Call of Duty Vanguard has recently been released and Call of Duty fans’ opinions on it are split. On one side of the fence, you have fans loving the return of boots on the ground WWII action. On the other side, you have Call of Duty Zombies enthusiasts disheartened. Then you have the Campaign players who fall in the middle of the fence, unsure of the overall story. Call of Duty Vanguard is a combination of Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch Studios, and other Activision studios’ joint effort, but does not feel like a combined effort. This Call of Duty Vanguard review will be an ongoing review based on the game’s performance on the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X.
Going into Call of Duty Vanguard, we had low expectations for SledgeHammer Games’ latest game. Not because Sledgehammer creates bad games, but because of the prior issues with Black Ops Cold War and their disappointing Call of Duty: WWII. With an extra year to develop Call of Duty Vanguard, the community was expecting a well-polished game; sadly, this is not the case, especially on the Xbox One. Hopefully, the Xbox Series X version will be an improvement. So let’s start with the campaign.
Campaign
Call of Duty Vanguard‘s campaign tells the tale of four special operations ally soldiers as they hunt down Hitler’s successor. At the time of the announcement, many suspected that this successor would be Hitler’s offspring. This was not the case, but this is not Sledgehammers fault for people assuming. The campaign focuses on the four specialists as they search for information about Project Phoenix. After being captured, the crew is then interrogated by a Nazi. During the interrogation to discover what the team knows about Project Phoenix, the player learns about each character’s background.
Each character’s background provides a different origin story. Whether you are a deadly sniper known throughout all of Russia or an American Pilot shot down in the Pacific, something dramatic will happen. Each character’s origin story is unique and thankfully is not a retelling of prior World War II Call of Duties. The campaign’s missions each feel throughout with the player experiencing a variety of fighting styles, battle types, and seeing diverse characters. In the story, no party is overlooked. Experience the joint effort of the Allies as they fight off the Axis powers during decisive moments from history.
Each character has its own unique special ability that helps the player to progress through the missions. These abilities are more of a gimmick to give each character a specialized skill rather than being necessary for the story.
Negative Campaign Takeaways
The campaign focuses a little too much on the character’s backstories. For a campaign that is supposed to be focused on Project Phoneix, the game would rather explain the character’s origins. If this is a game to establish these characters for later Sledgehammer games, then focus on their backstory. Don’t give players one plot point and then divert to other ones without progressing the main one.
At the end of the campaign, the game does touch upon what Project Phoenix was, but it seems more like Sledgehammer was trying to tie up loose ends rather than give a satisfying conclusion to an origin story. The ending to the story is more of a setup for sequels and zombies rather than a dramatic finish. Yes, you get the bad guy and foil one of his plans, but there is always something more.
Although the campaign missions vary in style, they can be frustrating. Certain missions will give you waypoint markers but make it difficult to actually get to the mission’s waypoint. On multiple occasions, it would take an annoying amount of time to figure out where we had to go. The worst instance of this was the jungle level where we spend over 30 minutes trying to find our way; you can search the whole lower level of the island and not find your way to the waypoint. Don’t get us wrong, it is great when there are optional paths to take or the ability to explore, but if this is the case, fill out the map more. At no point did we go, WOW! this level is very well done. The levels are multifaceted, colorful, and have various designs, but there was nothing that stood out when compared to its predecessors.
Graphics
Since we started talking about graphics, we will focus on that and come back to Zombies and Multiplayer. Call of Duty Vanguard‘s graphics on the Xbox One are okay. They suffice in order to be able to play the game, but you will notice issues while you are playing. Throughout the campaign, the cutscenes are highly detailed and run smoothly, however, when playing the actual missions, certain things are less than ideal. Now, this is predominately due to the Xbox One being a last-gen console, but the ability to scale the graphics like other games would be optimal (Resident Evil Village). The downgraded version of the graphics on the Xbox One are clearly noticeable whether it is in Campaign, Multiplayer, or Zombies.
In all three game modes, character models look poorly designed. The Xbox One version of the game shouldn’t look worse than Call of Duty World at War or Call of Duty Black Ops. If elemental textures are that important or necessary, a scaled version should be applied. Instead, characters’ clothing and faces become blotchy, poorly shaded, or sometimes unrendered. Blood splatter will fall to the ground as a weird object rather than a liquid element. Is the game playable? Yes it is, does it make you go wow, Call of Duty Vanguard is the best Call of Duty? Definitely Not!
In Multiplayer there are a number of visual bugs. The game’s lighting can be extreme for a complete match if the player gets stunned in a weird way. Other times the map can be foggy for no reason. If there was dynamic weather or lighting based on the map, then these visual alterations would make sense, but sadly this was not the case. Additionally, lag is an issue. Players can flood the servers with packets to make their teammates and enemies lag. During this lag, you will see bullets shot but freeze in mid-air. Occasionally during this lag, the player will die without being killed.
Once we play the game on the Xbox Series X, we will continue our part of the graphics Call of Duty Vanguard review.
Multiplayer
Sledgehammer Games has done a pretty good job with the game’s multiplayer. When jumping into multiplayer, the player can choose to play online or in a private match. Private matches can be either online or a local game. Before jumping into multiplayer, it is important to select an operator that fits your unique play style. Operators can be unlocked by completing select challenges and giving unique benefits.
In the weapons tab, you are able to customize your loadouts, killstreaks, field upgrades, watch, and armory. As in the previous Call of Duties, you must level either in Zombies or Multiplayer to unlock new weapons and weapon attachments. Field Upgrades are now a stand-alone menu rather than unique to each loadout. In Loadouts, the player is able to choose their primary and secondary weapons, perks, and lethal and tactical equipment. Additionally, players can optimize their attachments and weapon skins in the Gunsmith menu. In Call of Duty Vanguard, the player can equip as many attachments as possible to the weapon without a limit.
Gameplay Options
Multiplayer features seven game modes (Team Deathmatch, Domination, Search and Destroy, Free-For-All, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, and Patrol). Patrol is a new game mode where you have to capture and hold the moving zone. The other game modes have remained the same. Call of Duty Vanguard does have both core and hardcore at launch. In a private match, the player can adjust the settings to how they see fit. Additionally, you can see what each operator has to offer.
Multiplayer has 16 maps to play on; at least three of the maps are recreations of popular World at War maps. Like other more recent Call of Duties, the battle pass returns allowing the player to unlock special blueprints, operator skins, weapons, weapon skins, and titles. Multiplayer can be a lot of fun when lag is not an issue. Some of the objects in the environment can be broken opening up new areas to hide or seek cover. Call of Duty Vanguard seems to have fewer aim bots than Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War did at launch which is refreshing.
The game’s spawns do have issues, but Activision and Sledgehammer Games are currently working on it.
Lackluster Zombies
As a longtime Zombie enthusiast, Call of Duty Vanguard’s Zombies map, Der ANFANG, is a massive disappointment. Players can choose their loadout to take on the demonically raised undead. Once the player reaches max level, they can choose 1 out of 33 weapons to start with. All players are able to unlock weapons, weapon camos, and weapon attachments in Zombies. An artifact must be chosen to help fight the undead; Artifacts are just the new name for the field upgrade system in Black Ops Cold War. Unlike Cold War, the player has only four artifacts to choose from, Aether Shroud, Energy Mine, Ring of Fire, and Frost Blast.
Once in Der Anfang, the player must complete challenges to unlock the map. Each portal has its own unique mission type: Blitz, Harvest, or Transmit. By completing a mission, the player is rewarded with a heart, points, and a new part of the map unlocked. These hearts can be sacrificed at the Alter of Covenants. Each time you complete a portal challenge, new covenants are added to the Alter of Covenants. These covenants can range from rare to legendary. As the rarity increases, so do the effects granted; these effects can slow zombies, turn them, increase damage, and even revive teammates faster.
Zombies to Easy.
For the first time in a Call of Duty Zombies game, the first taste of all perks is free; the perks have been renamed and their effects slightly modified. The five perks in the game can be upgraded to level four with each level’s price to upgrade increasing. If the player goes down, they will rapidly lose their upgraded perks. Speaking of an increase, Pack-A-Punch’s first upgrade has been changed from 5000 to 7500. Each time the player completes a portal, the zombies’ difficulty increases. Until a portal challenge is done, the zombie’s difficulty will not increase.
For many zombies fans, the change of the perks, slow pace, and alterations to the system has left a bitter taste in their mouth. Although Der Anfang has introduced two new zombie types, the map as a whole feels underwhelming. On multiple occasions, I was able to just put the controller down and walk away without any consequences. Two nice new aspects about the map are: the zombies can drop ammo and Pack-a-Punched weapons can come from the box or be dropped by the heavy zombies.
Should You Buy It?
Despite coming in with low expectations, Call of Duty Vanguard has failed to change our minds. Vanguard has managed to do the inverse of Black Ops Cold War; it has provided players with a fun multiplayer experience bringing back some fan-favorite maps while stripping Zombies of its roots. The campaign is an adequate story but it is ultimately forgettable; the campaign can be beaten in under 6 hours. Call of Duty Vanguard could have been so much better but ultimately feels like a rushed project. If you are going to play all the modes, then sure it’s worth the $60. If you were planning to purchase it for Zombies, hold off. Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War would make a better Holiday present than Vanguard. A fair price for Call of Duty Vanguard right now is anywhere between $25 to $45.
Activision and Treyarch have stated that they are working to improve Zombies. Hopefully, they will fix it and bring it up to the communities standards. This will be an ongoing Call of Duty Vanguard review. We will update the Call of Duty Vanguard review once we play on the Xbox Series X as well. Do you agree with our Call of Duty Vanguard review?
A copy of Call of Duty Vanguard was provided for review purposes.
