Call of Duty: Vanguard


Call of Duty: Vanguard is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It was released on November 5 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It serves as the 18th installment in the overall Call of Duty series. Vanguard establishes a storyline featuring the birth of the special forces to face an emerging threat at the end of the war during various theatres of World War II.
The game received mixed reviews from critics, with praise towards the entertainment value of the campaign and multiplayer, and the graphics, but criticism for its writing, Zombies mode, and lack of innovation. It failed to meet the sales expectations of Activision.
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Gameplay

Campaign

Vanguard's campaign features similar gameplay mechanics previously introduced in Modern Warfare, such as the player being able to mount wielded weapons to flat surfaces, interact with doors and execute takedowns. New gameplay features allow the player the ability to use a more advanced tactical approach in combat such as blind firing from behind cover, breaking through destructible environmental elements or creating new paths to complete objectives by climbing walls.

Multiplayer

Vanguard's multiplayer mode introduces a new game mode to the series, titled "Champion Hill", a successor to the mode "Gunfight", a 2v2 arena mode previously featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Champion Hill tasks players with surviving as long as possible in a squad-based deathmatch, round-robin tournament. Season 2 of Vanguard introduces "Arms Race", a large-scale game mode where two teams of 12 players attempt to capture five bases, or destroy them; players can also earn cash from kills and complete objectives to buy custom loadouts and killstreaks. A new feature introduced to the Call of Duty series through Vanguard's multiplayer is "Combat Pacing". This allows the player to have more control over the selection of multiplayer game modes through three pre-defined pacing filters favoring different playstyles. As an addition to the returning Gunsmith system, Vanguards multiplayer features a "Caliber system", which brings greater destructibility and reactive environments to maps through different ammunition types.
As with Cold War, Vanguard is integrated with Warzone, allowing players to progress and use weapons, operators and other cosmetics items across both titles, in addition to the existing Modern Warfare and Cold War items in Warzone. Like prior Call of Duty installments since 2019, Vanguard's multiplayer is also fully cross-platform play compatible, with support for cross-generation gaming regarding eighth and ninth generation home video game consoles.

Zombies

The cooperative Zombies mode returns in Vanguard, developed by Treyarch in collaboration with Sledgehammer Games. The mode is considered an expansion of the Dark Aether story, and acts as a prologue to Black Ops Cold War's story. At launch, the game features a new map titled "Der Anfang", which combines aspects of round-based survival gameplay with the objective-based gameplay of Outbreak and Onslaught, both new gamemodes introduced in Cold War. Gameplay elements from Cold War return in Vanguard, such as Essence and Salvage currencies, and Dark Aether-powered field upgrades, in addition to classic Zombies gameplay items like perks and the Pack-a-Punch machine. A new gameplay feature, the Altar of Covenants, allows players to purchase randomized buffs every round, allowing a variety in combat builds. Post-launch updates for Zombies feature additional objectives for Der Anfang, including a main quest for story progression, as well as new Covenants and field upgrades. An additional map, "Terra Maledicta", was also added to the game in February 2022 as part of the Season 2 content update. Classic round-based maps were announced for Vanguard in April 2022, with the first map, a remake of the Call of Duty: World at War map "Shi no Numa", released in Season 4. The second round-based map, "The Archon", was released in Season 5, which was also the final map released for the mode.

Plot

Campaign

NOTE: The campaign story of Vanguard is told throughout various points in time in a non-chronological order.
In August 1941, Australian Army demolitionist Private Lucas Riggs is stationed at Tobruk as part of the Rats of Tobruk garrison. After a failed ambush attempt against an Afrika Korps convoy, the Rats are assigned to recover supplies for the British Army. They manage to find intelligence relating to General Erwin Rommel, and destroy an enemy depot in the process, but are detained by British Major Henry Hamms for insubordination. In October 1942, during the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Rats are ordered by Hamms to form a defensive line, but Riggs disobeys the command and tries to retake a hill and call in bomber support with fellow Rat Private Desmond "Des" Wilmont supporting him. The two of them succeed, though Des is killed in action. Angered by the disregard for the Rats' contribution to the fight, Riggs punches Hamms out of frustration, resulting in him facing prison time.
In June 1942, U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Wade Jackson participates in the Battle of Midway with his tail gunner, Aviation Machinist's Mate 3rd Class Mateo Hernandez, in their Douglas SBD Dauntless, and manages to destroy two Japanese aircraft carriers. In November 1943, during the Bougainville campaign, Jackson and Hernandez are shot down and captured by Japanese soldiers. They are rescued by the 93rd Infantry Division, who later help them acquire an Aichi D3A to assist the division in reclaiming the island.
In August 1942, Red Army nurse Private Polina Petrova witnesses the Wehrmacht invade Stalingrad. She fails to save her father Boris from being executed by the Nazis, but manages to escape with her brother Misha and several Soviet partisans. Petrova eventually acquires the nickname "Lady Nightingale" for her sniping skills as she pursues Leo Steiner, the German commander leading the invasion. In January 1943, Petrova and Misha attempt to assassinate Steiner, but Misha is severely wounded and sacrifices himself to buy Petrova time to escape. Petrova eventually confronts and kills Steiner and his guards, inspiring the citizens of Stalingrad to reclaim the city from the Nazis. She then sets her sights on Steiner's superior, Hermann Freisinger, a high ranking officer in the SS.
In June 1944, British Army paratrooper Sergeant Arthur Kingsley takes part in Operation Tonga, where he and the Parachute Regiment help destroy the Merville Gun Battery and several bridges to assist the Allied forces in invading Normandy. Kingsley befriends fellow paratrooper Sergeant Richard Webb, who becomes Kingsley's right-hand man.
Kingsley, Webb, Petrova, Jackson and Riggs, alongside Yugoslav partisan Milos Novak, would eventually be recruited by SOE Captain Carver Butcher to form the first special operations task force, callsign Vanguard, with Kingsley as its leader. In April 1945, Vanguard hijacks a train to Hamburg in search of intelligence regarding Project Phoenix, a secret Nazi program run by Freisinger. While infiltrating a Nazi submarine, the squad minus Jackson, who was hidden is captured by German soldiers, and Novak is bludgeoned to death by Freisinger. Vanguard is delivered to the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, where Freisinger appoints his underling Jannick Richter to interrogate them. Jackson is later captured after attempting to steal a plane at Berlin Tempelhof Airport; Richter responds by executing Webb to demoralize the team.
Being unaware of Project Phoenix's purpose and Freisinger's involvement, Richter attempts to learn more by interrogating Petrova and Riggs about Steiner and Rommel's connection to Freisinger. He deduces that the project was a coup attempt, in order to appoint Freisinger as the new Führer of the Fourth Reich. As Berlin falls under siege by the Red Army following Adolf Hitler's suicide, Riggs breaks out of interrogation and frees the squad, while Kingsley kills Richter to avenge Webb. Vanguard pursues Freisinger through the city to Tempelhof, where they apprehend him and burn him alive. The four board Freisinger's plane, discovering numerous German documents and assets revealing Nazi covert operations worldwide. Kingsley decides to follow up on Project Aggregat, a secret V2 rocket facility, and orders Jackson to fly there.

Multiplayer/Warzone

In December 1944, Captain Butcher begins to oversee Operation Vulcan, a top-secret Special Operations Executive mission to hunt down Axis soldiers and scientists who fled to the South Pacific. Butcher deploys with Task Force Trident to Caldera Island in pursuit of Nazi activities, but their plane is shot down by anti-air, leaving the three Trident members stranded from Butcher. As the task force attempts to navigate the island, Butcher stumbles upon the entrance to a Nazi bunker at the beach where he crash-landed. The intel recovered from Caldera reveals that the Nazis were working on a new chemical weapon, dubbed "Nebula V". Butcher travels to the Swiss Alps with Task Force Yeti, intending to recover Nebula V from a nearby Nazi fortress. The Yeti members storm the fortress, but are unable to stop the Nazi commander from releasing the Nebula V gas. They barely manage to escape as the gas engulfs the fortress.
The Nazis begin to deploy Nebula V across the world, hitting major cities such as Paris and London, as well as Caldera. In March 1951, Butcher dispatches Task Force Harpy to Caldera to intercept a Nazi arms convoy, where they find a radio emitting a mysterious primal sound. Butcher laments that the release of Nebula V has awakened something powerful near Caldera. The island would eventually become a battleground between two gigantic monsters, the kaiju Godzilla and the gorilla Kong.
As the years go by, the operators under Butcher's command begin to take up mercenary work, in pursuit of Nazi gold and other sources of wealth. In 1976, Butcher leads his own squad, Task Force Immortal, to investigate the crash site of a helicopter carrying a gold shipment, but is met with hostility from Kingsley, who has formed his own mercenary team comprising members of other task forces. Sometime later, returning villains Raul Menendez, Khaled Al-Asad, He "Seraph" Zhen-Zhen, and Gabriel Rorke make an explosive appearance on Caldera.

Development

Vanguard is the third title developed by Sledgehammer Games in the Call of Duty franchise after 2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and 2017's Call of Duty: WWII.
After WWII was released, the studio went through a rebuilding process regarding the organisational structure following the departure of the studio co-founders and directors Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. In an interview made by VentureBeat about the rebuilding and the path leading Sledgehammer Games to develop Vanguard, Studio Head Aaron Halon highlighted that " we love our legacy and what we’ve created, but we also wanted to think about the future of the studio and how we could set ourselves up to be even stronger. we're proud of the decisions we’ve made along the way that have led us to where we're at today with Call of Duty: Vanguard."
Originally the three-year primary developer rotation cycle between Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, in which the model was first introduced in 2012, it was expected to be continued in 2020 with Sledgehammer taking the lead to create a new Call of Duty entry alongside Raven Software. Due to conflicts of interest between the two, responsibilities were shifted to Treyarch as they took control over the project, which resulted in developing Black Ops Cold War in 2020.
During Activision Q1 earnings call in May 2021, it was confirmed that the development of a new Call of Duty game is being led by Sledgehammer Games due for release in Q4 2021. The developer also confirmed this on its official Twitter account. Activision Blizzard President and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre said: "We are very excited for this year's premium Call of Duty release. Development is being led by Sledgehammer Games. And the game is looking great and on track for its fall release. This is a built-for-next-generation experience with stunning visuals across campaign, multiplayer and cooperative modes of play designed to both integrate with and enhance the existing COD ecosystem. We look forward to sharing more details with the community soon."
Vanguard is built on an upgraded version of the IW 8.0 engine, that powered Modern Warfare. The game's visuals are developed in part using photogrammetry and new volumetric lighting techniques while also introducing reactive and destructible environmental graphical details and textures with a damage layer system which reacts to bullet impacts hitting different surfaces.

Marketing and release

Reveal

In August 2021, some insider sources began to leak information about Vanguard prior to its official reveal, including its editions and reveal trailer content. Official social media accounts for Call of Duty acknowledged this leak in a "humorous" fashion, and proceeded to tease the game's reveal. Around the same time, the first teaser for Vanguard went live within Call of Duty: Warzone, where winning players in any given Battle Royale matches may be sniped from afar by Vanguard protagonist Polina Petrova during the extraction cutscene. A week after, the title of the game was announced, alongside a reveal event taking place in Warzone. Players got to participate in a limited-time game mode titled "The Battle of Verdansk" where every player works together to take down a train, before attempting to escape as WW2-era planes drop bombs on them. The reveal trailer was played at the end of the event, before being posted publicly on YouTube and other social media websites.
On August 25, during Gamescom, Sledgehammer Games revealed the first extended playthrough of Vanguard's campaign missions set in the Eastern Front called "Stalingrad Summer". This mission gives an insight regarding the initial invasion of Stalingrad in 1942 from the perspective of Petrova as she tries to find a way home after an aerial attack while eliminating hostile German infantry search crews.
On September 7, during a nearly 30-minute live broadcast on YouTube, led by the members of Sledgehammer Games development team, creative director Greg Reisdorf, lead designer Zach Hodson, and associate art director Matt Abbott, in-depth details of Vanguard's multiplayer had been revealed, showcasing some components of tactical gameplay, the variations of competitive gamemodes, while emphasizing the details of the newly introduced environmental destruction gameplay features.

Absence of Activision branding

Following the announcement of Vanguard, viewers observed that any prominent reference to Activision was conspicuously absent from the reveal trailer. This included the first use of "Call of Duty presents..." rather than "Activision presents", and the only mention of Activision being in small print for copyright purposes. Publications attributed the publisher's decision with an attempt to distance itself from Vanguard due to the California lawsuit filed against them, following incidents of sexual harassment within the company. In response to gaming journalist Stephen Totilo, an Activision spokesman said that the change was "a creative choice that reflects how Vanguard represents the next major installment in the franchise".

Multiplayer beta

An open beta version of the multiplayer was also made available for all platforms in September 2021, presenting a selection of five maps and some multiplayer playlists, such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed and Search and Destroy, with the newly introduced Patrol and Champion Hill game modes. Those players who reach Level 20 in beta would receive a weapon blueprint available to use in Vanguard at launch and in Warzone at a later date.

Tie-in comic

A tie-in comic series had been announced for Vanguard with the official reveal taking place on October 10, 2021, at the New York Comic Con. Attendees at the panel were given a free copy of the first issue, featuring one of the protagonists, Polina Petrova. On November 4, 2021, Activision announced the comic series would be released for free on the official Vanguard website, with the first issue going live the same day.

Release

The game was released worldwide on November 5, 2021. Pre-orders of all editions grant "early" access to the open multiplayer beta, a cosmetic weapons pack for use in Vanguard, as well as a Mastercraft cosmetic blueprint and the Vanguard character Arthur Kingsley as an operator, both for use in Cold War and Warzone. The Ultimate Edition grants access to three additional cosmetic skin packs, plus access to the Battle Pass of a Season for Vanguard, and double XP tokens. The Cross-gen Bundle and Ultimate Edition grant console players two versions of the game for use on the previous console generation and the later generation.

Post-launch content

As with Modern Warfare and Cold War, Vanguards post-launch content is provided free-of-charge, including new maps, game modes and seasonal events, while the game continues to monetize via the battle pass system and cosmetic bundles featured in the in-game store.
In January 2022, Activision announced a collaboration with the anime series Attack on Titan, to commemorate the release of its final season. A cosmetic bundle was released on January 20, 2022, in Vanguard and Warzone, featuring themed weapon blueprints and a skin for operator Daniel Yatsu based on the character Levi Ackerman. On February 22, 2022, a bundle was released for operator Roland Zeimet, this time based on Reiner Braun's Armored Titan form.
In March 2022, Activision released a teaser for an upcoming Vanguard update in April, featuring the addition of Snoop Dogg as a playable character. This marks the second collaboration between Snoop Dogg and the Call of Duty franchise since 2014, when the rapper provided voiceover as a multiplayer announcer in Call of Duty: Ghosts. The "Snoop Dogg Operator Bundle" was released in Vanguard and Warzone on April 19, 2022.
In April 2022, Activision released a story cinematic for the Season 3 content update, which featured a teaser for a crossover with Legendary Entertainment's MonsterVerse franchise. The collaboration was officially announced on April 21, 2022, featuring in-game events and map changes for Warzone, and cosmetic items themed after Godzilla, Kong and Mechagodzilla.
In June 2022, Activision announced a collaboration with the Terminator franchise for Vanguards Season 4 content update. The collaboration features two new cosmetic bundles, adding the characters T-800 and T-1000, as they appeared in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as playable operators.
In August 2022, Activision announced a collaboration with The Umbrella Academy comic book series for Vanguards Season 5 content update. The collaboration features themed cosmetic bundles for the operators Lewis Howard and Wade Jackson, based on the characters Hazel and Cha-Cha.

Reception

Call of Duty: Vanguard received "mixed or average reviews", according to review aggregator website Metacritic.
IGNs Simon Cardy awarded the game a 7 out of 10, summarizing their review by saying, "Call of Duty: Vanguards highly polished campaign provides a healthy amount of fun, even if its brief length and lack of variety lead it to fall short of the classic pieces of war cinema it's trying to emulate." Clement Goh of CGMagazine wrote that "Call of Duty: Vanguard falls in the predictable traps of an annual release, but pulls through with a fun campaign and multiplayer at the cost of duller Zombies", also giving the game a 7 out of 10.
Yussef Cole of Polygon criticized Vanguards retelling of the Second World War, saying that its progressive lens suffered from a superficial sense of diversity and from tokenism, whitewashing both history and the workplace practices of Activision Blizzard the company had received a lawsuit for. He felt the game serves as a "mythmaking vehicle" for the Western allies, and that it skips past the present criticism of the West's "unseemly colonial interventions and wasteful acts of aggression" to "retroactively add Black and brown characters to an overwhelmingly white and Western struggle." John Walker of Kotaku wrote that the game "wants to ride the zeitgeist of progressive representation, without ever giving a moment's thought to just how poorly it rewrites the reality of marginalized people involved in the war." Walker also criticized the game's lack of player freedom compared to 2003's Call of Duty, and while praising the graphics as "astonishing", wrote it was "all for absolutely nothing".
Vanguards Zombies mode was negatively received by players and critics alike, with complaints about the lack of content compared to past iterations of the mode. Luke Winkie of IGN gave Zombies a 5 out of 10, writing it had "little imagination beyond bigger damage numbers sparking out of the heads of its undead". Writing for GameRant, Richard Warren felt that Zombies fell short in numerous areas, including its use of multiplayer assets, absence of Wonder Weapons, and lack of Easter eggs, the latter of which they considered the "biggest thing that makes Zombies unique".
Following Vanguards release, players discovered that the Zombies map "Der Anfang" contained scattered pages of the Quran on the floor, some being bloodstained. In response to criticism from players, Activision removed the pages from the game and issued an apology on Twitter: "There was content insensitive to Muslims included in the game, and it has been removed. It was not supposed to exist as it appeared in the game. We deeply apologise."

Sales

Call of Duty: Vanguard was the best-selling game in November 2021 in the US, according to NPD Group. It went on to become the best-selling game in 2021 in the US.
The PlayStation 4 version of Vanguard sold 28,321 copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the fourteenth best-selling retail game of the week in the country. The PlayStation 5 version sold 12,754 copies in Japan throughout the same week, making it the fifth bestselling retail game of the week in the country.
In May 2022, Activision announced that Vanguard had failed to meet their sales expectations, attributing this to the World War II setting and a "lack of innovation".