With the launch of Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 set for 16th November, Infinity Ward invited a number of streamers to get an early look at one of the major new game modes that they’ve cooked up for the free-to-play game sequel. DMZ will be a big new mode alongside the traditional battle royale, taking inspiration from another popular multiplayer game, Escape From Tarkov.
DMZ puts a different spin on the open-world multiplayer gameplay, described as a “narrative-focused extraction mode”, in which you and your squad will need to take on missions and side objectives, fight against both AI combatants and other players, search for valuable items and then eventually fight for an exfiltration.
Call of Duty YouTube channel MrDalekJD was able to share and provide commentary for the official gameplay reveal in a stream just shy of 3 hours in length.
So how does that look? It’s clearly another case of a bigger fish coming along and trying to eat someone else’s lunch, but the Escape from Tarkov inspiration will certainly offer something new for gamers who have a blinkered view of the multiplayer shooter genre. This also isn’t the first time that Tarkov’s been riffed upon by a big budget AAA studio. Battlefield 2042 launched last year with Hazard Zone, though I’m fairly certain Warzone 2.0 is set to be a much bigger success.Â
Warzone 2.0 is the free-to-play counterpart and tie-in to Modern Warfare 2, kicking off a new era for the Call of Duty franchise. It will launch alongside Season 1 of the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and feature a shared progression if you play that game. It will even be set within the Modern Warfare 2 universe, with the city of Al-Mazrah within the United Republic of Adal providing the first open world battleground for the game.
If you want to stick to battle royale, then there’s plenty to look forward to here, with a renewed Gulag system, AI combatants helping to mix certain modes up a bit, and a new multi-zone endgame instead of a single collapsing circle.
As for the main game? Well, Nick had a great time with it (outside of some bugs and issues around launch). For our Modern Warfare 2 review, he said:
“There’s some rough edges to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II that keep it from hitting the heights of the 2019 Modern Warfare, though most of its flaws can and will be fixed or improved through patches. Still, there’s an action-packed story to play through, plenty of multiplayer and a light co-op mode, and the promise of more in future. With Warzone 2.0 just around the corner, the future is certainly bright for Modern Warfare 2.”
