Activision
Infinity Ward has officially confirmed that the DMZ extraction shooter mode is making a comeback with Modern Warfare 4.
Nearly every Call of Duty has come with a campaign and multiplayer section, but there’s also usually a third mode that offers a slightly different flavour. In Treyarch games, this tends to be a new version of Zombies, while Infinity Ward has tried everything from Spec Ops to Extinction.
One of the most unique was DMZ, an extraction shooter that launched shortly after Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and took place on Warzone’s Al Mazrah map. Now, the mode is returning for a second run.
DMZ returns in Modern Warfare 4
On May 28, after plenty of leaks and rumors, Infinity Ward announced that DMZ will be the third mode in Modern Warfare 4.
The original DMZ drew heavily from games like Escape from Tarkov, in the sense that squads dropped into the large map in search of loot. The catch was that you only got to keep the gear if you successfully extracted, but if you died, it was lost.
Activision
There were also plenty of missions and contacts to complete, which would inevitably bring you into conflict with the AI enemies or other teams of real players. You then had the choice of ignoring them, teaming up, or fighting to steal their gear.
It’s a formula that has only become even more popular in the years since the first DMZ, with Arc Raiders blowing up and Marathon putting a more hardcore spin on the genre.
Although DMZ didn’t quite attract the same level of interest as Zombies or Warzone, it still had a dedicated fanbase when updates stopped in December of 2023.
It remains to be seen how this new version of the mode builds on the original concept, but we don’t have to wait too long, as the first look is coming at the Xbox Showcase on June 7.
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For more on Modern Warfare 4, check out everything we know about multiplayer, including the unique Kill Block map.
