Last week, Activision and Infinity Ward revealed what’s next for the Call of Duty series. Modern Warfare 4 will feature a campaign that focuses on the Korean peninsula, as well as a multiplayer mode that features some bold ideas and a desire to return the series to its past glory. However, a third mode was also teased during that initial reveal called DMZ. On Sunday, Activision and Infinity Ward went into more detail about what DMZ will entail. Back when 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2 released, Infinity Ward tried a mission-based objective co-op mode called DMZ. It had its fans, but ultimately became a forgotten piece of the series. With Modern Warfare 4, having learned a series of lessons from the MW2 and MW3 days, Infinity Ward has reimagined DMZ as an extraction shooter. The events of the Modern Warfare 4 campaign will include a nuclear reactor melting down and creating a dangerous exclusion zone. That reactor will be the setting for the new DMZ, offering players a
sandbox filled with hostiles, bosses, environmental hazards, and opportunities to progress and score loot. DMZ will put players in the role of an off-the-books CIA operative who is looking to infiltrate the Hajin reactor. This war-torn battlefield, covered in radiation and spanning across nine distinct regions, is filled with valuable and dangerous military tech, so it’s the player’s job to recover it and keep it out of the wrong hands. Sometimes, jobs will be too tough to take on alone, so the situation might call
for some co-op partners. However, players should make sure that they can trust those partners, because alliances are fragile in this ecosystem. Hajin is described as a living world. Threats will gradually escalate over time. Enemy soldiers will get stronger. Bosses will get bigger and more powerful. IF you start to get overconfident to the point that you’ve become recognizable among the locals, hostile vehicles and aircraft may come in to support the enemy. Fortunately, players will have a dedicated progression track and trait tree
to help them keep up with the escalating hostile threat. Of course, it should be noted that all individual players have their own loadouts and cannot share loot with their allies. If a buddy wants that sweet piece of loot you found, they’re going to have to shoot you for it. For Infinity Ward, the Hajin map is the star attraction of DMZ. In addition to escalating threats, the development team has envisioned an evolving map that feels different for each session. A dynamic weather
system can help and hurt outings in various ways. Reinforcements that weren’t there in a previous session may suddenly start patrolling. However the world looks, the devs do want players to experience DMZ in their own way. That’s why this mode offers Story Missions, where DMZ’s narrative plays out either alone or with others who have queued up into the same objective; Dynamic Operations, which assign a key objective while the steps to achieve that objective change every time; and Free Roam, where the player
essentially makes their own fun. Of course, one of the key components of DMZ is the PvP experience. It’s possible to be a jerk, go into the game, and start gunning down players indiscriminately. However, a new bounty system will ensure that those players get a valuable target on their heads. A new leaderboard system will keep track of the top players, as well as the top bounty hunters, on a weekly basis. Hajin can be ruthless, so anybody who wants to make sure their
stuff is safe had better extract themselves safely and keep everything stored in their stash. If a player’s Operator is killed, they’ll have to dole out some in-game cash to send in an evac team to rescue them. The higher an Operator’s experience is when they go MIA, the more it’ll cost to bring them back. There’s much more to DMZ, which is why Activision and Infinity Ward are heading to this Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase to offer a closer look. DMZ will be part
of the full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 package, which is set to release on Friday, October 23 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. This preview is based on a theater presentation shown on-site at Infinity Ward in Los Angeles, CA. Lodging was provided by Activision. The final product is subject to change.
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