Call of Duty: Vanguard Review (PS5)

World War II is perhaps the most successful setting even for shooters even after the countless games that turned the bloodiest human conflict inside and out. Is there something new to talk about it? Probably, but it’s much easier to just remix the fan-favorite and throw them on the automated factory assembly line that Call of Duty had become. Read on only if you want to find out why Vanguard is maybe the weakest iteration of the entire franchise.    

The yearly CoD games split the audiences in two: those who praise it for its multiplayer or zombie modes, and those who have the courage to point out that the king is actually naked. But this year, with Vanguard, the comparison with The Emperor’s New Clothes is more actual than ever, Call of Duty failing on every front. The success of Warzone encouraged Activision to focus solely on milking that gimmick, and this year the cracks of the franchise are undeniable.

For a while now the single player part of the CoD games is nothing but an excuse. Even the shambles of a story line are gone, and we have not seen a memorable face in the series since “Soap” MacTacish or John Price. Vanguard tries to replace them with no less than six heroes, each one being an ambulant collection of stale cliches. Their backgrounds are presented through feedback sections that take up most of the roughly 6-hour long campaign. Vanguard fails to deliver on its inspiration from war movies like The Dirty Dozen, that present a team that learns no work together through the common hardships they face.

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The story that focuses on the last days of the Nazi empire is a bad joke, built from missions that lack any depth or engagement. There are some new elements like the less than basic parkour skills of the Russian sniper lady, but they stand out like a sore thumb. The entire single player campaign feels like a mandatory chore that you can’t get out of, so you better just get it done, like taking out the trash or doing the dishes. There is no connection between the player and the heroes, there is no memorable moment and there is not even a speck of originality in the missions and objectives.

Things are made worse by the terrible AI and the bugs that still haunt the single player campaign. Even on the hardest difficulty your opponents are dumber than a pair of boots, missing you even when they surround you. On the other hand, while cleaning the trenches on the shores of Normandy for the landing party you will see several dead soldiers, frozen in motion instead of collapsing to the ground. This game design is just indolent, especially that almost a third of the length of the story are unskippable cutscenes.

The main defense of the CoD fans for some time was the fact that you do not play the yearly releases for their story, but for their actions that shines in multiplayer and zombies modes. And I have to admit that there is some truth to these claims, since they can usually offer a lot of fun, especially if you play them with friends. This year though, despite the short and haphazardly put together campaign, the developers did not have time to finish the zombie mode either. As a result, Vanguard contains basically a horde mode, that wants to serve as a place holder until the developers have time to put the proper zombie mode together and continue the events started in Cold War.

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So, the five studios that worked together on developing Vanguard failed miserably with the campaign and dropped the ball with the zombies. That should mean that the multiplayer is kick ass and polished and engaging. Without trying to be a party pooper I have to mention that the audio part is still severely lacking. The synthetic contrast between the firing sounds in open and closed environments is bad that breaks all immersion. Often you can’t really hear your opponents and the things are completely unbalanced by the Ninja perk and the Dead Silence field upgrade.

But the biggest enemy of the balance is the Forward Intel perk that shows the placement of the respawning opponents. This should be countered somehow by the new Combat Pacing option. By choosing between Tactical, Assault and Blitz in theory you should be able to find something as close as possible to your playstyle. In reality the filtering system is broke, and you the game will place you where it wants despite your criteria. The bugs continue their invasion during gameplay, they show their ugly heads in the net code as packet bursts, and even during the animations post-match when you are supposed to vote for the MVP.

But in the Gunsmith now you can tinker with 10 addons for the weapons, including ammo types. The main problem is that this results in an endless grind fest, each weapon being upgradable to level 70. When you go through the pain of maxing them out you will realize that most of the unlockable features are actually useless. The good news is that most of the bugs are fixable, and the developers seem to be aware of them. The bad news is that Vanguard was released in a state that is a slap in the face of the fans, and it will take time and several patches for the experience to get better.

Technically we have the same mixed experience, visually the newest CoD oscillating between amazing and plain ugly and old. The engine is just as old as the formula and it needs replacing, because you don’t want to your players checking if they actually play the PS4 or the Ps5 version on their current gen consoles. The interface is not very clear about placing you around corners and it seems to randomly offer you the possibility to use Blind Fire or even to mount it. The subtitles also have a tendency to get lost as are the dead bodies prone to get stuck through tables and other objects.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion