As cool as everything has been regarding the announcement for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, you just know everyone has patiently been awaiting details for the third mode. Considering DMZ was introduced outside of Modern Warfare II, and Spec Ops came back, it was almost a surprise to see it shown in the presentation at Infinity Ward as their official third mode. After taking in all of the intel, I get the reasoning; DMZ is bigger and badder in this second iteration, and is evolving into a true player in the extraction shooter space.
This section of my presentation was presented by Studio Multiplayer Creative Directors Joe Cecot and Geoffrey Smith, who are helming DMZ. Infinity Ward is looking to make a proper, fully-fleshed out extraction shooter in this build. They have taken the lessons they’ve learned and applied them. Alongside that principle, they look to bring a cohesive Modern Warfare universe into play, deep gameplay variety, building a “game within a game”, and meaningful player growth.
All of this is set up in the narrative, as a nuclear reactor melting down during the story creates this new DMZ zone. You're an off-the-books asset who's been sent behind enemy lines in order to find important tech. Inside this new map, you'll be engaging with environmental puzzles, story missions, and more. Even better, progression is securely at the heart of it all, driving you to just one more run.
Hajin is the map, the location that surrounds this North Korean nuclear reactor. It's unlike anything the team has done before. They want to tell you a story not just via dialogue, but also through the exploration and discovery of the environment itself. Hajin is essentially a wartorn battlefield, but polluted by radiation.
There are three main land masses for Hajin. On the map are nine major points of interest, but there could be more Infinity Ward was hiding from us. There's Hajin city, a casino, the fallout of the reactor, a hospital, military base, farmlands, a prison, a broadcast station, and what's called “Deadtown”. While none of these spots are that surprising, and many are reminiscent of previous Warzone POIs, the little I saw had its own flair. In my interview you'll find bookmarked below, there is also more to do in these places than you'd think.
David Burdette
Here's where we got our first taste of the trailer that's most likely arriving at tomorrow's Xbox Games Showcase. The space the team in the video was exploring seemed more abandoned than destroyed – I'm sure this is a Chernobyl situation where it may not destroy everything, but you won't want to stick around and grow a third eye. In the facility they were exploring, it was extremely dark, to the point they had to turn on night-vision goggles just to see. Given the missing HUD, I couldn't tell exactly what they were searching for, but the intensity of the hunt was palpable.
Speaking of intensity, everything hit the wall right after this. You can tell Infinity Ward knows what they’re doing in these trailers, mimicking the tension you’ll feel in DMZ. In this instance, bogies appeared, shooting at this squad and forcing them to find cover. One of them fell, and we saw a new mechanic, dragging your downed teammate. What’s most funny is you can apparently do this to enemies as well, making sure they can’t engage you later and to steal their valuable loot.
After this initial fight had subsided, the team went to look for more supplies. Here, you could see a few additional changes, like what seems to be attachments you can apply while in game. Healing up has also changed, as the character proceeded to wrap his arm with a bandage. These are minor alterations, but represent great quality of life improvements in DMZ.
All of this ended with a real bang, as the squad sprinted to exfil amongst what seemed to be both real-life players and bot gunfire. Considering a helicopter flew in with soldiers wielding RPGs, it got a bit hairy, but they made it out. You can see the attention to detail tremendously in this trailer, and I think the extraction shooter community is going to be quite happy with what they’re seeing.
Once the trailer had played, Joe and Geoff got right into the meat and potatoes of our preview. Story missions will feature specific trails everyone will be heading down, but be more than just “collect three wires”. Mentioned in the presentation was a casino vault heist, where you have to drill into a vault and fight off waves of NPCs before absconding with the loot. Abducting a general from a hospital and sneaking into an active military base were also brought up, which sound more expanded than DMZ’s previous offerings.
Dynamic operations look to change up the flow compared to the usual contracts we know and love from DMZ and Warzone. If you couldn’t tell, that was a bit facetious as we all go through the motions with these. Although there will certainly be new contracts to complete, Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ looks to mix things up. They’ve added multi-step contracts that have more variability to them, meaning you won’t always do step one as step one. Hopefully these are as fluid as they sound, but the concept is here to keep you from getting bored doing the same thing over and over.
If you don’t want to do anything but run around the map, shoot, and loot, that’s an option. Free roam lets you do you. The magic of all of this is that no matter which path you take, you’re doing it in a full world. Air traffic flies by and dangerous convoys patrol the roads. Infinity Ward has also gone the extra mile to increase enemy variety — more than just grunts and heavies. There will be elites, lieutenants, commanders, and more to discover as you ravage Hajin and its violent inhabitants.
Just don’t get too violent. Newly introduced is a star system, not unlike Grand Theft Auto. If you start doing too much and blowing up every NPC you come across, they’ll start to fight back. As your level rises, tougher enemies will come after you, with some of the higher tiers including that chopper with RPGs I mentioned earlier. It’s a good change, but you can even manage it yourself through IW’s new stealth system. If you get surprised kills and avoid detection, you can get in and out without a trace.
Dynamic weather is a system that wowed me. In the trailer, there was rain coming down, and the heavier darkness seemed indicative of more than the building the squad was in. Turns out, Hajin’s forecast can be different every time you infil. It’s not just weather type either — rain, sunshine, fog, and snow are possibilities — but intensity is also a variation. I’m unsure as to how much might change during a match, but it’s awesome to see this kind of addition to the DMZ formula.
Dedicated progression is another huge leap for the mode. You will have a DMZ level to go through, although the benefits of that aren’t clear yet. Traits follow a skill tree model, similar to what ARC Raiders employs. A new MIA function ensures your hard work won’t go to crap either, allowing you to buy back your operator if you happen to go down in the wilds of Hajin. The expense will depend solely on how much you’ve put into said operator, whether skills or kit. I didn’t get the lowdown on how many slots of operators you’ll have available at launch, but it’s safe to assume we’re going to be able to have multiple to build up.
Loot is incredibly important for DMZ this time. In the previous iteration, you grabbed items more to finish missions, not because they did much for you. In MW4 DMZ, everything you pick up matters. Back at your base, a camp which serves as your hub, you’ll have a 3D printer, which you’ll use to convert each material into usable equipment for your next run. In the menu for it, I saw the likes of plate carriers, kill streaks, lethals, tacticals, and more. Joe even said parachutes will have to be 3D printed — you’ll have to make sure you’re kitted up before you try to jump off of a cliff or building. The camp will have more inside of it to upgrade, and a Gunsmith area to buy new weapons and more. DMZ is much more involved of a mode compared to Modern Warfare II, that’s for sure.
PVP wasn’t heavily touched on beyond the trailer, but one new mechanic stands out. Similar to NPCs, the game is going to come after you if you’re gunning other players down dramatically. A bounty will appear on your head if you go too hard, offering other players a monetary reason to hunt you down and exfil with your dog tags. This feature will not only give opponents the chance to pay for your location, but will flag you as nearby with an on-screen banner if you’re close. It’s a step in mitigating griefing, even if not as big of one as I’d hope. Leaderboards will track the top fifty players, both in Wanted and Bounty Hunter categories.
This was the end of our DMZ presentation, and I left incredibly excited for the future of the mode. It feels fresh, and has a depth to it that was missing back in 2022. Replacing Spec Ops gave me the impression that the team was gung-ho about DMZ, and they’ve proved me right in everything they’ve revealed so far. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will arrive WITH DMZ AT LAUNCH on October 23rd, 2026. You can pre-order on Xbox Series consoles, PlayStation 5, PC, and even Nintendo Switch 2 right now.
