Call of Duty: Vanguard Reviews
Call of Duty: Vanguard sometimes strains under the pressure of fulfilling its obligations to the all-consuming Warzone platform that the series has become. Vanguard's Gunsmith and Operators might dictate the game's World War II fiction in weird and hilarious ways, but it can still offer the same thrills you'd expect. Still, there's no denying that Vanguard feels like a watered down entry for the franchise, which is now more motivated by microtransactions than by telling a compelling World War II narrative.
Does Call of Duty: Vanguard advance the series in any meaningful way? Of course not, but that doesn’t stop it from being a fantastic package for Call of Duty fans, or a good entry point for those seeking a way in. The campaign here is brief but captivating, managing to make you feel for its band of heroes despite your short time with them. Zombies has some interesting twists that keep you on your toes. And multiplayer is more of the same but with tweaks that some will love and others will hate, as usual. All in all, this is one of the best Call of Duty releases to date, and we’d love to see more of Vanguard’s exploits in the future.
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.
Is Call of Duty: Vanguard a good game? It depends. If it is your first Call of Duty, it will be one of the best experiences in your life. However, if Vanguard is your nineteenth Call of Duty you will find a visually impressive, yet hollow, campaign, a multiplayer that soon becomes routine, and a disappointing zombie mode.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Call of Duty: Vanguard drops the ball on two fronts. The campaign is a short, disjointed, and shallow affair, and its Zombies mode is solid but too bare-bones and devoid of content to recommend at the moment. Regular multiplayer matches are where Vanguard shines the brightest, but a lot of that is due to leaning heavily into familiar territory. Vanguard struggles to make meaningful additions to the formula, and apart from new battle pacing options and a generous selection of maps, Vanguard sits comfortably on the achievements of its predecessors. That's not a bad thing, and I enjoyed the online components throughout this review, but it's also not a great look for a yearly release. If you haven't played a Call of Duty title in a few years and don't care for its single-player campaign, Vanguard is a fun and solid entry in the series.
Multiplayer is the only reason to play Call of Duty: Vanguard, thanks to substantial online content and a satisfying competitive pace. Both the zombies mode and the campaign are tiresome, clichéd, and mediocre, best left out of the history books.
After the disappointing Cold War, Vanguard was the game that many fans have put their faith in. But due to rocky start, the countless bugs the completely unbalanced multiplayer and the incomplete zombies mode, this year’s Call of Duty is just another nail in the coffin of once great franchise.
Vanguard is a work that the usual fans of Call of Duty will enjoy, but the lack of specific innovations and the lack of answers to some fictional ideas have made the game unable to be a suitable work for a wider segment of gamers.
Review in Persian | Read full review
With its limited content, Vanguard feels more like a by-product built to support Warzone than a real game.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
It may sound like we're being a bit down on this year's Call of Duty, but it's only because we know the franchise has potential. Warzone has proved it with multiplayer and Black Ops Cold War showcased it with its campaign. We hoped this would build upon those foundations, but instead it steps back into familiar territory. It's not a bad game by any means - in fact, even at its worst it's better than most first-person shooters out there - but as the games industry evolves, it's time for Call of Duty to bring something new to the table, and this isn't it.
The best multiplayer Call of Duty in years. Too bad the campaign is forgettable, and Zombies didn't get enough love.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Despite the relatively engaging campaign section and attempts to provide a different experience and narrative from World War II, unfortunately it does not achieve this goal due to its weakness in designing some steps and maintaining their attractiveness.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Vanguard delivers the Call of Duty experience in a very traditional and solid way, but with nothing new. Far from being a perfect title, it has several problems in the campaign, multiplayer and zombies, such as lack of direction, refinement or content.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Call of Duty: Vanguard is Sledgehammer Games' best work to date. Thanks to an epic campaign and charismatic protagonist characters, a multiplayer the sea of fun and a Zombies mode that presents many, many novelties, make this delivery a very good option for both fans of the franchise and users looking to have fun with a hilarious gameplay.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Call of Duty: Vanguard is another part of a long-term series, which does not surprise at any point. Fans will have a lot of fun, but some could count on something else.
Review in Polish | Read full review
For the second year in a row, you can sense that the game was developed in a hurry, the menus copied from Modern Warfare and technical issues, the assignment of the Treyarch studio to develop zombies and its incomplete release, and the lack of different designs that distinguish each team from the other, are all indications that the game did not take enough time for development. Of course, the foundation of the series is always fun, the technical issues will be fixed with time, and it will be a good game until the next release. But the standard has become thinner than a mere "enjoyable foundation" and expected.
Review in Arabic | Read full review