Infinity Ward Details Call Of Duty: MW4 Korea Campaign And DMZ In Tokyo
Infinity Ward is putting a full DMZ mode into the base product after running it as an experimental beta four years ago, and pairing that with a campaign that the studio itself describes as having challenged its own staff.
Key Facts
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled for release on October 23, with Microsoft hosting a Tokyo media presentation and joint interview ahead of launch.
- The campaign is three acts, opening with South Korean private Park and moving to John Price, who hunts a figure called Archer and allies with cartel leader Valeria.
- MW4 settings include the Korean Peninsula, Mumbai, New York, Paris, and Russia.
- DMZ is set in the irradiated town of Hajin and has three modes: Story Missions, Dynamic Ops, and Free Roam.
- Jeff Negus is narrative director and Jeff Smith is studio multiplayer creative director at Infinity Ward.
Reporting from 2 sources: Inside, Game Spark.
Microsoft held a Tokyo media presentation and joint interview for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, set for release on October 23. Infinity Ward narrative director Jeff Negus and studio multiplayer creative director Jeff Smith both appeared. Negus said gameplay comes first and that the campaign splits across a three-act structure: South Korean private Park's patrol upended by a North Korean attack, John Price acting alone on a revenge hunt for a figure called Archer and allying with cartel leader Valeria, and a North Korean side led by Ri, sister of a new supreme leader, and her adjutant Ko. Settings extend past the Korean Peninsula to Mumbai, New York, Paris, and Russia. Graves and Makarov return among hostile forces. New footage ended with Mads Mikkelsen appearing. Smith described multiplayer as polished and grounded, with reactive map objects and faster movement. He presented DMZ as a game within a game, set in the irradiated town of Hajin.
Smith tied the DMZ design directly to feedback from the earlier beta, which released four years ago and was, in his account, extremely well received. He said the issues that surfaced through that experimental project became the driving force behind the new version, and that the beta gave the team direct access to what players wanted.
DMZ links to the campaign and starts after the campaign ends, in a restricted zone. Hajin, the mode's setting, was built from the first day of development with both single-player and DMZ in mind, so players who revisit it after time has passed see the results of the campaign. Hajin sits between North Korea, South Korea, and Russia, and carries a dynamic weather system that shifts from light rain to heavy rain and from thin fog to dense fog, affecting AI vision and hearing, not only the look of the field.
Its three modes are Story Missions, Dynamic Ops, and Free Roam. Players face the Hundred Spirits faction, whose AI runs in three tiers with a rare fourth, plus hired mini-bosses called Lieutenants. A Forward Operating Base carries progression, and an NYA system lets players pay in-game money to rescue a downed operator, though gear is lost and the special tree progress stays. Smith summed up the package as a playable movie, heated PvP, and DMZ at the center.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.