This Call of Duty: Vanguard review contains minor spoilers.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” But he was wrong. Nothing is certain, except for death, taxes, and a yearly Call of Duty title.
For a series that has released a new game every year since 2005, Call of Duty: Vanguard feels in some ways like just another copy-paste instalment. However, it also represents a formula perfected. While it undoubtedly lacks innovation and should arguably be doing more to justify its existence, Call of Duty: Vanguard proves that a return to WWII can still be fun. Even 18 games later.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Review – Campaign
You know what you’re getting with a Call of Duty campaign. 5 to 6 hours in length, high quality cutscenes and set pieces, and a fairly compelling yet shallow narrative. CoD: Vanguard is no different. If you’re expecting something groundbreaking, you’ll be disappointed. But if you like the sound of a high-octane war story that does just enough to mix things up from mission to mission, you’ll enjoy it. It’s not very historically accurate (the game’s final chapter sees to that), but it manages to capture the brutal essence of WWII despite its short run-time. Call of Duty: World at War it is not. But it ain’t bad.
Story
Call of Duty: Vanguard‘s campaign is told in a non-linear fashion. It centres around the Vanguard special operations task force, led by Arthur Kingsley. Joining Kinglsey are Milos Novak, Richard Webb, Wade Jackson, Polina Petrova, and Lucas Riggs. Each member of the task force has a unique ability that make them valuable to Kingsley’s unit.
The campaign opens with the whole squad on a mission to seize a German train to obtain intel about a mysterious Nazi operation, “Project Phoenix”. This leads them to infiltrate a Nazi submarine before being captured by Nazi commander, Hermann Freisinger. Once the squad are captured, Vanguard‘s narrative is told via each member’s interrogations at the hands of Freisinger’s subordinate, Jannick Richter (Lord of the Rings’ Dominic Monaghan). These take the form of flashbacks that take place at various times and places during the war.
Unfortunately, the individual backstories of each character are fairly underdeveloped and lacklustre. Only Polina’s offers anything in the way of significant character development. The story of her family and comrades in Stalingrad is Vanguard‘s best. And, to be honest, it could’ve been made into the entire game. The others aren’t so lucky. Their flashbacks serve simply to advance the main narrative and tell one-dimensional war stories. They’re not bad, just basic. Admittedly, there’s a limit to what can be done with such a short runtime. But then, had the focus been solely on Polina’s story, that wouldn’t have been an issue.
Gameplay
CoD: Vanguard‘s campaign is split across nine missions. You take control of a different member of the Vanguard squad for each one. And each member of the squad has (for the most part), their own unique ability. Again, Polina stands out thanks to her fun parkour and sniping abilities, but the others don’t quite match up. Wade can “Focus” to slow down time and auto-aim, and Riggs can carry multiple grenades and gets a throw arc. They aren’t anywhere near as interesting as Polina in practice and don’t change up the gameplay in any kind of meaningful way.
As with most Call of Duty campaigns, Vanguard also offers the illusion of choice when it comes to certain actions. As Kingsley, you can give orders to attack some enemy strongholds, fortifications or armaments as you see fit. However, it doesn’t really matter how you decide to play each encounter. I never got the impression my choices made any significant impact and I never gave them much thought, either. It’s a nice enough touch but a superficial one.
Ultimately, the campaign plays like any CoD you’ve ever played. Outside of repeated momentary freezes, it’s a refined experience that does everything it tries to do pretty damn well. It’s just that it doesn’t try to do anything new.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Review – Graphics & Audio
Call of Duty: Vanguard looks and sounds incredible. Everything from the detail on the guns to the atmospheric lighting looks excellent. It captures the atmospheric grit of World War II tremendously. Each level feels real – like it lives and breathes as you step through it. The PS5’s 4K resolution and 60 frames per second is a huge asset. And I can’t commend the artistic design enough – Vanguard is a stunning game.
Cutscenes are rendered in even greater detail, too. Characters look lifelike and are some of the best you’ll see in any game. On PS5, the frame rate drops to what looked like 30fps during said cutscenes. While it is jarring during transitions given the 60fps you experience elsewhere in Vanguard, it isn’t a real detriment. In fact, it adds a cinema-like quality to them.
Call of Duty: Vanguard sounds as good as it looks. Weapons are audibly varied, boomy and mechanical. The voice acting is of Hollywood standards. And battlefields are rife with bone-chilling screams, swooping planes and ear-splitting explosions. It’s a delight for the senses.
Graphics in Multiplayer are ever-so slightly less detailed than in the Campaign, but that’s to be expected. The option for live texture streaming is there for those who want as much detail as possible, too. But make sure you have a strong and fast internet connection before you enable it.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Review – Multiplayer
In much the same way that Vanguard‘s Campaign is same old, same old, so is its Multiplayer. And if it’s a familiar and well-rounded experience you’re after, you’re in luck. It’s worth pointing out that Multiplayer in Vanguard is essentially 2019’s Modern Warfare with a World War II coat of paint. It plays almost identically – but that’s fine if you’re happy with more of the same. Modern Warfare had arguably the best CoD multiplayer in recent years. It’s just a shame it does so little to freshen things up.
Champion Hill
Sledgehammer have attempted a couple of new things this time round. The first (and most obvious) being Champion Hill mode. Players squad up in either duos or trios and take on other squads in a round-based deathmatch tournament. Each team is allocated 12 shared lives (18 in trios) to last them throughout the tournament. Once your squad’s lives are gone, you’re eliminated. Rounds are short and the aim of the game is to deplete as many of the opposing squad’s lives as possible while conserving your own. The winner is the last squad standing.
As you fight and kill your opponents, you earn cash to upgrade your equipment and purchase weapons and perks during ‘Buy Rounds’. This helps mix the combat up and adds a strategic element to your purchasing decisions. You could buy a better gun but you’ll miss out on a handy Spy Plane. A full set of armour might be useful but Ghost would be, too. It all depends how your squad want to approach its rounds. Rounds take place across four tight maps and they’re all very similar to each other. I also found they heavily favour camping. The simplest solution is to wait on your side of the map for your opponents to come looking for you and then pick them off. And things only start getting exciting and tense once your lives are dwindling – the rest of the time it’s all rather mundane.
Combat Pacing
Vanguard also introduces new ‘Combat Pacing’ options which alter player count and the intensity of Multiplayer matches. There are three different pacing options to choose from: Tactical (standard 6v6 Call of Duty gameplay), Assault (more players and a balanced combat experience), and Blitz (all-out war with lots of players and action). You can filter matchmaking for each Combat Pacing option, which allows you to tailor your experience to the play style you prefer. I found Blitz to be an exhilarating frenzy most of the time and my personal favourite. It certainly suits modern CoD the best. All-in-all, it’s a nice addition but far from a game-changer. It just gives you that bit more control over the types of games you’ll be playing.
Gunsmith
Gunsmith makes its triumphant return and is still a highlight of Call of Duty‘s multiplayer offering. In Vanguard, Gunsmith is more comprehensive than ever and includes countless attachments and customisation options to play with. As you’d expect, attachments make a significant difference to the effectiveness of your weapons. For example, the STG44 (one of the current meta guns) is practically useless in its base form but unstoppable with the right enhancements. This makes levelling weapons somewhat painful at first but eventually very rewarding.
Whether or not Gunsmith is appropriate for a World War II game is another question entirely. CoD forums are rife with disagreements over what technology and attachments actually existed between 1939 and 1945. But let’s face it – Vanguard takes significant liberties with historical accuracy. Thermal scopes are an option in this game. And while things like that might help make Vanguard a more varied experience, it does so at the detriment of its setting and serves as a major immersion-breaker at times.
What’s even stranger is that despite the cavalier inclusion of futuristic tech in this historical setting, there are some glaring omissions that might have benefitted Multiplayer. Grenade and rocket spam is an issue, and the addition of a trophy system would’ve seen to that problem. Sledgehammer said certain things were left out due to Vanguard being a World War II game, but they might as well have gone the whole hog seeing as they included thermal scopes and remote control mini-tanks.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer Review – Gameplay & Maps
Vanguard‘s maps are a combination of mostly big-hitters and a handful of wide misses. Standouts include Demyansk, Dome, Castle, Das Haus, Hotel Royal, and – of course – Shipment. Meanwhile Gavutu, Sub Pens, Berlin, Eagle’s Nest, and Red Star leave quite a lot to be desired. Overall, maps are diverse and it’s clear Sledgehammer tried to offer something for everyone.
Multiplayer gameplay is as tight as ever. And as with the campaign, it’s incredibly refined – but after almost 20 instalments that’s surely a given. Everything is responsive and fast, and it all works as it should most of the time. Notable issues include weird spawn points (where enemies randomly appear on your side of the map or right behind you) and some minor visual bugs. It hasn’t been uncommon for me to spot a solider’s or dog’s body glitching out in mid-air. Matchmaking is far from perfect – particularly with friends – and it can take a while to get into a game.
If you’re a CoD fan, I’ve no doubt you’ll find lots to like about Vanguard‘s Multiplayer. It’s typical Call of Duty fare. And it’s undoubtedly an improvement over the lacklustre Black Ops Cold War. But it’s time for new ideas – I hope next year’s game moves the series away from its 2007 multiplayer comforts and takes some risks worthy of 2022.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Review – Zombies
I’m just going to get this out of the way. Zombies isn’t good in Vanguard. In fact, it’s pretty bad. Der Anfang is this year’s first Zombies map, and it’s easily one of the mode’s worst ever. It’s just too complicated. There’s too much of a focus on objectives, collectables, portals, perks, and power-ups. And none of it adds anything to the experience. In trying to bulk the mode out, Treyarch have somehow managed to water it down. Zombies is at its best when it finds a nice medium between massacring the undead and completing tasks. But this map is just so intent on getting you to think about everything. I just wanted to kill hordes of zombies, but Dar Anfang forces you to do everything else instead.
Fans of the long-running Zombies storyline will probably appreciate some of the new narrative nuggets, and maybe that makes Der Anfang worthwhile. But Zombies is yet another CoD staple crying out for reinvention. It was first introduced in 2008’s awesome World at War. It’s had many ups and downs since then – and this is definitely a down. I expect many players will be as disappointed with it as I was.
Verdict
Call of Duty: Vanguard does everything except Zombies very well. The problem is, we’ve seen it all before. Over and over and over again. While WWII can still be enjoyable in CoD, it very much feels like Activision relies on the same bag of tricks. Multiplayer hasn’t really advanced in the two years since Modern Warfare. And campaign provides some fine and formulaic fun – while it lasts. But it really is time for this series to take a chance and do something different. Early sales figures and general enthusiasm for this instalment certainly bear that out. Do I think you’d regret purchasing it if you’re interested? No. Having said that, there are three words I’d use to summarise Vanguard for anyone thinking about trying it – expect the expected.
Overall Rating: 7/10
Reviewed on: PS5
Do you agree with our Call of Duty: Vanguard review? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to check out our other gaming articles…
