Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is coming for the extraction shooter crown

The past year of Call of Duty leaks and rumors have frequently talked about a mysterious new Warzone mode that incorporates "sandbox" gameplay and AI enemies. Today, Infinity Ward confirmed that Warzone 2.0 will include a mode called DMZ, an "extraction mode" that sounds a lot like Hunt: Showdown and Escape From Tarkov.

Infinity Ward is still holding back on details, but we know that DMZ will allow players to enter the map, achieve their goals, and extract from the map whenever they want. That's a major change from the standard battle royale format (which Warzone 2.0 will also include) that forces players into random play zones until only one player or team is left alive.

DMZ will also adopt the gun and equipment buy phase of other extraction shooters. A Warzone 2.0-focused blog post published today says you'll be "collecting gear to keep in your Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 inventory and utilize from match to match."

I expect this to work a lot like Hunt and Tarkov, wherein players purchase guns and equipment from an in-game store and build the loadout they enter the match with. If you die before extracting, everything you bought is lost. Loadouts have been the heart of Warzone since its launch, so this is a natural fit, but I expect Infinity Ward to have its own twists.

Warzone 2.0 is coming out this year, sometime after the October 28 release of Modern Warfare 2. It'll come with a new map called Al Mazrah, which is apparently the largest Warzone map to date.