Call of Duty: Vanguard

Did Call of Duty Vanguard turn me into a fan of PvP shooters, no it didn’t, but I am certainly glad I played it and am looking forward to playing some more Zombies with friends once it launches for everyone. I loved the campaign though, as well as the four operatives, and Monaghan was just terrific. The visuals, sound mixing and score were also top notch in every way.

Vanguard not only brings a whole lot more launch content and improvements than previous Call of Duty titles, by dint of a superior multiplayer experience, a solid and spectacular campaign and a more accessible but just as fun zombie mode.

So, Call of Duty: Vanguard. The campaign is great, the multiplayer is fun and Zombies will appeal to previous fans. As an overall package Vanguard is capable of providing hours of fun - all pushed along with brilliant visuals. This is a great trip back to World War II.

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.

Quotation forthcoming.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is a full CoD package with all the series' traditional modes, but with evident compromises made to release the game on-time. The campaign is short and not so memorable, the multiplayer has major balancing problems and several shortcomings compared to the other chapters, while the Zombie mode offers little bite. It's still a good shooter, but it lacks the punch and the breadth of content that distinguished the best episodes in the series.

Vanguard has one of the best campaigns of the series and a very fun multiplayer. However, a boring Zombies mode and other technical problems make it below the level of the previous ones.

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.

Call of Duty: Vanguard unabashedly apes the style of 2019's Modern Warfare, with a multiplayer that is fun though familiar, but featuring a campaign that largely misses the mark.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is another solid entry in the popular franchise, but far from an excellent one. The campaign struggles in the story department, but a good base of multiplayer options and a fun, if under developed, Zombies mode help save the day.

It may sound like we're being a bit down on this year's Call of Duty, but it's only because we know the franchise has potential. Warzone has proved it with multiplayer and Black Ops Cold War showcased it with its campaign. We hoped this would build upon those foundations, but instead it steps back into familiar territory. It's not a bad game by any means - in fact, even at its worst it's better than most first-person shooters out there - but as the games industry evolves, it's time for Call of Duty to bring something new to the table, and this isn't it.

Call of Duty: Vanguard proves that the franchise has done almost everything it can do without breaking out of its shell and trying something vastly different.

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.