Modern Warfare 4's DMZ Was In Development Before Warzone Existed, Infinity Ward Reveals

Ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s full reveal during this weekend’s Xbox Games Showcase, I visited Infinity Ward to learn about the game’s three pillars: Campaign, Multiplayer, and DMZ. While much of the conversation focused on the Korean Peninsula setting, the return of Captain Price, and major multiplayer changes and improvements, I also sat down with members of the development team to discuss the future of DMZ and how the extraction shooter fits into Modern Warfare 4.

The mode returns as one of the game’s three core pillars, but according to Infinity Ward, its roots go back much further than players may realize.

DMZ EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW

Inside Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ: Infinity Ward Finally Had Time To Build The Extraction Shooter It Wanted

Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ features dynamic missions, operator traits, bounty hunting, crafting, and a massive new map.

During an interview with ScreenRant, Studio Multiplayer Creative Director Geoff Smith revealed the team had been experimenting with extraction-style gameplay years before Warzone launched, and that many of the lessons learned from DMZ’s beta period directly shaped the version arriving in Modern Warfare 4.

“We prototyped DMZ before Warzone. We had a little mode called Escape, and if you shoot the other players, they’d spit out all these coins and you had to get from one section to another. Everybody, the studio wasn’t ready yet, so we had to cook that a little longer. So this has been a passion project.”

Infinity Ward has already acknowledged that the original DMZ beta served as a learning experience, and Smith says many of the new systems in Modern Warfare 4 stem directly from lessons learned during that period, and what they’ve seen since in the genre from competitors.

Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ Was Built Around Lessons From The Beta

Modern Warfare 4 DMZ Screenshot 13 Sniper

One of the biggest areas of feedback involved tasks and replayability.

“From our beta, I think we kind of went overboard with tasks, and then the guys making the tasks started making them really hard. I think they were worried they would run out of stuff to do, and they would ramp up in difficulty really hard.”

Smith says Dynamic Operations, one of DMZ’s three main ways to play, grew directly out of player behavior observed during the beta.

“The dynamic ops came out of the idea of we saw a lot of people that just wanted to do contracts all day long, and so we built a system around that to make it as dynamic and replayable as we can.”

Dynamic operations, we’re told, “randomized the steps that you take, so when your boots hit the ground, the first thing you get is the main objective.” To also keep each play session unique, there’s dynamic weather (can even change during a session), AI escalation, and the Wanted system (think GTA-style star rating).

DMZ Progression Is Separate From Multiplayer

While DMZ weapon and account progression will flow into traditional multiplayer, Infinity Ward is intentionally keeping DMZ’s core progression separate and standalone as to not ruin the progression and gameplay loop of the extraction mode.

“It’s one way, so all the XP you earn in DMZ will trickle down into MP, so you can get your stuff with it. We wanted the DMZ experience to feel fresh when you start. We don’t want you to grind 20-30 hours in MP, come back, and everything’s unlocked.”

DMZ Squad Assimilation Returns, But With A Limitation

Modern Warfare 4 DMZ Screenshot 6 Looting

One popular feature from the original DMZ beta is returning. Players will be able to recruit enemies into their squad through assimilation, though Infinity Ward has scaled it back considerably.

“We do allow assimilation, but only one player on your team, so just four. Through the beta, we found that was the healthiest of allowing, rather than going straight six.”

I asked how this works, and if it meant a player must leave a trio to join another, but Smith says many of those interactions happen organically through proximity chat after firefights.

“Half the time it’s somebody downed and they’re like, ‘guys, I’m cool, you want to be cool?’ and you can bring them onto your team.”

I suppose you can encounter other solo players and talk it out to get them to join too, but as the the devs indicated, majority of the time, a downed player can talk their way into being recruited, and that may mean leaving their teammates behind. This will be great for content creation about proximity chat encounters.

How Big Are Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ Matches?

Infinity Ward is still tuning DMZ’s final player counts and deployment length, but Smith says matches are already running noticeably longer than they did during the beta. He tells me they’re currently have it at 20 squads per round, so 60 players max on the map.

“We’re still playing. I think we netted around 30 minutes on beta, we’ve gone up to 40-50 minutes. We’re still kind of playing with those numbers. Even the 20 squads, so you know, like, what plays the best and what’s the most fun? There’s a balance. And we are able to mix the lobby, and so if everybody said, ‘I want to do a story mission,’ we can fill a lobby with story missions at different POIs and then maybe backfill with some free roaming squads, and so we’re just trying to find those numbers where you can still do your story mission and not completely get ganked, but yeah, we have all the bells and knobs to twist to make that experience. We just have finalize that kind of recipe.”

The quote also offers one of the clearest looks yet at how DMZ’s matchmaking works. Story Mission players, Dynamic Operations players, and Free Roam squads can all occupy the same deployment, with Infinity Ward adjusting squad counts and objectives to strike a balance between completing objectives and creating opportunities for player encounters.

Solo Players Were Considered in Designing DMZ’s Systems

Modern Warfare 4 DMZ Screenshot 11 Gas Mask

Although DMZ is built around three-player squads, which we now know can grow to four during a match, Infinity Ward spent considerable time considering solo players during development.

“That whole stealth system is 100% for solo players. If you’re driving around with your buddies in the Jeep, your Zoolander jeep, you’re not gonna deal with the stealth meter in the slightest, because you’re just going loud and nobody cares about the stealth meter. It’s from trying to play solo that we’re like, ‘oh, I really want to not get shot by that guy halfway down the street.’ If you equip a suppressor, the star system just kind of really ignores you, so you can really kind of move and be pretty quiet and play your own game.”

Smith says suppressors, stealth mechanics, and AI detection systems were all designed to support players operating alone.

Jack Hoppus, Technical Designer, expanded on that idea in our chat.

“If you’re the solo player that wants to live out your stealth mission, you could totally do a huge variety of the content in DMZ, completely stealth. And we have tools that make getting downed less painful. We have the tourniquet, which will get you back up, but with less max health. We play a bunch of these extraction shooters, we play a bunch of games solo as well, so we’re aimed at ‘what’s the best experience for a solo player?’

Hajin Already Has Post-Launch Plans

Infinity Ward isn’t discussing specific post-launch changes yet, nor would they discuss Warzone integration and updates, but Smith did confirm to me that Hajin was built from the beginning with future evolution in mind, potentially addressing one of the biggest criticisms we’ve seen from Warzone maps over the years.

“We have a lot of post launch plans. We’re not talking about it yet, but it’s been planned from the beginning. It’s lessons learned from playing Verdansk to Al Mazrah. It’s like, ‘what are you changing? What’s this change? What’s that change?’ So we’re like, we need an inciting incident, we need our roadmap, we need a plan for all the seasons and stuff.”