But this time there’s also DMZ, an extraction-based survival mode in which you drop into a huge map (individually or in online squads of up to three), loot what you can, complete optional objectives, call in the helicopter, and hopefully return to base camp to level up, craft or buy better equipment, and ultimately redeploy and repeat.
Take off your boots
If you are not familiar with snippet shooters, Escape from TarkovARC Raiders and more recently Marathon are high-profile examples of the genre on other platforms, although DMZ is many Nintendo gamers’ introduction, as this brand of shooter is new to Switch.
Infinity Ward returns to the concept after Modern Warfare 2’s DMZ mode in 2022, although this iteration builds significantly on the foundations of that beta. And it’s gripping stuff: an addictive mix of online co-op, PvP/PvE elements and a nice touch of Left 4 Dead as you wait for evacuation with enemies closing in.
Back at base camp, you choose an operator and equipment before setting out into the area, with the main objective of making it out alive with your loot. If enemy NPCs or other human operators prevent you from accessing Da Choppa, your fallen character can be saved by paying in-game currency, with the cost increasing with each recovery.
Otherwise, you can just create a new Operator from scratch and continue, but the goal of this mode is to survive and bring back your loot, building an arsenal and checking off objectives on your FOB (Forward Operating Base).
It’s at this base – where the camera shifts to third-person – that you craft and 3D print gear after finding blueprints on the map, testing your guns, and carefully tailoring your equipment before deployment. Alternatively, equipping free, random gear will get you into the field the quickest, where you can (hopefully) acquire better gear on the fly.
Before long, the gunsmith option opens at the base and can start unlocking attachments, thus getting your setup, based on your playstyle and preferences. It’s worth noting, however, that barging in, wing shooting, and praying, is a suboptimal strategy for this particular type of game, even if that’s your preferred venue. Slow and steady, he wins this race. Slow and steady, and an assault rifle with decent range, optics, and a suppressor.
A list of orders guides your progress with objectives large and small, and various mechanics unlock as you find your feet. Story missions help guide your outings across the massive map, parts of which will be familiar if you’ve played the campaign. As always, learning geography will give you a huge advantage in combat.
Depicting a fictional area on the border between North and South Korea, Hajin is an impressive and varied area. During the review event, speaking briefly with Geoff Smith, Co-Creative Director of Infinity Ward Studio, the effort put into creating and iterating on this massive space was clear, with its areas offering a wide variety of terrain while flowing naturally from urban to suburban to forest to farmland. It’s a good mix with lots of visual interest and opportunities for emergent moments.
A monorail circles the map (it’s worth getting on, as there are plenty of useful supplies on board), and specific missions take you to the casino, nuclear reactor, mall, and other points of interest. A first example shows us the rescue of a general on a hospital stretcher and our way to the roof for extraction.
Three is the magic number
In a team of three people, a “leader” takes care of mission selection. Depending on where you move, side operations appear alongside your specific objectives, and there’s great tension as you explore an area filled with both NPCs and human characters. You will soon recognize other players’ “weird” movements and behaviors and react accordingly.
Hajin is littered with vehicles to commandeer, and you’re free to lean out of windows, cruise the DMZ with your crew, and do as much “oorah” bluster as you want. Alternatively, stealth is usually the smarter approach and a necessity if you’re going it alone with no crew to support or revive you.
It is possible to form truces, team up with other squads, and even recruit another squad member on the field. Again, it is also possible to overtake new allies or shoot them accidentally. Bad things will happen. Picking up dog tags from downed enemies raises your profile, and you may also find yourself with a bounty on your head – a target for other Operators looking to gain XP and loot your gear.
You get XP for each kill, and using specific weapons upgrades them. As you would expect, many numbers increase at all times to give that dose of dopamine even if you die. There’s also a special inventory slot that saves a specific item even if it goes missing, which is handy for rarer items – a key that unlocks a specific building on the map, for example.
Then there are named NPCs, harder than the average “lieutenant” on the map to eliminate or avoid. Depending on where you wander off, they may also spot you and start stalking you at inopportune times. More than once we got more than we could chew when the Doctor or another boss-level enemy arrived on the scene doing his best Terminator impersonation, adding to the various platoons firing at us.
Throw in human players attracted by the noise and potential loot, and situations can range from “oh my God” to “oh no” to “OH F***, WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!” in a few moments.
The weather can also affect how you approach things, making enemies easier to surprise if you fall, for example. And then there’s the radiation countdown, which adds a time limit that gives you half an hour maximum to get in and out.
There’s a lot to take in, a lot to consider and juggle. Balancing your backpack slots with your gear, the supplies you loot, your team’s communications, the bounties you accept, the heavy hitters you aggro, and everything else is a challenge, and there’s always the risk/reward tension between playing it safe or overextending yourself for the sake of a juicy payday.
However, there’s nothing like that feeling when you TO DO get out of a bad situation, jam some armor plates onto your vest while reviving your teammates, and get out of there with the key or medical supplies from the clinic or whatever MacGuffin lured you to the mission in the first place, assuming you didn’t fall into a bad situation. It’s a thrill. Everyone should escape from a roof using Skyhook at least once in their life.
Change magazine
During the review event, we encountered PC players on the map, although my team consisted of Switch 2 shooters. Naturally, the PC teams benefited from sharper visuals and higher frame rates, but we held our own regardless. Gunshots were exchanged, names were taken (literally, dog tags were taken), vengeance was sought.
DMZ seemed to target 40fps on Switch 2 and felt quite smooth in gameplay. Everything seemed exceptionally solid and polished. Of course, this release will present additional challenges for high-level CoD players accustomed to the highest specs possible, and a highly skilled team of die-hard mouse-wielding PC gamers will certainly make for some tough opponents.
I would argue that this is the case for any console gamer though. After two full days with DMZ and Multiplayer, it felt like a classic pad versus mouse scenario. You can choose to compete against only Switch 2 players online, but part of the appeal here is that Nintendo players are not separated in their own walled garden: from what I’ve played, there’s no reason for them to be. Switch 2 teams have remained competitive in DMZ, and this version gets the job done from a technological standpoint.
Let’s put it this way: while it might have been nice for my ego, I couldn’t blame poor performance on the technology.
(As for the Joy-Con mouse controls, they are well implemented, with plenty of granular options for tweaking them. However, I have been and always will be a pad gamer.)
As with the campaign, I never felt like I got the short straw on Switch 2. It’s the complete package. It’s easy to ignore the necessary compromises, but there’s nothing to get upset about here, and plenty to celebrate; Digital Legends has done a great job of extracting the entire DMZ experience from the hybrid console.
For anyone who’s invested enough to read this far into an article about Switch 2 impressions, you’re probably familiar with the usual caveats about the Switch port, and I’d bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how beautiful this is in motion.
After spending more time in early access to the campaign over the weekend, I came away even more impressed playing it at home on my own TV. I can’t wait to dive back into DMZ as soon as possible.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches for Switch 2 on October 23. The full campaign, and now DMZ mode, is playable now if you have pre-ordered or pre-purchased the game. These impressions were written following a three-day review event hosted by Activision. Travel and accommodation were provided by the publisher.
Gn tech
