COD Modern Warfare 4 has seemingly answered DMZ players' PvE calls with new Story Mission changes - but there are major caveats

For as long as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ extraction mode has been available, there've been calls for PvE-only servers . Developer Infinity Ward , for its part, has maintained the mode is designed as a PvPvE experience , but it's now seemingly made a change offering solo players something of a compromise, albeit with caveats.

Vendoring how it works.

For as long as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ extraction mode has been available, there've been calls for PvE-only servers. Developer Infinity Ward, for its part, has maintained the mode is designed as a PvPvE experience, but it's now seemingly made a change offering solo players something of a compromise, albeit with caveats.

In DMZ, your choice of deployment type dictates the matchmaking pool you're put into. You can choose to freely roam the map, picking up tasks as you go, or participate in slightly more structured Dynamic Ops which constantly generate tasks for you to do. But DMZ also has Story Missions, a title that suggests they're private instances. But that wasn't the case at launch. Although the number of players allowed into Story Mission instances appeared to be smaller than in other modes, it was still possible to run into other players, which meant potentially unwanted PvP encounters.

Now, however, Infinity Ward appears to have made Story Missions private, but only for solo players, and only when playing a Story Mission for the first time - after which, repeated attempts will be much less forgiving.

Infinity Ward has not officially announced a change, but players began noticing it on Reddit and elsewhere, and I wanted to investigate for myself: I just finished a Story Mission - a first attempt - and despite making as much noise as possible, I ran into no other players. The Recent Players list in the social tab, which displays the names of players you've recently crossed paths with, was likewise empty for me. I also noticed zero activated UAV Towers and SAM Sites - a rare sight in PvPvE matches where players always run to the former to reveal enemies around them. There's some suggestion you may still run into others in a Story Mission, however, so best not lower your guard.

As welcome as the change is, it highlights the split in DMZ's community. Many would rather not cross paths with other players, and it's especially frustrating for those expecting a purely PvE mode in this year's Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (2026)

Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S