A new perk allows for free self-respawn in the extraction shooter. The community is up in arms, but the uproar might be unfounded.
The DMZ extraction shooter mode from Modern Warfare 4 has only been online for two days—and even then, only for pre-order customers. Nevertheless, one specific feature is already causing quite a stir in the community: it allows players to revive themselves after dying.
Self-revival is drawing a lot of criticism
The ability is called Possum and is one of the many talents you can unlock as you level up your operators. The mechanic behind it is simple: When the ability is active, you can revive yourself once per match after dying with the push of a button. This puts you into Last Stand mode, and you’ll have to get back on your feet from this vulnerable position on the ground. Overall, the journey from death back into combat takes about ten uninterrupted seconds. However, you’ll lose all the loot you’ve collected upon reviving—so you’ll start from scratch again.
The fact that you can resurrect yourself from the dead in an extraction shooter is undeniably a risky feature for DMZ. Furthermore, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether a downed opponent has equipped this ability. This means any player you’ve killed could return later in the match and seek revenge the moment you let your guard down. Unlocking it is also extremely fast! Anyone who focuses entirely on the Warfighter path for Operator progression will unlock Possum in just a few hours. So there’s a high probability that someone in a DMZ match will be just biding their time, waiting for their chance. To say that Possum will divide the Call of Duty community would be an understatement.
“Possum is absolute garbage and needs to be removed as soon as possible,” wrote pdmaloney94 in the DMZ subreddit. “In my opinion, this mechanic ruins DMZ and takes all the thrill out of the matches. Now, after taking out an entire team, do we have to babysit their corpses until we’re sure they’re back in the lobby? Who on earth thought this was a good idea for an extraction shooter?”
Many players feel the same way. “I just pulled off a 1v3 clutch in the underground mall. When I tried to revive my teammate before looting anyone, the first enemy I killed was lying in the corner and shot me down,” wrote SkinDiesel. “Why on earth would you put a perk like that in an extraction shooter? I can understand self-revives and bloodletting, but reviving yourself for free from death in every single match is just insane.”
However, there are also more level-headed voices that evaluate Possum more objectively and suggest counter-strategies. “Just keep moving. They can’t catch up to you anyway because they don’t have the loot to chase you,” cleppingout suggested. Wilus82 also brought an interesting idea to the table: “I’ve read that some people suggest simply placing tripwires or landmines on the corpses.”
Prominent Call of Duty YouTubers are already sharply criticizing the feature. Phixate called it “completely broken,” while Wynn-Gaming simply labeled Possum “crazy.” The main criticism centers on the impact during team-versus-team battles. After all, closing in on an enemy team as soon as you’ve taken out a member and thinned their ranks is a timeless tactic. When this supposed numerical advantage suddenly vanishes in the heat of battle, it fundamentally changes the dynamics.
My take? I hope Possum isn’t nerfed just yet—at least not for a few weeks. Let’s give it some time. After all, the ability is already inspiring players to develop interesting new strategies. Two days are nowhere near enough to judge whether the ability truly disrupts the game’s balance. Let the meta-game settle first and give people time to push the feature to its limits. If it’s still a problem by December, we can always call in the exterminator on the possum.
By the way, the new Possum ability isn’t the only thing raising eyebrows right now. Players are spawning in the middle of streets and getting run over right away—which is pretty amusing. It’ll be interesting to see what other oddities pop up once the general public gains access to the game later today.
