When the Nazi fell – Call of Duty: Vanguard Review

Call of Duty: Vanguard Review – It doesn’t feel that long after I reviewed the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War early this year, but Call of Duty fans should be pleased for getting a new game. Call of Duty: Vanguard is what you’d expect from a Call of Duty game. It has that same fast-paced combat along with multiple game modes: Single Player, Multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone.

This time however, the single player campaign takes you back to the World War II setting with all four major theatres. In a mission, you’ll be fighting the Nazi Germans and some time later, fighting the Japanese Zeros in the Pacific while making a bombing run.

Call of Duty: Vanguard Campaign Review

In the Campaign (or the Single Player element of the game), you will be playing as a member of an elite, multinational team given the task to find what the Germans are planning with a top secret project called Project Phoenix. You will actually be playing as all members in separate missions (and there is also one mission where the game switches you from one member to the next). And yes, there’s an Aussie this time!

You will be taken to different theatres in series of flashbacks of each team member when they were fighting the Germans or Japanese in their home town or elsewhere. Polina Petrova for example, came from Moscow so the game brings you back to when the Nazi were first invading Moscow and it’s probably one of my most favourite missions in the game.

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And on the Pacific front, you will be dogfighting Japanese Zeros while circling for a bombing run and later, going to the ground for some classic Call of Duty actions.

While it’s fun to be able to do lots of things in Call of Duty: Vanguard (sniping, dogfighting, etc) in all the four major theatres of World War II, I personally prefer to take a role of a single character throughout the campaign (for character development sake). But if you don’t really care about that and just want to focus on the actions that Call of Duty games are famous for, you’ll feel like home.

The maps are all well-designed with many details in the background (objects in the markets, tables, or other things that help to enhance realism). Graphic wise, it’s top notch and characters are also more lifelike than before with great voice-acting.

I personally enjoy playing through the campaign missions which offer a variety of different gameplay mechanics. The flashback missions do take like 80% of the whole campaign though, and while it helps in explaining who these special team members are and why they get picked in the first place, I just wish there’s more to the actual present story in the campaign.

Still, you don’t normally play Call of Duty games for the story so you’ll get that mix of fast-paced actions, along with some stealth elements and sniping as you would in the previous games.

Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer Review

The multiplayer element is also what you’d expect from a Call of Duty game with weapon’s attachments unlocking, killstreaks, and a bit of character customisations.

There are new killstreaks like wielding the powerful flamethrower and wearing an armour that can withstand some punishment for quite a while at the same time. It’s cool when you get it and feel menacing when you see an enemy wielding one.

With over 20 multiplayer maps, there are lots of new places to explore and conquer too.

There is also a fresh new update that I really like on the multiplayer side: combat pacing. You can select whether you want a Blitz, Assault, or Tactical pacing when you are finding games. Tactical keeps the player count low (the numbers depend on the map size) and it slows the pace down a bit – which I actually enjoy. Blitz, on the other hand, gives you the most hectic, few-seconds death experience with players running and gunning around everywhere. Assault is somewhere in the middle, which I like as well.

Call of Duty: Vanguard Review Conclusion

Call of Duty: Vanguard is the fast-paced action, new Call of Duty game that you expect it to be. The graphics get a major uplift, the setting has gone back to the World War II (which I don’t mind), the sound design is excellent, and the multiplayer offers a choice of the frantic experience that we all know of, or a slower-paced option.

If you’ve owned and played all the Call of Duty games, you’ll definitely love Call of Duty: Vanguard. It has all the same elements and gameplay mechanics, with a few updates and new story elements in the Campaign.

There isn’t any new, surprising feature or technology here (i.e no collapsing building, no pinging system, etc) but why change what works? And if you are okay with that, you’ll enjoy this game like you did before.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is available now on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox® Series X|S, Xbox One®, and PC in a fully optimised experience for Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment’s online gaming service.

Disclosure: Review code was supplied for reviewing