With the reveal of Modern Warfare 3 imminent, I decided to drop back into Call of Duty for the first time since Season 2 of Modern Warfare 2. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the update, spending the majority of my time in DMZ, the extraction offshoot of Warzone. I fell off DMZ fairly early on as it very much lived up to its Beta status. I enjoyed the time I’d put into it, but the lack of things to do, mixed with the progress resets, made it something I didn’t find myself wanting to play much. The story and lore also did nothing for me unfortunately.
Upon returning to the DMZ menu for the first time in months, I instantly noticed a lot had changed. There’s a lot of upgrades, challenges, and reasons to keep coming back to play another game. There are also several additional maps as DMZ makes use of Warzone’s resurgence maps like Vondel and Ashika Island. These maps include different loot, different bosses, and different environments to help keep things fresh. The elusive Building 21 that had just launched as I gave up on MW2 is also still accessible, but requires an access card to even attempt to infiltrate. Unfortunately it also looks like the time-gating of Building 21 still exists as it isn’t always available.
The upgrade system is fairly robust and gives purpose to the abundance of lootable items across the maps. Rather than just looting for resources and sellable items, there is now the need for players to look out for items required to upgrade the various out-of-game systems such as wallet space, key capacity, and contraband weapons. There are also additional field upgrade items to unlock such as a rebreather, and an armour box. This rewards returning players that put the time in to complete the upgrade objectives and is a great move for replayability. The wallet feature also helps to mix up how you play a game of DMZ. Instead of starting with nothing, you can play aggressively and drop in with a lot of money that has been previously extracted. The risk associated with this method is fairly self explanatory however a word of warning… Do not drop with 50k unless you are confident you are ready to play otherwise you’ll quickly lose that money by an AI enemy that spots your character while you’re in the kitchen making a drink.
These items can also be used to barter for rarer items at buy stations. The ‘recipes’ for these are unlocked by defeating the various bosses around the DMZ and are tracked alongside upgrades on the bounty board. This is a good way of keeping players active with bosses after the novelty of a new boss encounter ends.
The upgrade system also will make any further resets a lot easier to deal with. Personally I am not a massive fan of any sort of progress reset or inventory wipe, but if it has to be done at least some of the time I’ve invested in the game will be reflected by the upgrades I have access to.
Missions were in DMZ at launch, but they have been fleshed out with 5 factions, more tiers for each faction, and a lot more variety in the quests. By having missions alongside some of the upgrade quests, the in-game ‘puzzle’ of what you want to keep, sell, or extract is a lot more engaging. When I last played DMZ, all I could really do with a rare piece of loot – like an encrypted hard drive – was sell it and use the money to buy something to help me in the current game, or extract it for a bit more XP.
In the current build of DMZ, there are a lot of different things that can be done with that encrypted hard drive. It can be traded as part of an armour vest recipe, it can be dead-dropped to reduce insurance weapon cooldown, it can be extracted in order to meet a mission or upgrade requirement. It may even need to be sold as before to make space for something more important. Inventory management is key to a mode like DMZ, and it looks to be in a great place currently. It scratches an itch that I haven’t felt in Call of Duty since Blackout, as Warzone is more about loadouts over looting.
There is an intel system that I very much appreciate even if I am still not particularly interested in the story being told. Rather than focussing on some of the characters from the campaign, most of the story seems to be about different factions and the politics between them. There’s the occasional slice of life note that I’ve found interesting, but ultimately the Modern Warfare story just doesn’t appeal to me like Zombies does. For those that do enjoy the story, there’s a lot there to discover, and the faction’s missions help to go beyond just reading notes and documents. If a similar system is used in the rumoured ‘Outbreak 2’ mode, I guarantee I will be extracting every last crumb of the story I can find so here’s hoping the story is seen as an overall success even if I’m not too fond of it.
As you’d expect from a mode all about looting, shooting, and extracting, there are a bunch of extremely valuable rewards that can be unlocked by exfiltrating successfully. Each map has different weapon cases that have rewards such as calling cards, charms and weapon blueprints. The best reward is located within the Koschei Complex. This is a map that can only be accessed by dropping in to Al Mazrah and heading to one of several entry points, and it holds 5 different attachments hidden throughout certain areas of the complex. Once all attachments have been extracted, the ‘Heated Madness’ blueprint is unlocked for use. The gameplay loop of preparing in Al Mazrah, moving to the complex, then starting another 30 minute DMZ session was gripping, and the steps to unlock each attachment are just the right amount of difficulty. I was able to unlock the blueprint solo after some hard work and a lot of frustration, but the feeling of completion was similar to finishing a Zombies Easter Egg for the first time. Hopefully we see further Blueprint challenges like this one.
I would enjoy DMZ if it was a purely PVE experience, but the added threat of PvEvP means that the adrenaline rushes are much more frequent – particularly when going for weapon cases or raiding Koschei Complex. While the AI enemies are fairly threatening – especially when multiple are firing at you – the constant fear of other players coming along and ruining your run at any moment gives the mode a heightened sense of tension. However, it is very disappointing that there is still not a solo mode for DMZ. Occasionally you can outsmart a team, but mostly coming across a team of 3 results in an instant death. Infinity Ward has included features for solo players such as pleading for help upon death, squad assimilation, and the solo self-revive upgrade, but a dedicated solo mode is long overdue and at this point it looks unlikely one will appear.
The future of DMZ is unknown at this stage. It would be a no brainer to return for MW3 if not for the rumoured Outbreak Zombies mode. Obviously these are rumours until actually confirmed by Activision but when it comes to Call of Duty, there’s no smoke without a fire. If Outbreak is strictly PvE – the correct decision – then I think there’s definitely a way forward for DMZ. The PvP element of the mode will always offer something different to a Zombies PvE experience. Whether or not Activision sees it that way is a different question however. The publisher may be wary of having too many large scale modes and fully supporting Warzone, DMZ and Outbreak at the same time may not be worth it in the eyes of the publisher. The world and its granny know that Warzone isn’t going anywhere so that would leave DMZ to wither away while Warzone and Outbreak get full support, which would honestly be a shame. I think a lot of what I dislike about Infinity Ward’s recent takes on Call of Duty actually work well in DMZ. From the major updates it has received since I last played, it’s clear Infinity Ward is also passionate about the mode.
The question of the mode still being in ‘Beta’ could also play a factor here. Recently WB Games shut down free-to-play fighter ‘MultiVersus’ which was in beta, until 2024 to “focus on the full launch”. There’s always the possibility we may see something similar with DMZ, where the mode goes away until Infinity Ward’s next title. Pulling the mode entirely would be a drastic measure by Activision though, and it would be much better to keep DMZ alive and supported to a small extent, even if it was to stop receiving content updates.
Whatever happens, I hope there’s a path forward for the mode as I think as long as it’s live I’ll always be interested in dropping in from time to time to experience the DMZ. The future for DMZ will likely be a lot clearer in the coming weeks as Modern Warfare 3 is revealed and while my eyes are fully focused on a potential Zombies Outbreak announcement, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about the potential of DMZ continuing after how much I’ve enjoyed returning to it following some fantastic updates.