Bumper feature.
Infinity Ward opened up early access to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ extraction mode overnight, meaning anyone who has pre-ordered a copy can now play the game's campaign as well as DMZ. And while early reactions to DMZ are fairly positive, there's one issue in particular, which a number of players have experienced, that has the capability of ending a round as soon as it begins.
The issue is to do with where DMZ spawns players. As an extraction shooter, DMZ's Hajin map offers multiple random spawn locations, and unlike traditional multiplayer modes, DMZ spawns are often on the edges of the map - far away enough from any action to allow players a chance to strategise and pick a target destination.
But unfortunately, one of the spawn-points Infinity Ward picked happens to be placed in the middle of a road, meaning that if you're unlucky, you might spawn as an enemy patrol is driving on it, flattening you and ending your round.
This nearly happened to Reddit user grillimperator, who was given a small window of time to jump out of the way. Reddit user Deep-Operation-3552, however, wasn't so lucky, immediately falling to the ground as soon as they got control of their character after the infil cutscene. As others noted in the replies, the timing of the 'Welcome to the DMZ' voice alert playing just as they die makes it all the more absurd. Judging by those examples, at least, there doesn't appear to be any form of spawn protection.
DMZ offers certain options to get back up after being downed, but if you don't have the necessary equipment, there's nothing you can do. Still, that wouldn't have mattered in the above instances, because the players were run over twice.
Given the persistent nature of DMZ, dying also means losing everything you entered the match with, which could be infuriating if that was the round you decided to pack your good gear.
Thankfully, the bug is one of several issues Infinity Ward fixed in a new DMZ patch. The patch notes specifically called out the problem: "Fixed some instances where enemy AI could run over players while infilling."
Modern Warfare 4's final mode, traditional multiplayer, unlocks at the game's full launch this Friday, 23rd October on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2. So far, players appear to be happy with the game's campaign, making it of the most well-received COD games on Steam. One player even managed to finish the campaign on its hardest, single-life mode YOLO.
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