Call of Duty: Warzone 2Season 2 is giving fans of regular battle royale gameplay and DMZ alike something to be excited about with the release of the new Resurgence map. ThoughAshika Islandis promising, and longtime players are excited for the return of the old loot system and a traditional Gulag, one aspect of the Season has led to widespread disappointment instead of hype: the DMZ reset.
With the next Season,Call of Duty: Warzone 2will be setting every DMZ player’s inventory back to a default state. Their faction progress will be set at 0%, and every key or gun stashed in their inventory will be removed. The only thing that will carry over is unlocked weapon slots, but for players who spent hours upon hours grinding out missions, the disappointment is understandable.
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Why Call of Duty: Warzone 2’s DMZ Refresh is Frustrating
Though theCall of Duty: Warzone 2DMZ mission poolcould get massive if it was never refreshed, and keeping everyone on an even playing field at the start of a Season makes sense, it is hard for those that spent hours grinding to feel like they did not waste their time. Some players spent over 100 hours completing the toughest missions in DMZ to collect their rewards, and now they may feel like it was all for nothing.
Though DMZ’s weapons and keys are not too important in the grand scheme of things, losing them feels like a bit of an unnecessary blow. It was also an unexpected one, as fans were not given any warning before they began leveling up their factions. Similargames likeEscape from Tarkovhave had these kinds of resets, and DMZ is in a beta state, but the lack of communication has made the response to the reset worse than it would have been if players knew it was coming ahead of time.
What makes matters worse is how much effort the DMZ missions originally tookCall of Duty: Warzone 2players to complete. While this was unnecessarily tedious and grindy, and the plan to make them easier to deal with just likeDMZ’s AI enemiesis a good one, the work required for the old missions meant that finishing them felt like an accomplishment. Unfortunately, players are essentially having that hard work deleted as if it never happened.
DMZ players also do not know if the new batch of missions will provide more rewards, and if they do, what will happen to the old ones. If the old mission rewards are gone for good, without players knowing they were limited time, then they could feel like they missed out. If the same missions are just made easier though, and very few new rewards are added, then players could feel disinterested in grinding through the content since they will already have a majority of the unlocks. Striking the right balance will be difficult, and while a beta state providesDMZ’s developerswith some time to get things right, the response to the reset suggests that it may have been a mistake.
The decision to go with seasonal resets makes the mission system a lot less appealing to someCall of Duty: Warzone 2players. Unless the missions can easily be completed each Season, players could end up ignoring them and DMZ as a whole. At the same time, making them too easy could see players moving on from DMZ a week into the Season since they feel like they have done everything. Given theCall of Duty: Warzone 2community’snegative response to DMZ’s refresh, it is hard not to wonder if a continuously growing mission lineup would have been the better approach.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
