Call of Duty: Vanguard Reviews
Opting for pulp fantasy over Spielbergian reverence for the era, Vanguard reinvigorates the World War II setting and charts a new path forward.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is As Expected: The Video Game. You get the polish, the excitement, the rush the series always delivers within the stylised World War 2 setting. This year, the single-player campaign is undoubtedly the standout action blockbuster, with the Multiplayer serving chaotic fun and Zombies mode failing to try something different. Pick it up if you’re already a fan.
The latest Call of Duty: Vanguard is a correct shooter in single and a replay of entertainment in multi. It does not surprise either on the plus or on the minus, which makes it a slightly pale, easy to forget scene.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Call of Duty: Vanguard does little to change up the Call of Duty formula, but it's still a fun way to kill the nine months until next year's title releases.
We'll be damned if this isn't another fine Call of Duty game. The solo campaign is excellent, multiplayer delivers on practically all fronts, and Zombies provides a neat co-op diversion. Call of Duty: Vanguard represents great value, and enough new stuff to warrant taking a look.
Iterating on what Call of Duty diehards know and love, Vanguard has the potential to stand up alongside some of the series' best. Whether it be a bombastic, action-flick inspired campaign, endlessly addictive multiplayer or now-staple zombies mode, the game feels like comfort food. However, I remain doubtful that the game's new and updated modes will do enough to win over anyone that wasn't convinced with earlier iterations.
Call of Duty: Vanguard continues the high standard set by 2019's Modern Warfare, providing a grounded, classic Call of Duty campaign, coupled with a deep multiplayer experience rich with progression and an inviting Zombies mode that welcomes all skill levels.
Overall, the new content on offer is a welcome addition but, honestly, I think many fans long for a return to the days before battle passes, microtransactions and arduous grinding defined the franchise.
Call of Duty: Vanguard unabashedly apes the style of 2019's Modern Warfare, with a multiplayer that is fun though familiar, but featuring a campaign that largely misses the mark.
Although a solid offering overall, one can't help but feel that the series has taken a step backwards in terms of the content available as well as the era depicted; instead of expanding upon the almost non-linear structure of the Cold War campaign we instead get a safe reversion back to the standard model and the Zombies mode is barebones as all get out no matter how you slice it.
Packed to the brim with blockbuster action sequences and a couple of well-crafted stealth-directed missions, the campaign focuses on four specialists and their mission to track down Project Phoenix – a Nazi program that could potentially swing the pendulum back in the Axis' favour.
What you know to be true about Call of Duty continues to be true in Vanguard, though there are some surprisingly earnest characters in the campaign and an expectedly addictive suite of multiplayer maps and modes.
Despite an immense amount of content, Call of Duty: Vanguard feels a bit like a step back for the franchise: a couple of guns need to find a better balance with the upcoming updates and the campaign is fascinating but extremely short and unripe. The game is genuinely fun, of course, but it's not the best Call of Duty to date.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Call of Duty: Vanguard maintains the consistently high level of production in the Call of Duty series, with an excellent cinematic narrative and unparalleled shooting feel, giving players an audio-visual experience in person on the battlefield.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Call of Duty Vanguard falls in the predictable traps of an annual release, but pulls through with a fun campaign and multiplayer at the cost of duller Zombies.
Sledgehammer Games clearly had high ambitions when approaching their third solo Call of Duty project.
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.
All of this is precisely why Call of Duty: Vanguard is a missed opportunity for Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch, and Activision. The game suffers from an uncomfortable contradiction: the campaign and its visual cues favour newbies, while its multiplayer and its cranked-up pace is a veteran extravaganza. The single-player campaign is also unsatisfyingly short, while Zombies barely qualifies as a full game mode.
Some could argue that wall running didn’t belong in previous entries, but they added verticality to gameplay, and made players look up instead of left and right. Vanguard lacks all originality, doesn’t improve in almost any areas, and goes down in quality.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a great Call of Duty entry with absolutely stellar ser pieces, fantastic visuals, and plenty of modes surrounding an excellently fun campaign. The only downsides are the muddied stories… not to mention what is happening in the company that published it. Highly recommended for CoD fans and people looking for a bit of mindless fun set in WW2.