The tension at the heart of modern Call of Duty between the on-rails rollercoaster of the campaign versus the sandbox design that's evolved over the last two decades of open-world gaming has resulted in three modes getting equal billing in Modern Warfare 4.

You've got your traditional narrative Campaign, which I covered last week (it's good). Then there's your Multiplayer component, with its multitude of game types to suit flag-capturers, bomb-planters, old-fashioned fraggers, or any other deathmatch-style, team-based or solo scenario you fancy.

But this time there's also DMZ, an extraction-based survival mode where you drop onto an enormous map (individually, or in online squads of up to three), loot what you can, complete optional objectives, call the helicopter, and hopefully evac back to basecamp to level up, craft or buy better gear, and ultimately redeploy and repeat.

Exfil yer boots

If you're unfamiliar with extraction shooters, Escape from Tarkov, ARC Raiders, and more recently Marathon are high-profile genre examples on other platforms, although DMZ will be many Nintendo gamers' introduction, as this brand of shooter is something of a novelty on Switch.

Infinity Ward is returning to the concept following Modern Warfare 2's DMZ mode back in 2022, although this iteration builds on that beta's foundations considerably. And it's nail-biting stuff - an addictive mix of online co-op, PvP/PvE elements, and a good dash of Left 4 Dead when you're waiting for evac with enemies closing in.

Back at basecamp, you pick an Operator and a loadout before dropping into the zone, with the main objective of making it out alive with your loot. If NPC enemies or other human Operators prevent you from getting to da choppa, your fallen character can be rescued by paying in-game currency, with the cost rising with every retrieval.

Otherwise, you can just start a new Operator from scratch and crack on, but the whole point of this mode is to survive and bring your booty back, building an arsenal and ticking off objectives at your FOB (Forward Operating Base).

It's at this base — where the camera snaps out to third-person — where you craft and 3D-print equipment after finding blueprints across the map, test your firearms, and carefully tailor your loadout before deployment. Alternatively, equipping a random free loadout will get you in the field fastest, where you can (hopefully) acquire better gear on the fly.

Before long, the gunsmith option opens up back at base and can start unlocking attachments, getting your setup just so, depending on your playstyle and preferences. It's worth noting, though, that bursting in, shotty blazing on a wing and a prayer, is a suboptimal strategy for this particular game type, even if that's your go-to happy place. Slow and steady wins this race. Slow and steady, and an assault rifle with decent range, an optic, and a suppressor.

A list of orders steers your progression with goals large and small, and various mechanics unlock as you find your feet. Story missions help guide your sorties in the huge map, parts of which will be familiar if you've played the campaign. As ever, learning the geography will give you a keen edge in combat.

Depicting a fictional zone on the border between North and South Korea, Hajin is an impressively realised and varied area. At the review event, speaking briefly with Geoff Smith, Infinity Ward's Co-Studio Creative Director, the effort that's gone into crafting and iterating on this enormous space was clear, with its zones offering plenty of terrain variety while flowing naturally from urban to suburban, forest and farmland. It's a good mix with plenty of visual interest and opportunities for emergent moments.

A monorail circles the map (worth hopping on, as there's loads of useful supplies onboard), and specific missions take you to the casino, the nuclear reactor, the shopping mall, and other points of interest. One early example has us rescuing a gurney-bound general from the hospital and fighting our way to the roof for extraction.

Three is the magic number

In a three-person squad, one 'leader' handles mission selection. Depending on where you roam, Side Ops crop up alongside your specific objectives, and there's great tension when you're scouting a zone filled with both NPCs and human characters. You'll soon recognise the 'weird' movement and behaviour of other players and react accordingly.

Hajin is littered with vehicles to commandeer, and you're free to lean out the windows, cruising through the DMZ with your crew and as much 'oorah' swagger as you like. Alternatively, stealth is usually the more intelligent approach, and a necessity if you're going it alone without a crew to back you up or revive your ass.

It's possible to form truces, team up with other squads, and even recruit another squad member in the field. Then again, it's equally possible to double-cross new allies or accidentally shoot them. Boo-boos will happen. Picking up downed enemies' dog tags raises your profile and you can find yourself with a bounty on your head, too - a target for other Operators looking to bank some XP and loot your gear.

You get XP for every kill, and using specific weapons levels them up. As you'd expect, there are lots of numbers going up at all times to give that dopamine hit even if you die. There's also a special inventory slot that saves a specific item even in the event of your demise, which is handy for rarer items - a key that unlocks a specific building on the map, for example.

Then there are named NPCs, tougher than average 'lieutenants' across the map to take down or avoid. Depending where you stray, they can spot and start stalking you at inopportune moments, too. More than once we bit off more than we could chew when The Doctor or some other boss-level enemy arrived on the scene doing their best Terminator impression, adding to the various platoons taking potshots at us.

Throw in human players attracted by the din and potential loot, and situations can go from 'oh dear' to 'oh no' to 'OH F*** WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!?!' in mere moments.

Weather can also affect how you approach things, making enemies easier to sneak up on if it's bucketing down, for instance. And then there's the radiation countdown, adding a time limit that gives you half an hour, tops, to get in and get out.

There's a lot to take in, a lot to consider and juggle. Balancing your backpack slots with your loadout, the supplies you loot, your team comms, the bounties you take on, the juggernauts you aggro, and everything else is challenging, and there's always the risk/reward tension between playing it safe or overextending for the sake of a juicy payday.

However, there's nothing like that feeling when you do scramble your way out of a tight spot, jamming armour plates down your vest while reviving teammates, and getting the hell outta there with the key or the clinic's medical supplies or whatever MacGuffin attracted you to the mission in the first place, assuming you didn't just stumble into a bad situation. It's a thrill. Everyone should exfil off a roof via Skyhook at least once in their life.

Switching mags

Playing at the review event, we encountered PC players on the map, although my team was comprised of Switch 2 shooters. Naturally, the PC squads were enjoying sharper visuals and higher frame rates, but we were holding our own, regardless. Fire was exchanged, names were taken (quite literally, dog tags were collected), revenge was sought.

DMZ appeared to target 40fps on Switch 2, and felt smooth enough in gameplay. Everything felt exceptionally solid and polished. Sure, this version will present additional challenges for high-level CoD players used to the highest possible specs, and a highly trained squad of die-hard, mouse-wielding PC players will definitely make for tough adversaries.

I'd argue that's the case for any console player, though. After two full days with DMZ and Multiplayer, it felt like a classic pad-versus-mouse scenario. You can choose to match up online against Switch 2 players only, but part of the attraction here is that Nintendo gamers aren't segregated into their own walled garden: from what I played, there's no reason for them to be. The Switch 2 teams remained competitive in DMZ, and this version gets the job done from a tech perspective.

Let's put it this way: Much as it might have been nice for my ego, I couldn't blame any poor performances on the tech.

(On the topic of Joy-Con mouse controls, they are implemented well, with loads of granular options for tweaking. However, I have been and always shall be a pad player.)

As with the campaign, I never felt I was getting the short straw on Switch 2. This is the full package. Turning your nose up at the necessary compromises is easy, but there's nothing to get upset about here, and an awful lot to cheer; Digital Legends has done very well squeezing the full DMZ experience from the hybrid console.

For anyone invested enough to read this far down in a Switch 2 impressions piece, you're likely familiar with the usual Switch port caveats, and I'd wager you'll be pleasantly surprised by how nice this looks and feels in motion.

Having spent more early access time with the Campaign over the weekend, I've come away even more impressed playing it at home on my own TV. I'm eager to dive into DMZ again as soon as possible.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches for Switch 2 on 23rd October. The full campaign, and now the DMZ mode, is playable now if you pre-ordered or pre-purchase the game. These impressions were written following a three-day review event hosted by Activision. Travel and accommodation were provided by the publisher.