Call of Duty Warzone 2 developers at Infinity Ward that worked on its DMZ mode are apparently frustrated with the pre-reveal comparisons between it and hardcore extraction shooter Escape From Tarkov.
With both leaked and official information about the mode generating a lot of talk about how Call of Duty was attempting to replicate the success of Tarkov, this week’s reveal of DMZ during a content creator event highlighted that the two experiences are more different than everyone first thought. A couple of streamers in attendance who regularly play Escape From Tarkov were quick to give their thoughts and point out how the differences mostly outweigh the similarities, and it appears the constant comparisons have irked some of the developers that have worked on DMZ.
EFT streamer ‘Lvndmark’ – who was one of the creators invited to play DMZ early at the event – says that Infinity Ward devs became a bit sick of all the Tarkov talk in the Call of Duty community.
“The first fucking thing they said to us [content creators] was: ‘the internet thinks we tried to make Escape From Tarkov, but we did not,’” he says recalling his experience from the Warzone 2 event. “Stop comparing it. It’s not trying to be [Escape From Tarkov].”
While it’s mainly been the CoD community making these comparisons, Lvndmark also had some choice words for EFT players who were criticising DMZ both before and after the reveal event.
“Honestly, [I’m going to be] 100% real with you guys, a lot of people in this community dick ride the fuck out of this game,” he says, “and anything that isn’t this game they just hate for no reason – simply for the fact that it’s not Tarkov. Other things can be fun and can be different.”
It’s safe to say that DMZ is not as closely related to Escape From Tarkov as many predicted, even though it does draw on a lot of the extraction shooter-isms that EFT invented and popularised.
We still also don’t know the full extent of the mode. Lvndmark confirms that streamers were playing on an older build of the game, only a couple of DMZ matches were played before they switched to traditional battle royale modes, and the full info post detailing everything in the mode is yet to be published. We do know more about the core BR experience, including the new Warzone 2 Gulag.