DMZ – It's NOT Tarkov and that’s Okay

What a lot of us were expecting DMZ to be is... not that. In fact, the only part of DMZ rhat is even remotely close to Tarkov is losing your gun when you die. The similarities end there. And while I was personally hoping it would be a little “tougher” on the player when death occurred, the fact it isn’t doesn’t make the mode any less interesting or fun. DMZ is its own thing; so, we should talk about it as such. And from playing the mode for a couple days now, the aspects that are interesting are very much so, however there are some things about it that I hope to see improve overtime.

Immediately, the AI is probably my personal favorite part of the mode. They behave as I hoped they would; the work together, take cover, flank, use utility; it’s awesome when you hold up in a building and see a helicopter drop a squad of AI around you and you are forced to fight them. Especially if you only have access to one plate. Even just one AI can be scary because while they aren’t aim botting assassins like other games, they can still do a lot of damage and quickly enough to take you out. Now of course, they can still be derpy and unaware of your presence even when right in front of them, but for the most part, it’s a breath of fresh air to have AI do interesting shit. They’re not perfect, but coming from Tarkov and its AI, I’ll take what I can.

The main loop of DMZ is completing your missions for whatever faction you are working towards. There are a lot of different things to do when you enter into DMZ, so if you’re unsure what your goals should be, at the very least you can try to focus on your missions. There are plenty of other things to do which is nice as well. Loot, fight other players, complete contracts, take on strongholds; they definitely put some thought into the 30-second loop of DMZ and it’s appreciated. Perfect? No, of course not. But it’s better than the being a quiet barren scape that’s empty. The cherry on top is some of the events that can occur while you’re running around. Other players can activate events that notifies the lobby letting you know something big is going down somewhere else on the map. A team could be entering a stronghold, attempting to take control of a NAV site to prevent extractions, or simply trying to extract themselves, the game does a solid job of keeping you informed as to what’s going on around the map. The comparison for Tarkov would be when people activate extracts like any car or bunker hermetic door extract, and the text turns green or red depending on what’s happening. It’s pretty neat.

Now, probably the biggest disappointment for myself personally, was the lack of impact the game has when you die. The worst thing is all the stuff you looted plus whatever guns you have on you are gone. Technically, any higher tiered vest plus gasmask is gone too, but those are common enough that the penalty doesn’t really feel like one. My hope was being able to store some of those utility items like bigger backpacks, vests and more. It would’ve been cool to have even just three or four laying around in case you wanted to go in with more health, but again, they’re common enough that it’s okay. It’s funny too, because the biggest loss you can have, is your custom-built weapon that’s on roughly a ten-hour cooldown when you initially die. But this is reduced by how much money you can extract with. Which isn’t a huge issue, considering the guns you can pick up off of dead AI and can find in the world are very serviceable. They’re not min-maxed by any stretch of the imagination, but they certainly get the job done. And with how little you will most likely run into other players unless you are going gun-ho for it, the pre-built weapons do their job and then some. Overall, when death occurred, I was hoping for just a little more “oomph”, but when I die, I just get another gun or even just go in with fists and make it work. It's not that difficult.

What is somewhat of a challenge however, is playing DMZ by yourself. As someone who primarily played Tarkov as a solo for years, with how quickly you can take our enemies, being by yourself is hard, but very doable given the right circumstances. In DMZ however, enemies of all types have a lot more health and you only have so much ammo in a single mag. So, trying to take out a group of three straight up is very difficult to achieve because everyone is so spongy. Is it possible? Yes, of course, but I haven’t done it yet and I'm eager to keep trying until I do.

DMZ is a very interesting new mode for COD to try. At the very least, it’s refreshing to see them actually attempt something new instead of just hashing the same game for the umpteenth time because it works. Making it free to play was also a huge win as well for those who weren’t interested or impressed by the rest of the game. I am interested to see where it goes and how Infinity Ward changes it for better or worse. It’s a great foundation to a mode that I do hope gets iterated upon with each new season. It has problems, but so does the rest of the game. But it certainly is better than Warzone 2.0; which I think I’ll dedicate a whole video to that mode as well, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, if you enjoyed this video and want to support the channel, be sure to like and subscribe for more videos about the things I find interesting and want to have a conversation about. I hope to see you in future ones.