I just wish the gameplay was a little less predictable. This mix of eclectic characters, individual missions, and a non-linear storyline adds variety and dynamism to the gameplay that makes Call of Duty: Vanguard stand out. Lastly, the Russian sniper Petrova can climb walls, crawl through debris and tiny spaces, and whistle an enemy sniper into wasting a shot who will then probably die reloading. Wade, the American dive bomber pilot, has a Max Payne-esque focus ability to slow time but also see enemies through walls and obstacles when on the ground. Riggs is a demolition expert who can lob grenades with a precise aim. Kingsley is a natural leader and can direct troops to focus fire on a particular target when you play him. Each has a back story, a specialty, and a special ability in combat. It's a pleasure to watch and play such fleshed-out characters in a first-person shooter (FPS) campaign. There's the level-headed Brit leader Arthur Kingsley (voice of Chiké Okonkwo), the foul-mouthed Aussie Lucas Riggs (Martin Copping), the American show-off Wade Jackson (Derek Phillips), and the Russian straight-faced killer Polina Petrova (Laura Bailey). On the subject of heroes, you play as five characters. Since all of our heroes get their own introductory missions before they come together as Task Force One to force the Nazis to skedaddle for good, the difficulty remains almost flat throughout.
It's uncanny how not hard it was to speed run through the campaign, especially if you have played other titles from CoD Black Ops or Modern Warfare series that are less forgiving. And the six-hour run I mentioned was on Hardened. There are four levels to it: Recruit, Regular, Hardened, and Veteran. My other major grouse is that the game's difficulty setting is lopsided. So, you're left wanting more, but not in a good way. What's worse, though, is that it's pretty great. For a hugely anticipated game that was advertised to capture the whole world at war, it's unsettling.
The gaming experience in all three formats begins with a lot of excitement - thanks to a great storyline, beautiful cinema, next-generation graphics, and steady marketing - but it becomes pretty obvious that something has gone amiss as the game progresses.Ĭall of Duty Vanguard PC Performance Review: Can a Budget Gaming Rig Handle It? Call of Duty: Vanguard single-player campaign reviewĬall of Duty: Vanguard campaign is roughly a six-hour run. Treyarch Studios claims to have a clear roadmap, but one that is yet to take a formidable shape. The Zombies mode in Call of Duty: Vanguard, though, is in its infancy compared to the last instalment. While the game controls are the same, the experience is markedly different (not worse, not better) from Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War.
The expansive mode has 20 maps at launch and a new ‘Combat Pacing' matchmaking that lets you control the pace of the game - you can choose the number of players vis-à-vis the map size - and not be forced into a sniper contest or a bloodbath where you only survive for a few short breaths. The gameplay is classic CoD: fast and dynamic like an elite obstacle course, with a few party tricks that make the experience less humdrum.Ĭall of Duty: Vanguard multiplayer mode gets more attention. The single-player campaign developed by Sledgehammer Games spends so much time in defining its four prime characters - and two Nazi shmucks - that the story wraps up before it can get going. But the 18th instalment of Activision's priced series suffers from the consequences of its lofty intentions.
Call of Duty: Vanguard injects the biggest flights of World War II into a spin-off story about the mythical Fourth Reich, which is worthy of a big round of applause. The enigmatic heroes that knock your socks off in carefully imagined cutscenes render into one-trick-pony operatives for the most part. What follows, though, is an epic story that never quite reaches a crescendo. Call of Duty: Vanguard rubs and polishes the trite World War II theme to cinematic brilliance.