Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (not to be confused with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) is the first Call of Duty game I’ve put serious time into in more than a decade. I mostly just wanted to check out the novelty of playing the premier military shooter on a Nintendo Switch 2, but I had forgotten how generous these games are, since they are often one of only a handful of titles that the average customer buys each year.
The game includes a ridiculous campaign centered around a new Korean civil war. There’s also an entire suite of competitive multiplayer modes from simple team deathmatch to a full-on battle royale. But arguably, Modern Warfare 4’s biggest innovation is its revamped DMZ mode, because it’s essentially Call of Duty’s take on an extraction shooter.
As someone curious about this rising star of a shooter sub-genre who hadn’t actually played one yet, Modern Warfare 4 was my introduction to the style. Given Call of Duty’s massive popularity, I’m sure that will be the case with many other players, too. DMZ is a cool, substantial addition, but it also makes me feel bad for the other extraction shooters still trying to break through.
BUY CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 4
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 | Standard Edition | Nintendo Switch 2
So, what even is an extraction shooter? As I said, my hands-on experience with the genre is limited to this one game. But let me give it a shot. An extraction shooter is a multiplayer shooter where you and maybe some buddies drop into a treacherous map to collect valuable loot while completing missions and engaging with other players. It feels a bit like a battle royale, with many players on a shared map trying to survive, but with more emphasis on completing your own objectives rather than trying to be the last person standing. However, the genre has a reputation for ruthlessness because other players can hunt you down and take your gear if you don’t escape in time. Gear you may have spent many hours collecting during previous runs.
At least, that’s how DMZ plays in Modern Warfare 4. Taking place in an abandoned and irradiated Korean border town, I spent many hours looting what I could, mostly dying, and occasionally escaping via a friendly helicopter. Compared with the linearity of a normal Call of Duty mission, I appreciated how much more emergent DMZ’s gameplay felt, like I had more choice in deciding what to do. You can play a handful of scripted story sequences, but I usually opted for a dynamic mode that gives you new tasks on the fly, like taking out a particular target or hijacking an enemy van. You can even drop in with no objective at all and free roam, truly creating your own missions.
As an introduction to extraction shooters, I see how there’s fun to be had. There’s great tension in knowing that you can’t just finish the task; you need to escape, too. You need to get away with it. I never play games like this with voice chat, but I loved the wordless communication of a teammate driving up next to me in a rusty sedan, honking the horn like an annoyed dad, so I would get in, and we could drive to the landing zone in a crumbling baseball stadium. The 30-minute loop leaves plenty of time for aimless exploration and patient scavenging, but also provides enough pressure to require you to balance cautious patience with aggressive intent. I had fun, so why do I still feel bad?
Refusing the Call
As excited as I was to dive back into Call of Duty’s DMZ again and again, I could easily see how this could all become so annoying. I killed a lot, but I also died a lot, and had to be revived by honorable teammates. While I’m sure I don’t have the best weapons, I did spend virtual cash improving my arsenal. I care about the cool guns I collected. I also upgraded my characters with traits like faster healing and hacking. All this meant I had plenty to lose.
The idea that all that hard work would be flushed down the toilet if a rogue player got the jump on me, stealing my gear and making me spend more money to revive my character, just sounds too aggravating to deal with in the long run. The few times I was relentlessly preyed upon by enemy teams, sniped in the head just seconds away from taking off, were objectively funny but personally made me turn the game off.
Apparently, DMZ is one of the friendlier extraction shooters, a more accommodating and casual one despite the gruff bearded men. So, if this is an example of the genre with some hard edges softened, playing “real” extraction shooters, in all their notoriously hardcore glory, has even less appeal. Therefore, even if I do keep playing DMZ, it hasn’t inspired me to branch out into other games like it, from the trendsetter Escape for Tarkov to last year’s Arc Raiders. For me, Call of Duty isn’t a gateway but a dead-end.
Recommended by Our Editors
It’s one thing if we’re just talking about my personal preferences, but it becomes a larger shame if Call of Duty ends up eclipsing other rivals just through sheer ubiquity. Marathon is the kind of hardcore extraction shooter I have no interest in playing, but as one of the best games of the year, I have no doubt that it is better than COD DMZ. Our review praised the terrific gunplay, tense matches, and incredible graphics. Marathon is also the next game from Bungie, the makers of the legendary shooters Halo and Destiny (two franchises that, ironically, the COD publisher Activision has its tendrils in). But even with that quality and pedigree, Marathon reportedly is struggling to maintain a healthy number of players because it’s simply “too hard.” Meanwhile, Call of Duty will do just fine thanks to everyday folks like me. I’m part of the problem.
Drafted
I mentioned admiring Call of Duty’s generosity, but part of that generosity comes from a shameless willingness to absorb what’s already working in the shooter space, like an invading army forcibly drafting residents of a conquered nation. The game is a microcosm, a bird’s-eye view, of shooters as a whole. I wouldn’t have bought DMZ on its own, but I was willing to sample it as one part of the bigger package.
Maybe next I’ll try the battle royale mode from PUBG, or play more of the campaign, where Mads Mikkelsen plays a less interesting version of his Death Stranding villain while I shoot my way through action-movie rip-offs. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4) revolutionized the multiplayer military shooter back in 2007, inspiring games that not only imitated its aesthetic but also its systems. Today, though? Call of Duty chases trends instead of setting them, selling millions of copies every year nonetheless.
And in this particular instance, that’s okay by me. By cloning extraction shooters, the genre of the moment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 let me have a pretty good time seeing what all the fuss is about. It’s almost embarrassing, but DMZ simply being a part of a Call of Duty game is all it took for me to finally pull the trigger. I just hope that other extraction shooters, the ones that truly care about being the best they can be, find the players they deserve, even if those players extremely aren’t me.
About Our Expert
Jordan Minor
Principal Writer, Software
Experience
My PCMag career began in 2013 as an intern. Now, I’m a senior writer, using the skills I acquired at Northwestern University to write about dating apps, meal kits, programming software, website builders, video streaming services, and video games. I was previously a senior editor at Geek.com and have written for The A.V. Club, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. I’m the author of the gaming history book Video Game of the Year: A Year-by-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977, and the reason everything you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
Leave a Reply