Missions and Enemies are Still Painfully Hard and Often Harder in DMZ Season 2, Contrary to Infinity Ward Balancing

DMZ Season 2 is live now and, in preparation for the season, Infinity Ward said that the enemies and missions would be easier in Season 2. After playing a few matches of DMZ and unlocking the higher-tier White Lotus and Legion missions like Break Check, you’ll notice very quickly that the enemies and missions in DMZ are still painfully hard, if not harder.

Infinity Ward explicitly said that DMZ Season 2 would see “a number of balance changes to adjust the types of AI spawning, the number of AI spawning, and the accuracy of AI at range and much more.” This would make the AI in DMZ still challenging, but less overpowered. They are still very much overpowered.

The same thing was said for the missions. In DMZ Season 1, some of the early and later missions were extremely difficult to complete. Infinity Ward “adjusted the overall scaling of difficulty in missions as the tiers progress” in DMZ Season 2, but even the tier one Legion missions are difficult. If those missions are already too challenging, how much more difficult could the higher-tier missions be?

Related: Warzone 2 DMZ Smuggling Tunnels Mission Guide: Where to Find Smuggling Tunnels

In Infinity Ward’s comments about the DMZ Season 2 AI and missions, they said that things would remain challenging, but be more fair. The current AI and mission difficulty in Al Mazrah and Ashika Island feels absolutely unchanged from Season 1, and if it does feel different, it is because it feels harder.

Because Infinity Ward doesn’t have good news for solo DMZ players, and even in squads the missions and enemies are overwhelming, the state of DMZ Season 2 is underwhelming and frustrating. What could be an excellent game of tactical strategy, stealth, and cooperation turns into an unattractive hellscape because of the extreme AI and mission difficulty.

I love the idea of DMZ and think the extraction game mode could be the next Battle Royale. However, if Infinity Ward wants to be the pioneers of bringing the extraction game mode to a wide audience, they need to make DMZ fairer, and ultimately more fun, for all players.

Unfortunately, DMZ still has a long way to go. So far, Season 2 hasn’t brought it any closer to being where it needs to be. Hopefully, Infinity Ward will implement patch notes soon to fix and fine-tune their extraction experience.