Review — Call of Duty: Vanguard is a decent popcorn flick of a game
Following up on last year’s dive into conspiracy, espionage, and deceit with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the Sledgehammer Games-led Call of Duty: Vanguard is, for better or worse, a much more grounded, back-to-basics title. Players return to World War II, and mind games and uncertain morals are traded for tried-and-true Nazi killing.
Call of Duty: Vanguard’s campaign tells the story of fictional special forces, a team inspired by real people from the war that have been brought together for the purpose of shutting down a secret Nazi project. It’s ultimately an alright story, with some solid character building that never realizes its full potential amidst select blockbuster moments from across the various theaters of the war.
Multiplayer returns with a few tweaks, alongside some irritating issues that may not undermine the entire experience but do bring it down a bit. While there’s yet another variant of Zombies, it’s ultimately a disappointment, with changes and limitations that sink the entire escapade.
Call of Duty: Vanguard isn’t a bad game but I don’t see it joining the ranks of the best Xbox games available right now, and I can only recommend it to the Call of Duty hardcore player that needs a new experience every single year.
Call of Duty: Vanguard
The Good
- Stellar visuals
- Solid sound design
- Great character performances
The Bad
- Mediocre campaign
- Uninspired multiplayer
- Technical issues
Disclaimer: This review was made possible by a copy of the game purchased by Windows Central.
Call of Duty: Vanguard — What I liked
Source: Windows Central
Category | GameNameXXX |
---|---|
Title | Call of Duty: Vanguard |
Developer | Sledgehammer Games |
Publisher | Activision |
Genre | First-person shooter |
Xbox Version | Xbox Series X |
Game Size | 94.2GB |
Play Time | 6 hours (campaign) |
Players | Singleplayer campaign, 24-players multiplayer |
Xbox GamePass | No |
Launch Price | $70 |
Across the campaign, we see select highlights in the backstories of the four protagonists — Arthur Kingsley, Polina Petrova, Lucas Riggs and Wade Jackson — that take us to some of the big battlefields of the war, from the Allied invasion of France and the Battle of Midway to the fight in Africa and war-torn Stalingrad. Having a campaign touch on four major theaters of the war is a great approach, especially the levels set in Africa against Rommel’s forces, a setting that Call of Duty hasn’t touched since the second game of the series.
Source: Windows Central
We get solid enough performances from these four, with Laura Bailey as Polina Petrova (or Lady Nightingale) and Chiké Okonkwo as Arthur Kingsley as highlights. Each character is given backstory to develop why they stood out as special and why they were selected. Of particular note are a handful of scenes set in Stalingrad prior to the devastating battle, which gives a glimpse at simple Russian home life and helps flesh out the motivations for Petrova.
Each character is given backstory to develop why they stood out as special and why they were selected.
The campaign’s sound design is also great, with weapon reloads and firings a nice standout. Whether it’s the classic ping of the M1 Garand or the buzzsaw noise of an MG42, it sounds like World War II through and through. God of War composer Bear McCreary provides the score, which is appropriately epic, and each character gets their own unique theme that starts small but builds into one unified roar.
While the campaign is the visual showpiece, it’s worth mentioning that the visuals in the multiplayer have been improved from the beta. Players on current-generation hardware even have the option of running the game at 120 FPS.
Diving into the multiplayer’s mechanics, Sledgehammer Games has opted to provide “combat pacing” settings. This means you can choose to search for matches that are more methodical or frenzied killboxes, irrespective of the map or mode. It’s an interesting approach and one I’d like to see more games pull from.
Call of Duty: Vanguard — What I didn’t like
Source: Windows Central
Instead, things are played bizarrely safe. The campaign ends up feeling like a prequel to another story that doesn’t exist yet. Going for an ahistorical approach is compelling, so I’m surprised to see that the game doesn’t lean into it. We jump straight from the defining moments of the war to a team that suddenly know each other and operate as a unit, but never see how they meet or operate. If we get to see this fictional crew again, I hope we get some more detail.
The campaign ends up feeling like a prequel to another story that doesn’t yet exist
I have to mention that the game’s stability also hasn’t been great, with several launch issues. During the campaign, Call of Duty: Vanguard would repeatedly get stuck at a black screen after I completed a mission, forcing me to start over again. Multiplayer has proven even worse so far, with frequent crashes when entering the multiplayer section or finishing a match. Load times were never an issue thanks to the internal SSD in my console, but this happening repeatedly got old fast and it’s something I hope the developers can address soon.
Source: Windows Central
As a concept, a minigame-based approach isn’t even a problem. This shake-up can allow the mode to find its own identity instead of just building on what we got in previous games. However, the implementation is sorely lacking. So much of the enjoyment in a Zombies experience is learning the map and figuring out what portions to unlock first, optimizing routes using minimal cash. There’s almost none of that here. It comes down to making sure you’re upgrading between rounds and I lost interest faster than I can ever recall in a prior Zombies mode.
Call of Duty: Vanguard — Should you play it?
Source: Windows Central
Call of Duty: Vanguard isn’t a bad game. While I wish the campaign did more, it’s solid fun, the equivalent of the average summer popcorn flick. It’s certainly not the worst campaign experience in the franchise, as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 still exists. The game’s multiplayer suite — the crashing and spawn issues aside — is similarly fine, all things considered. Only Zombies stands out as distinctly subpar, with multiple changes that make it feel rotten.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is Activision, and Activision is Call of Duty: Vanguard.
In a way, Call of Duty: Vanguard is Activision, and Activision is Call of Duty: Vanguard. In theory, this is Sledgehammer’s newest take on the franchise but in practice, it feels like a distillation of much of what has come before. It’s just more Call of Duty, for better or worse.
For someone that needs a new Call of Duty or is desperate for another shooter to play right now, Call of Duty: Vanguard will suffice. Outside of that audience, I’d recommend carefully considering whether or not you want to pick it up, especially in an age of constant patches, changes, and an over-abundance of other multiplayer games to choose from.
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