraction shooter experience,” by the developer’s admission. This pushes it fully into the burgeoning genre, with its own base-building, progression, and even a bounty system for players.
The blog post dove into the Forward Operating Base (FOB), your respite between incursions in Hajin. Here, you’ll manage operators, craft or improve weapons, find vendors, and do general housekeeping when you’re not in a sortie.
It also showcased the deep operator progression, including operator levels, prestige bonuses, and three skill trees. The game has an MIA system for recovering lost agents using DMZ cash, which reminds me of Rainbow Six Extraction (and I might be the only one who remembers it).
Opening up early access to a higher-stakes, punishing extraction-based game mode is bound to draw criticism from parts of the fanbase, however. The three days of extra progression could provide an advantage over players dropping in on release, and that asymmetry would be more troublesome in the extraction mode than in multiplayer or Warzone.
As someone who played the old DMZ with my friends almost every night, there seems to be enough depth to give it some longevity, especially if it gets regular updates and tweaks every few months. With Battlefield 6‘s season five launching on Oct. 13, I think I might have to ask my boss for time off for “an early Halloween.”
Correction Oct. 9, 1:18pm CT: We’ve updated the article headline, which had an incorrect date. We regret the error.
