Wanna know the truth about CoD Vanguard?
While a part of me wants to give a fanboy opinion, I’ll keep myself in check and talk fairly about Call of Duty: Vanguard and what it meant for the saga. We’ll go through the history of the game (its development, how it was received by the audience, and where it stands nowadays); we’ll analyze what makes it good and brings it down, its mechanics and game modes, so we can finally answer this question: is it really worth it or is it just another forgettable FPS? Is it a good step for the franchise or did they get it wrong again? (Yup, I’m talking ‘bout you Black Ops: Cold War)
Anyway, let’s get this started.
About CoD: Vanguard
Call of Duty: Vanguard is an FPS with 3 currently playable modes: campaign, multiplayer (with game modes such as Search and Destroy, Team Deathmatch, Dominion, etc.), and zombies. The main theme of this game is the super famous WWII and therefore, your equipment, killstreaks, and weapons will be those used during that conflict.
This game was developed by Sledgehammer Games and was finally released on November 5, 2021. Although before this game was officially released there was excitement from the fans, gradually bad reviews came in. Not only were many people disappointed by the various mechanics poorly integrated into the game, but they also felt tired of how Activision has been handling their games lately, which is why it’s lost popularity and is harshly criticized nowadays.
This last one is due to the fact that the gamer community is tired of CoD's yearly releases representing only a poorly finished game, as it is believed that this one was rushed and had less than two years of development. However, Vanguard was the best-selling game of last November.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Story
They felt the Nazi terror, but now’s your turn to eradicate it.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Campaign
A group of soldiers drawn from the special forces united to put a definitive end to Nazi terror. Lucas Riggs, Wade Jackson, Arthur Kingsley, and the real star of the show: Polina Petrova are the main characters in this explosive adventure set in World War II.
The campaign mode of this game is just what you'd expect from Call of Duty: explosions, immersive sounds, and plenty of mayhem that will make you feel like you're at the front lines fighting in the war. It is a very good story but lacks originality in the missions and good character development, which ends up making this story and its battles something enjoyable, but quite forgettable. It is definitely a good job both in graphics and in the atmosphere of the second world war, but it ends up not standing out because of how short and repetitive the journey is.
Vanguard Gameplay and Combat
At this point, we must make a brief analysis of each of the experiences provided by this game: campaign, multiplayer, and zombies. In order not to be boring, we will talk about each of them in summary, but without leaving any detail aside. Alright, let’s go.
Death and destruction in Vanguard’s multiplayer mode
Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer
Campaign:
I like the combat and mechanics in general. The character's movement is fluid and reacts when it should. Like any other CoD, you have a defined and not customizable character, but the variety of weapons offered by the campaign is excellent and compensates for the lack of character customization. The stealth assassinations seem very good to me and I think they have improved a lot. However, there is one extremely negative point and that is that you can't change your field of view. This is done in order to have a more "cinematic" experience but I don't think I'm the only player who hates the feeling of the screen being so absurdly large.
Multiplayer:
In general, I must say that it is fun... for a few hours. Vanguard's multiplayer mode has lots and lots of good things like weapon customization, operator levels, breakable structures, the camo grind, etc. It's a good multiplayer, but it has two points that lack personality: maps and killstreaks. Although I personally like most of the maps, there are several that just don't have an eye-catching or attention-grabbing atmosphere, like Numa Numa, Oasis, Radar, etc. - leaving aside that there are huge maps where when there are only 6 players on each team, the games feel endless.
Now talking about the killstreaks, I have to say in the most honest way: who the f*** designed them? With countless missiles falling all over the map at all times, not being able to get out of respawn, and dying every two seconds... do you really think it's going to be fun? Besides making you want to leave the game instantly, these explosive streaks only make the (poorly finished) game suffer because of the bugs. There’s just too much happening for the game to work properly.
Zombies:
I will be brief but very clear here: when I played this zombies mode, I just wanted to cry, delete the game and download Black Ops III again. Good graphics, good ideas but a lousy execution that not only makes the player feel bored, but directly feel that he is wasting his time. I sincerely hope they add more maps and different game modes, because this... this is a disgrace.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Quest System
As we mentioned in the campaign section, this game has a good design and you can see that they wanted to take care of it, but its biggest mistake is the repetition of the missions. Not counting some like the first and the last one, the game’s simply more of the same in different scenarios. There is not much interaction with the environment, there is not a single "wow" moment in the whole campaign... in general, it is not bad, but it could certainly be better.
Now, regarding the small missions or weapon challenges in multiplayer and zombies mode, I find them interesting, but having to play through 70 levels of a weapon seems absurd to me.
And of course, if you want to get the mastery camos, you have to raise each and every one of the guns to maximum level. It's almost like a desperate extension of the game.
Vanguard’s Graphics
Despite the game's performance on previous generation consoles (PS4, Xbox One), which is not bad, but certainly shows some downgrade, Call of Duty: Vanguard has extremely pleasing and beautiful graphics. The cinematics are very polished and the landscapes in the campaign mode look like a movie. As I said, many things can be criticized, but at the graphic level I think there is nothing but congratulations for this latest release of the saga.
The character's actions and, especially the behavior of the weapon, are realistic and manage to create an atmosphere worthy of war.
The graphics and zombies design is simply magnificent.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies
Game Developer
Sledgehammer Games was the studio in charge of the development of this game, at least most of it, since the Zombies mode was Treyarch’s responsibility. As we have already discussed, we can conclude that this project suffered from a rushed launch. The game itself looks like an ambitious idea that had little time to be very good and I think that's the sad part: if with little time this game was "good" why not wait a little longer to make it excellent?
Apart from that, the community as such is not listened to at all, and this can be noticed even in Warzone. Players complain and ask the developers (maybe not in the best way) to fix all the bugs or implement ideas that can really improve the game's performance, but all they get is silence and memes. It's as if in-game bugs don't matter unless they endanger bundle or battle pass sales.
However, new content arrives on a quarterly basis or so, as they introduce updates that bring a new battle pass, more weapons, more skins, and operators. At the moment we are waiting for the second season, which was delayed to work on the game's bugs that we hope will no longer bother us as they have done so far.
CoD: Vanguard Price
The game is available on game consoles such as PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and of course, also on PC. It currently costs around $60.00 but varies depending on the deals of your preferred console. However, the game also has an ultimate edition that includes additions such as skins, blueprints, and COD Points and is worth $100.00. In fact, these in-game coins are what you can use to buy battle passes or any bundle you like.
In case you are wondering, no, these purchases do not give you advantages when playing, since they are purely aesthetic. It has happened that by mistake a purchased weapon has more damage, but they always take care of fixing these problems as soon as possible.
FINAL VERDICT: 6.5/10
PROS:
- Gameplay and combat
- Weapon customization
- Game atmosphere
- Enough objectives to accomplish
- Enjoyable game pacing
- Graphics
CONS:
- Full game development
- Lack of originality and common sense
- New and fresh activities
- Horrible development of zombies mode
Call of Duty: Vanguard is not a bad game, in fact, I think it deserves to be described as a good one. The gameplay is good, the weapons are interesting and look pretty, yes it is enjoyable to play. I think the problem lies in the lack of love with which it was made. We gamers can see when a project is made with the desire to make it enjoyable and this one... just seems to be a desperate cry for money.
While it adds to the graphical and mechanical progress of FPS games, it is neither a step forward, nor a step backwards for the Call of Duty saga.
