COD Modern Warfare 4’s controversial Possum ability nerfed to stop it being used “as a combat mechanic instead of a survival mechanic”

Since the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ mode, players have been mainly arguing about two topics: whether there’s a need for a PvE-only mode, and whether Possum – an in-game trait – has a place in an extraction experience.

And developer Infinity Ward has clearly taken a side in the Possum argument by implementing a key change to how it works. In Modern Warfare 4’s latest patch, released overnight, the developer made it so that Possum – an ability that can revive a player – cannot be activated while the team that killed you is nearby. Possum also can’t be activated if it’s been less than four minutes since you were killed.

These two should address the most common complaints, but Infinity Ward left space for further tweaks in the future, such as by adjusting its range and duration.

If you’re unfamiliar, Possum allows a player to revive themselves from a completely dead state once per match. To other players around, you appear to be dead and your body can be looted. But by using Possum, clever players were able to exact immediate revenge on their killers – or anyone else standing around near their apparent corpse – by springing back to life and shooting them in the back.

Possum’s intended use was for dead players to have another shot at extracting from the match, rather than forfeiting the run entirely. Though their loot may be lost, Possum allowed players to save their operator.

Infinity Ward underlined this intention in a note accompanying the change. “The intention for Possum is to give a high level operator a second chance,” the developer said in a blog post. “With the current iteration, Possum was being used as a combat mechanic instead of a survival mechanic.

“These tweaks are meant to prevent players from getting right back into the fight which they had just lost. We will be watching the use of Possum with this change to see if it has the desired effect.”

Outside of that DMZ change, the 28th October patch includes a round of weapon balance changes. There are several buffs to assault rifles and SMGs, and some nerfs to the APOC-338 and FiNN LMGs. The buffs are notable given the across-the-board nerf Infinity Ward experimented with during the second beta weekend for Modern Warfare 4, which sought to increase the time-to-kill (TTK) impact of weapons, making them feel weaker as a result.

The patch also fixes several bugs players have been able to exploit in multiplayer and DMZ. And, in case you missed it, this is the patch that adds the Shipment map to the game – and yes, there’s a 24/7 playlist.

Eurogamer’s full review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is due later today.