Call of Duty: Vanguard Reviews

Call of Duty: Vanguard is ranked in the 48th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
VG247
Top Critic
Nov 10, 2021

Judged on its own terms, Call of Duty: Vanguard offers a solid, albeit predictable campaign, an engaging multiplayer with deep progression systems and satisfying gunplay, and a Zombies mode that will only serve as a minor distraction in its current state.

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Nov 5, 2021

All in all, Call of Duty: Vanguard is a solid yet unremarkable entry into the long-running franchise. On a technical level, it's one of the most impressive games out there right now. On a gameplay level, it's nothing you haven't seen before.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 10, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard's campaign is meaty, the Battle Pass will keep you going a while, and Zombies is wonderfully addictive.

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VideoGamer
Top Critic
7 / 10
Nov 10, 2021

Its narrative is fractious and slight, compared to Sledgehammer’s previous work, but the chance for a chaotic, target-rich experience with friends exerts a stronger pull than usual.

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Nov 4, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard is a balanced game across the vectors of historical interest, good gameplay, variety, and a strong narrative. It ties everything together in a competent way that makes sense. That doesn’t mean it’s a spectacular game on the order of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which was a breakthrough game for the franchise because of its thoughtfulness and disturbing material.

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Unscored
Nov 9, 2021

An unremarkable FPS story set in World War 2. Has moments of spectacle and is largely quite fun, but feels like you're a gun on-rails, hardly a war hero.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Ed Thorn
Top Critic
Unscored
Nov 17, 2021

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.

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4 / 5 stars
Nov 10, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard doesn't drive the franchise forward in any major ways, but its tense, cinematic campaign and satisfying multiplayer modes are worth experiencing.

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90 / 100
Nov 4, 2021

This culmination of all things Call Of Duty has resulted in something the entire series can look to, a blueprint on how to build a meaty and superb first person shooter experience.

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Nov 8, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard will get better with time, but the launch game is still an impressive package. The Campaign is short but sweet and the Multiplayer is a blast, though Zombies fans will likely come away disappointed. Even with Zombies failing to live up to expectations, though, Call of Duty: Vanguard still has a lot to offer fans of the franchise and is very much worth the price of admission.

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Nov 8, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard's campaign and multiplayer are serviceable enough, but nothing exceptional for the series, while Zombies is disappointingly limited in scope and ideas.

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Nov 10, 2021

A band of inglorious stereotypes go on a covert mission to uncover a Nazi plan in a traditional instalment of the series

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4 / 10
Nov 10, 2021
Call of Duty: Vanguard - Angry Review - YouTube video thumbnail
Telegraph
Top Critic
Nov 16, 2021

A short but solid campaign and minor multiplayer tweaks suggest Warzone is still the main priority

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84 / 100
Nov 4, 2021

Vanguard doesn’t stray too far away from the classic Call of Duty formula we have come to expect from the franchise over the past several years. In many ways, it’s a little more of the same. That said, Call of Duty: Vanguard is an incredibly robust package offering up tons of content for the buck. Zombies mode is far more enjoyable and varied, the single-player campaign is a visual stunner, and 20 MP maps at launch is nothing to sneeze at. If you have passed over Call of Duty over the last several years, it might be time to come back.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 8, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard clears the bar thanks to its convincing multiplayer, rich in content and with some new features such as the Battle Rhythm and wider environmental destruction, which reinforce an already solid gameplay. There is no innovation or revolution for the franchise, and those who have played the most recent games in the series already know what awaits them, but perhaps the secret of its commercial success will be precisely this.

Review in Italian | Read full review

7 / 10
Nov 8, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard is another incredibly solid but also super safe instalment in the series. Its campaign may be over in a hurry but it's still a fairly memorable one, featuring good characters and outstanding visuals. Multiplayer is another robust package, hosting a ton of content and the promise of more to come. The less said about Zombies the better, but this is a Call of Duty game doing Call of Duty things. Whether that's of any interest or not, you likely already know.

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Nov 10, 2021

Vanguard feels like so much like the previous Call of Duty games and even the WWII setting isn't enough to elevate it. While a strong entry in the franchise, there really isn’t enough here that sets it apart, however, it does feel that much more accessible and what is here has been polished till it shines.

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M3
Top Critic
Nov 11, 2021

Call of Duty: Vanguard feels in many ways like a throwback to older Call of Duty titles. There is nothing wrong with stripped-down restarts, but in this case it feels more like time constraints have been the main reason for the simplifications. The single player campaign has few memorable moments, while zombie mode lacks a lot of content at launch. At least the online part offers plenty of content and chaotic, easily accessible high-tempo clearing – but it's not very new under the sun.

Review in Swedish | Read full review

7 / 10
Nov 12, 2021

As a huge multiplayer fan Call of Duty: Vanguard ticks all of the right boxes for me. It's chaotic and fast paced and besides some bugs that will surely be patched out, there's little to complain about. Unfortunately, the accompanying Zombies and Campaign modes are lacklustre and it is simply not worth buying the game for them alone.

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