A year later than planned, it’s Sledgehammer’s turn for the next Call of Duty title. As expected, Vanguard returns to World War II in an attempt to portray the battlefield as completely and personally as possible. This arouses the necessary interest during a first presentation.
The past few years have been turbulent for the Call of Duty franchise. Modern Warfare proved to be the revolution the series needed, resulting in a significant change of course for the wildly successful Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile. That while a lot went wrong: Treyarch had to step in for Sledgehammer Games due to production problems and came up with the only nice Black Ops Cold War. In addition, parent company Activision Blizzard was recently sued for structural harassment in the workplace. Sledgehammer Games studio head Aaron Halon is visibly tense ahead of the presentation for Call of Duty: Vanguard and acknowledges after a statement on behalf of the studio that an easy transition to the reveal is impossible.
Already four years ago, Sledgehammer Games was received arms as it brought Call of Duty back to World War II. WW2 was a safe game, with some good ideas and some controversial innovations. That chapter is closed, according to the ever-expanding studio; Vanguard is the first title in Sledgehammer’s ‘second era’ and aspires to tell stories on all war fronts. That sounds like an amalgamation of the older parts, which took place in Europe, Soviet Russia, North Africa and Japan. Yet that is not so much the approach of Vanguard’s campaign. Anyway, ‘decisive battles’ are certainly part of the story and will probably form a great spectacle again, but the focus of the game is on the creation of the first special units.
Players follow four different allied characters – each based on a well-known war hero – to conduct special operations behind enemy lines and ultimately project Phoenix, the quest for to stop a new Fuhrer. The context of the missions is largely historically accurate, according to Sledgehammer Games, but so far the story also seems a lot like a Black Ops-esque conspiracy.
But then in the 1940s, where special units still operate like wrecking balls instead of surgical finesse. During Operation Tonga, a mission set the day before D-Day, we get a glimpse of the excitement that concept can bring. As British paratrooper Arthur Kingsley, you crash somewhere off the coast of France, without any firearms or sign of allies. Through a dark forest full of Nazis and thundering flak, he sweats his way to safety.
It’s an intense mission, with brutal fights, silences and above all desperate escape attempts once the Germans are on Kingsley’s tail. It is also striking that Vanguard is graphically another step forward, or at least stands out positively compared to Black Ops: Cold War. Flashes of light in the dark forest appear photo-realistic and indoor locations in particular seem more dynamic than ever. During a skirmish in a French village house, pieces of wood, glass and porcelain fly around Arthur’s ears before he flees past an impressive burning windmill.
Operation Tonga is only one mission, so it remains to be seen if Vanguard’s campaign will be as memorable as Sledgehammer makes it seem. And while not as impressive as, say, Operation Clean House from Modern Warfare, the mission’s versatility bodes well.
Subtle changes
Obviously, Solo mode is just one part of the all-encompassing package that Call of Duty : Vanguard should be. For example, the game gets a Zombies mode that serves as a prologue to Black Ops Cold War and the multiplayer mode is of course back. The latter should mainly revolve around fast action on smaller maps: at launch there are twenty pieces available, sixteen maps for 6v6 battles and four for 2v2. Interestingly, the destructive environments from the campaign also make their way into multiplayer, where breakable elements like wood and walls have to create new ways around the map. We got to see more of that off the record during the presentation, but unfortunately we can’t say anything about it yet.Other innovations are in the small stuff. Mounting your weapon on objects is back, but this time it is also possible to move along, for example, a wall instead of staying in one place. It also makes it possible to shoot blind over cover, Gunsmith returns and players get more choice in the ammunition and ballistics of weapons. We can’t say much about the new Champion Hill mode, except that it concerns ‘a mix of battle royale and Gunfight’.
)
In the Shadow of Warzone
Speaking of battle royale, Sledgehammer is aware of the popularity of Warzone and says they are working closely with Raven Software to release a new map this year. In doing so, Vanguard will be fully integrated into the Warzone ecosystem – the weapons will be merged with those of Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War to create a single ‘meta’. Also, at the same time, a new anti-cheat system is being rolled out that should address the game’s large-scale problem.
That the above is practically the most exciting news from the reveal is, says something about the state of Call of Duty. There’s not much wrong with Vanguard: it seems to be serving up an interesting campaign, making some practical changes to the multiplayer, and further taking advantage of systems that have been introduced in recent years. That is probably enough to make a successful game, but whether Vanguard will stand out is another matter.Call of Duty: Vanguard releases November 5 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One and PC.
