Call of Duty: Vanguard

The first week this game came out, I had a great time playing. Things seemed to work better on launch day compared to the previous two COD titles. There were definitely some kinks to iron out, but hey, it was the first week, they'll get to it soon enough.

Soon enough would never come.

By the first month, I was already beyond frustrated with the game's state. All issues from day 1 were still there. Maps were becoming more and more exploitable, with people finding the craziest headpeaks that you would never hope to be able to fight back against. Almost 0 balance updates, so people found new attachment combinations that were insanely overpowered. Other weapons were left in the dust, and remain unusable to this day. Killstreaks became utterly terrifying, with artillery strikes feeling like they lasted forever, dogs being a glitchy, overpowered but inconsistent mess, and these were exacerbated by the new field upgrade that pretty much gifts you an easy way to obtain these killstreaks.

The perks introduced in this game are one of the most detrimental things about the game. One perk is literally just wallhacks. Spam an LMG through a wall, and if you shoot somewhat close to someone, they will light up through the wall and you will magically be able to see them. Why? Another perk is basically just a recon plane lite version, and will just tell you where the enemy team is spawning at all times. Why? Why would anyone think these are good additions to a WW2 shooter? It's just awful.

The maps are a mixed bag. There a few really good ones, but if a map is bad, it is really, really bad. I had always thought the maps from MW2019 were the worst any shooter has ever offered, but Vanguard has somehow beaten it out with the absolute worst maps ever created. That's really all I can say.

The campaign is laughably bad. Forget historical inaccuracies, just the actual gameplay is stale, boring, and also fraught with glitches. Couple that with an equally boring and stale storyline, and you've got one giant snoozefest of a singplayer mode.

Zombies is bad. Do not even bother.

COD has offered us some great games. WAW, the OG modern warfares, Black Ops 1, etc., but they have also produced some utter stinkers. Vanguard is no stinker. It is a fermented cow pie sitting out in the hot sun. There is no justifiable reason to ever play this game again.

A fine but uninspired experience, Call of Duty: Vanguard is the 2021 installment of the long running franchise dating back to the original self titled Call of Duty that launched on PC in 2003. Like its elder Vanguard and the 2003 game share the WW2 setting in common but that's roughly it.

A lot of detractors of the series will highlight it's lack of significant change year on year with arguably it's biggest game in years with 2019's reboot of Modern Warfare proving to be along with Warzone, a much needed shot in the arm from the series after a myriad of uninspired set of Call of Duties that chased trends both good and bad and just kept with the meat and potatoes basics a Call of Duty enthralls.

Call of Duty Vanguard does largely in part take it's visual and gameplay identity from MW2019 which for many would be a good thing as that brought in the various gameplay changes that were sorely needed for the series as a whole, unfortunately it doesn't really do much anything unique with them. The multiplayer while being as good as it's always been for the most part, with plenty of maps too. It often doesn't feel any different from MW 2019 which makes Multiplayer the least inspired in quite sometime, the Campaign while having some good moments doesn't really have any memorable characters or settings and Zombies as it stands is the worst in any Call of Duty to feature Zombies. Just a singular map and the level format similar to Outbreak but in a smaller less interesting single environment.

So overall a bit of a mixed bag on one hand the gameplay is quite satisfying and enjoyable but it all ultimately ends up feeling rather samey, not really anything that'll keep you coming back for years like Halo Infinite or Warzone might but definitely nowhere near the disaster that is Battlefield 2042 either.