Call of Duty: Vanguard Reviews
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.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a first-person shooter set during World War II. The gameplay is exactly what you're used to from this series. Unfortunately, the multiplayer doesn't offer enough to keep everyone interested long enough. Zombies has the same problem: fun, but has less to offer than the previous versions.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Vanguard is exactly what anyone thinking about picking it up will expect it to be: a competent shooter that doesn’t do much new.
The biggest problem is CoD: Vanguard feels like the least innovative Call of Duty in years. I think a lot of that has to do with Warzone, and the fact that developers HAVE to ensure that their game can be compatible with that battle royale. The fact that so much has to go into making sure it all works together; I just feel like it has to be hampering the developer’s creativity. In my opinion Call of Duty as a whole need to take a year off and regroup, come back with something as memorable as the original Modern Warfare was when it launched. If it’s a matter of money (and I doubt that it is) developers could lean into Warzone, they already are making a killing on all the microtransactions but just update Warzone like Epic does for Fortnite. Then after a year surprise people with something fantastic… I know this will never happen, but a man can dream.
Sledgehammer Games is no stranger to righting wrongs, as seen with its previous Call of Duty entries, but even with additional balance tweaks and new content, I’m certain five years from now that Vanguard will be looked down upon as one of the weakest games in the series.
Call of Duty: Vanguard‘s campaign isn’t going to redefine how war stories are told, nor does it reach the highest points of the series’ past triumphs. However, it manages to tell a personal story with a cast of likable characters and stays at a steady, even quality throughout. While excellent DualSense support does its job of subtly immersing the player, it serves a grander experience that brings the player into its world with its likable cast and intimate stories.
The problem with Vanguard is that it’s difficult to recommend with multiplayer being its strongest asset, which is something Black Ops Cold War and the Modern Warfare reboot provided well enough, as there isn’t a big enough change in the gameplay formula to warrant a switch. In the end, Vanguard simply asks if you prefer the World War II setting enough to buy it at full price. If not, I think you’ll be good with whatever Call of Duty title you have right now.
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 does have its moments, even if they are quite few and far between. The campaign goes back and forth between innovative and entertaining, to repetitive and bland, while the Multiplayer and Zombie modes don’t bring anything new to the table other than how impressive they look.
Save for some small changes to each of the individual game modes, it’s obvious that most the effort in Vanguard went into multiplayer, which makes sense. Zombies has been brushed almost entirely to the wayside, and while the campaign is fairly lengthy and has a story that actually makes sense, not involving brainwashing, it’s a big win for Call of Duty this year. The hope now is that the season updates, new maps, and hopefully some new Zombies content, can help to fully flesh the game out effectively.
Vanguard's multiplayer does just enough to be fun, but is largely unambitious. Zombies is a similar story and lacks any weight. This is a package that feels designed to be filler.
However, very black spots such as a wasted Zombies mode, weapons that barely differ from other CODs and other minor problems such as an AI that barely evolves tarnish this Vanguard enough. Game recommended for all those unconditional fans of the saga or those who enjoy the Second World War.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Vanguard’s campaign recalls the same shooting galleries seen year after year, full of cliches and with somehow even less point to it all.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a totally recommendable experience for fans of shooters and historical moments like World War II. The title establishes some new features that could have an interesting development in future installments, but fails in other modes such as zombies that remain in no man's land.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Keeping up with the recent trend in the series, Call of Duty: Vanguard is a solid and fun shooter. The thrilling campaign and the multiplayer with many options are some of its qualities, and the same can be said for the beautiful graphics and good gameplay. More than a competent game, it offers a solid base that can be amplified and improved upon constantly during its life cycle. Unfortunately, some things come up short and limit the finished product, such as the restricted Zombie mode and the lack of polishment in some elements of the game. The result, however, is a title filled with challenge and pleasant to play, especially with friends. If the integration with the Warzone mode goes well and the updates are good, Vanguard can become one of the best titles in the franchise.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Again, Call of Duty has some very good things to offer but also has big problems, starting with its laziness. The franchise does not seek to review its formula and always serves us the same drum, effective certainly, but that we see coming from miles away. This year, we have the right to an honest campaign but too short and so uninventive that it will not mark the spirits and turns out to be perfectly dispensable.
Review in French | Read full review
A short but solid campaign and minor multiplayer tweaks suggest Warzone is still the main priority
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.
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.