“Why the f**k would they add a perk like that?” – Modern Warfare 4 DMZ players are up in arms over the ability to self-revive

Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ extraction shooter mode has only been out for two days – and only for those who pre-ordered the game – but already players are up in arms over a particular trait that allows competitors to revive themselves after being killed.

That trait is called Possum, and is one of the many abilities players can unlock as they level up their operators. How it works is this: if the trait is active, you’re given the option, once per match, to revive yourself on command when killed. Doing so places you in a Last Stand state, and you’ll need to pick yourself up from this vulnerable downed position to continue playing. All together, getting back into the firefight from dead takes around 10 uninterrupted seconds. You also lose any loot you’ve gathered when you revive – so you’re back to square one.

It goes without saying that the ability to come back to life at all in an extraction shooter is a bold addition to DMZ. There doesn’t seem to be a great way to see if a dead opponent has it, meaning every player you kill could come back for revenge later in the match when your guard is down. It doesn’t take long to unlock either! If you focus your operator progression solely on the Warfighter path, Possum can be unlocked in a handful of hours. As such, it’s likely someone in a DMZ match will be ready to pounce. And to say Possum is proving divisive among Call of Duty players would be an understatement.

“Possum is garbage and needs to be deleted ASAP,” pdmaloney94 wrote on the DMZ subreddit. This mechanic breaks DMZ in my opinion and severely takes the stakes out of [matches]. After fully killing a team we now have to babysit their corpses until we can confirm that they returned to the lobby? Who on earth thought this was a good idea to implement into an extraction shooter?”

That sentiment was mirrored by other players too. “I just clutched a 1v3 in the underground mall, go to revive my teammate before looting anyone, and the first person I killed is laying in the corner and kills me, “SkinDiesel wrote. “Why the f**k would they add a perk like that to an extraction shooter? I get the self-revives and tourniquets, but reviving yourself from death for free every single game is diabolical.”

Some players pushed back, however, offering a more measured evaluation of Possum and some strategies to counter it. “Just move on and they won’t catch you because they have no loot to pursue,” suggested cleppingout. Wilus82 brought up an interesting idea too: “I was reading that people were saying to put trip mines or land mines on their bodies.”

Already, prominent Call of Duty YouTubers are decrying the trait. Phixate lambasted it as “completely broken”, while Wynn-Gaming called Possum “crazy” – the trait drawing criticism largely due to its potential impact on team-vs-team gunfights. After all, pushing toward a team once you take down one of their members and thin out the ranks is a strategy as old as time. If that apparent numbers advantage suddenly evaporates mid-conflict, it’s potentially a big deal.

My take? I hope Possum doesn’t get nerfed, at least for a few weeks. Let it ride. Already we’re seeing the way it’s encouraging players to adopt interesting new strategies, and two days isn’t nearly enough time to determine whether the trait is genuinely broken. Let the meta game settle, allow people to push it to its limits, then, if it remains a problem by December, call pest patrol on the possum.

DMZ’s new trait isn’t the only thing raising eyebrows, of course.. Players have been spawning in the middle of roads and immediately getting run over, which is hilarious. It’ll be interesting to see what else emerges when the wider populace gains access later today.