Though it won’t rank among the greatest Call of Duty titles, Vanguard is a good diversion for fans of the series as they wait for Modern Warfare to return.
It seems like Call of Duty is having a stopgap year. Fun filler for fans to pass the time, Modern Warfare and Black Ops are two massive sub-brands that developer Sledgehammer Games finds itself wedged between. This return to World War 2 isn’t inherently flawed or unsettling, but Vanguard doesn’t accomplish anything particularly noteworthy either.
That setting shift back to World War II seems like a cliche. I was first introduced to the long-running shooter franchise by Sledgehammer’s fantastic Call of Duty: WW2, and since then, I’ve logged hundreds of hours in this new Call of Duty metaverse (sorry). Despite Sledgehammer’s best efforts to reinvent narrative, I find it difficult to get enthusiastic about another Call of Duty game that takes place in World War 2.
This time, the plot centers on a small group of World War II warriors chosen from among the allies to establish Task Force One, an early special operations unit that serves as a model for modern special forces. The Nazis are beaten and in disarray when the campaign starts, close to the conclusion of World War 2. Task Force One is called in to covertly infiltrate Germany in order to foil a covert scheme to keep the Third Reich in place.
The voices of the characters, who are all based on real-life World War II warriors, are loud and have good conversation, but the action lacks nuance and skill. Sergeant Arthur Kingsley, a British military hero, is the unit’s commander. Another character refers to him as being on a “crusade”.
Flashbacks are used to tell the main story of the campaign; each individual in this unique unit has a turn. These flashback missions serve as origin tales and are set during earlier World War II fights. Operation Tonga, led by Kingsley, saw paratroopers drop into France before to the D-Day assault. The Battle of Stalingrad is a flashback for Polina Petrova, the Russian sniper who was modeled by the real-life Soviet sniper Lyudmila “Lady Death” Pavlichenko. Wade Jackson, the American ace, has chosen the Battle of Midway as his flashback assignment. We also get to see the Battle of El Alamein, Tobruk, and the Numa Numa Trail.
With exquisitely detailed settings, striking visual effects, and the sound of a World War exploding over the speakers, every campaign objective is breathtaking. However, the gameplay is too formulaic to really stand out. Everything is so linear. Other than pointing and firing, there’s not much to consider. There are times, very few times, when you can assign your teammates to focus their fire on a specific target. A tedious sniper skirmish that turns into a ridiculous boss fight occurs in one of the set pieces. You are also tasked with blowing things up using explosives. Although they are basic, the stealth parts provide a change of pace. Although each persona is different, they are all medicore. For instance, Wade’s is “focus”. He can see foes through the Bougainville forest thanks to this superpower, which facilitates stealthy takedowns. In Vanguard, that’s as advanced as stealth goes.
I had high expectations for the Battle of Midway task, but I was not disappointed. Although it seems like a lot of fun to fly a World War II jet, fire down adversaries, and bomb warships, the task is too constrained and too rigid to allow the player the ability to express themselves in the air. The dogfighting is limited to moving a little and firing, and the play area is fairly short (you have to turn around if you touch an edge).
Actually, there isn’t much new in Call of Duty that we haven’t seen in the Vanguard campaign. Nothing here compares to Infinity Ward’s 2019 Modern Warfare’s nerve-wracking Clean House task. With its Hitman-style penetration of the KGB headquarters in Moscow, hideaway hub area, side missions, intelligence collection, and even puzzle solving, Black Ops Cold War even attempted something novel. As far as I can tell, there are no collectibles in the Vanguard campaign.
Nonetheless, Vanguard’s campaign should be commended for addressing the bigotry and prejudice of the time directly. The fact that Arthur Kingsley is a black guy does not sit well with the Nazis. There is also discussion about the British abuse of Australian personnel. I had fun working with the 93rd Infantry Division, a real-life segregated US Army force that was “colored” and participated in the Pacific conflict. The mission is well-done, and it taught me something.
But in the end, Vanguard’s effort seems flimsy. Its connections to the ongoing Call of Duty cinematic universe, which currently incorporates a single chronology including the realms of Modern Warfare, Black Ops, Warzone, and zombies, are likely what will pique fans’ curiosity. Zombies, indeed.
It’s best to play multiplayer. Rather of using the same technology as Black Ops Cold War, Vanguard is based on the amazing technical advancements Infinity Ward made for 2019’s Modern Warfare. It resembles Modern Warfare and Warzone more in terms of movement and shooting, which is advantageous for the impending osmosis with the all-encompassing battle royale.
Thus, Vanguard incorporates features from Modern Warfare and Warzone, such weapon mounting, double running, and breaking through doors. There are a few additions, however. A little amount of devastation occurs in multiplayer. On some areas, there are walls and windows that may be broken down to reveal new openings where you can fire and move about. The poster child for this new carnage is the Eagle’s Nest map, which is modeled on Hitler’s renowned mountain fortress. It has an outside road that passes past boarded-up windows that, when demolished, provide new ways to strike opponents inside. However, don’t anticipate anarchy like to Battlefield. When everything is said and done, Vanguard is just Call of Duty.
And it results in excellent gun feel. Fundamentally speaking, playing Vanguard feels fantastic. It moves at a breakneck 60 frames per second. It has a frenzied, quick pace. It’s more lightweight than Infinity Ward’s game and deadly, albeit not quite as deadly as Modern Warfare. Vanguard is a shooter looking for a sweet spot that falls between Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War. This game still has the same frustrating gameplay cycle that makes Call of Duty so popular.
You may choose how many players are in a match using the new Combat Pacing option. You want a “intimate and intense” fighting atmosphere while using tactical, which lengthens the time to engagement and is what makes for a traditional 6v6 experience. With “high action” fighting available for several players on large enough maps, Assault aims to engage players for an average amount of time. Blitz, on the other hand, aims for frantic, high-action warfare with a ton of players packed into maps. Do you recall Modern Warfare’s Shipment? With Blitz Combat Pacing, every map becomes a Shipment. This concept is good since it makes it simpler to get the experience you’re looking for and it opens up the possibility of all the maps becoming viable.
Fans of Call of Duty 6v6 will find lots here—hey, that’s me! The majority of the 16 normal multiplayer maps that Vanguard offers at launch—two of which are reimagined versions of Treyarch’s World at War—don’t interfere with the iconic run and shoot gameplay of COD. Vanguard’s color scheme is a tad more vivid than Modern Warfare’s, which was more of a war-torn muck. It provides passable sight on all save the snow-drenched battlefields. One early favorite is the new Patrol mode, which requires each side to capture and control a moving zone in order to score points. I can definitely see myself playing with it more in the months that follow launch.
In other news, Modern Warfare’s well-liked Gunfight mode has a logical progression to Champion Hill, a brand-new mode. Eight teams of two (in duos) or three (in trios) compete against one another in head-to-head matches on four specific maps; the victorious team is the last team standing. This has some subtle battle royale characteristics. Using buy stations, you may buy gear, perks, weapons, and killstreaks in between rounds. Before you are eliminated, you have a certain amount of lives left to use. Things become really stressful if you can make it to the final three. Although the enjoyment of Champion Hill is obviously dependent upon your colleagues’ desire to participate, I still believe it’s a rather cool concept.
However, there are several issues with Vanguard’s multiplayer. You may automatically equip every weapon with ten attachments by using the Gunsmith. Although I appreciate that there are ammunition type, proficiency, and kit slots and that the aim is to promote personalization, I can see guns eventually being super weapons with very strong setups.
It’s illegal that Vanguard doesn’t have a ping system at launch, but rumor has it one is on the way. The audio is shockingly muted, even when weapons fire (the guns in Modern Warfare are pretty powerful!). Furthermore, I’m not too excited about Killstreaks coming back after Scorestreaks from Black Ops Cold War. As one would expect, the goal of a killstreak is to gain kills, therefore playing the objective has less of a motivation. Upon death, killstreak progress is also reset.
Feedback on the contentious Scorestreak system in Black Ops Cold War must have influenced some of the thinking here. Scorestreak spam plagued that game when it first released the previous year, usually around the same moments in a match. This is not the case with Vanguard, whose Killstreaks include things like attack dogs, an airdrop that drops three care packages on the battlefield in an emergency, and the lethal Flamenaut defensive suit and flamethrower (with infinite fuel!). But obtaining your Killstreaks requires a lot of effort.
Though it’s a lot of fun, Vanguard’s multiplayer gameplay doesn’t accomplish anything especially novel with the Call of Duty template. While having an abundance of maps and modes is a positive thing, creativity has suffered as a result of the fixation on material. I’ll go from Black Ops Cold War to Vanguard since I’m a huge fan of Call of Duty 6v6, but it hasn’t completely won me over yet. Despite many launch issues, Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare rocked the Call of Duty multiplayer universe in 2019. Maybe we’ll have to wait till the next year for anything as significant as this.
Though I think some fans won’t be delighted by them, Vanguard’s Zombies mode brings bigger, more substantial adjustments. This instance of zombies links into the continuing Dark Aether narrative, which takes place during World War II. There are all-new characters, and each one provides a deeper understanding of the devils found in the Hell realm. The demons are really the real stars of the play. Four other demons that detest the large evil demon enough to cooperate with the players to fight it and a huge terrible demon that has fused with a Nazi are also there.
This implies that upon launch, Zombies will function as follows: Der Anfang has a central area modeled after the streets of Stalingrad strewn with dead bodies. In between rounds, you may spend resources there to level up your perks and weaponry. Portals lead to missions that take you back to Stalingrad after they’re finished. There are goals in places like Merville, Paris, and Shi No Numa, and when you accomplish them, more of the hub opens up, allowing you to access new regions.
There are only three distinct kinds of goals in Vanguard’s zombies mode at launch, and there’s a lot of “at launch” talk about it. In one, you have to fight off zombies while escorting a floating zombie head. One observes you enduring till the expiration of the time constraint. And the last kind of goal has you feeding certain items with a special drop that you sometimes get from a dead zombie.
Vanguard’s zombies mode has more than a hint of a roguelike quality to it. I never would have imagined that a Call of Duty game would remind me of Supergiant’s amazing Hades, but that’s exactly what happened to me when I was playing it. It’s fascinating to explore new, unlocked regions since the core area changes significantly when you finish a goal and return to it. You may spend a resource on the new Altar of Covenants to acquire one of three randomly selected abilities. At launch, there are eleven distinct Covenants, as they are termed. One increases the damage and healing of your melee strikes. You can revive friends more quickly with another. One even offers you the ability to win over opponents.
You get to choose from a new set of three skills every time you visit the hub. You must consider creating your build as you go through your run since you can only carry three at once. Additionally, the rarity of the powers made accessible to you becomes better as you accomplish tasks. The Altar of Covenants may bestow upon you immensely potent skills that, when combined with the appropriate build, can turn you into a zombie-killing machine.
This new Zombies encounter is very fun. It’s easy to use, stylish, and enjoyable. However, it becomes monotonous quickly due to the limited number of playable goals and AI kinds (a standard zombie, a red exploder, and a heavy zombie with a machine gun). This brings up the major issue with Vanguard’s zombies, which is that there isn’t a standard round-based zombies mode or main objective available at launch. All you have to do is go through the three objectives and hub area again. Regrettably, the next major task in the current Zombies plot doesn’t appear until after season one concludes, despite Activision’s assurances of more to come.
Isn’t everything a little bit flat? I spent much of my time playing Call of Duty: Vanguard in this manner. Although I like to play it, I’m not that good at it. It seems like a game with a lot more potential. with more time for development? Maybe. Not long after spearheading the creation of Black Ops Cold War the previous year, Treyarch developed Vanguard’s zombies mode. The 2020 Call of Duty game was once co-led by Sledgehammer, but due to rumors of conflict between the latter and Warzone guardian Raven Software, Treyarch was brought in to rescue the day. The production of Vanguard must have been especially challenging for the staff at the several companies now focused on maintaining the Call of Duty franchise, given all of this turmoil compounded by the epidemic.
Furthermore, it’s hard to forget the horrifying accusations that clouded every Activision Blizzard game for a very long time. Even though Blizzard has faced the greatest criticism, Call of Duty’s service record is marred by the vile corporate culture exposed by those bold enough to speak out about it. Ultimately, the choice to purchase or not purchase something is a personal one. I will add, however, that it is becoming harder and harder for me to get excited about Call of Duty the way I used to.
I have a feeling Vanguard will do well since Call of Duty does! It will offer absurd costumes for its World War II operators via its in-game shop. Expensive weapon skins will continue to bring in money. Vanguard will contribute to the war effort even as the Call of Duty menu screen grows, giving us another front to battle on as we enter what will undoubtedly be a challenging winter. Vanguard, however, won’t stick in your mind for too long, unlike its original material.