2 hours ago
17
Published Oct 6, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
Ford James is a UK-based freelance games writer at Polygon. He also has bylines at industry-leading outlets including GamesRadar, Eurogamer, PC Gamer, and more. He mostly writes about FPS games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Arc Raiders, but is also partial to a decent RPG, roguelike, or sports game. He's a huge Pokémon fan, thinks The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the best game of all time, and has a degree in Games Journalism & Public Relations.
DMZ is an exciting opportunity for Call of Duty
Image: Infinity Ward/ActivisionSign in to your Polygon.com account
Back in the days of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (the 2022 one, not the OG 2009 game), developer Infinity Ward released the DMZ Beta. This was an Escape From Tarkov-inspired multiplayer mode, albeit much more casual, and while it showed promise and innovation, it wasn't quite the barnstorming success the studio was presumably hoping for.
Modern Warfare 4 is coming later this month, and with it comes the fully realized product that is DMZ. While we've yet to play it for ourselves, everything we know about the mode — which is now much bigger, with countless new features and four years' worth of polish — has us incredibly excited for what the future of Call of Duty could look like. If these early looks are any indication, Modern Warfare 4’s reimagined DMZ could be one of the greatest extraction shooters ever.
At the start of this year, extraction shooters were having a moment. Arc Raiders was at its peak, Escape From Tarkov was thriving, and there was a lot of hype for the then-forthcoming Marathon. As of this writing, Arc Raiders only has a fraction of its player base remaining (although this week’s Frozen Trail update may fix that), Escape From Tarkov is focusing on its recent PvE update, and Marathon is, well… the less said there, the better.
There are dozens of reasons to look forward to Modern Warfare 4's DMZ mode. Personally, at the very top of the list is how the mode will tackle quests and narrative. DMZ Orders will "introduce Hajin's [the name of the map in DMZ] core gameplay systems, teaching you the ropes, speaking to the narrative, directing you toward different activities across the exclusion zone, and rewarding you for completing specific objectives," reads an official Call of Duty blog post.
Alongside both dynamic and side operations, it sounds like DMZ will take objectives a step further than most extraction shooters, in which tasks are usually nothing more than glorified fetch quests. One example shown to Polygon in a virtual briefing earlier this year involved descending into a bank vault to rescue a VIP before escorting them safely out of the zone.
Hajin is also full of high-ranking bosses, known as lieutenants and commanders. Whether you're tracking them for an objective or not, you may stumble upon formidable foes, and it's these encounters that make DMZ sound like it'll feel alive. Arc Raiders does something similar — the most memorable visits topside were often those where a Leaper or Rocketeer tried to ruin my day at the last moment, whether successful or not — but those threats quickly became negligible as players accumulated more powerful gear.
The blog post describes lieutenants as "a high-risk way to earn DMZ XP, DMZ cash, and valuable loot," while commanders present "fierce resistance as they are seemingly impervious against many standard weapons, and may require tactical knowledge to bring down." It sounds like the latter will be the tougher of the two, and may require teaming up with other players to defeat.
However, Modern Warfare 4 has the upper hand over every other extraction shooter thanks to its engine. You may love or hate Call of Duty, but there's no denying that the series has always had some of the smoothest, cleanest first-person shooter gunplay when compared to its competitors. Combining the extraction subgenre, which is much more tense with higher stakes than traditional shooters, with that crisp Call of Duty gameplay that has been perfected over the years should be a recipe for success.
Free sign-up
Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter
A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later.
Sign up freeFree. Unsubscribe anytime.
There are numerous other mechanics that will help separate DMZ from the rest of the crowd. The Forward Operating Base (FOB) is your "command center," according to the blog, and it has a plethora of utility stations. One of these is the bounty leaderboard: you can track other players who are the most successful in PvP, then if you kill them, you can claim a bounty. Or, on a similar note, you can purchase intel on lieutenants and commanders from the boss board.
After two years of Black Ops games, Modern Warfare 4 will be a somewhat refreshing return to Call of Duty no matter what, but it also has the potential to be one of the best of all time thanks to DMZ. Single-player sounds promising. Multiplayer is more of a known quantity. DMZ is where the excitement lies.
English (US) ·