There are a number of design choices and additional content that will hopefully set Call of Duty: Vanguard apart from its competitors and 2017’s Call of Duty: WW2. Previously, Call of Duty fans have struggled to justify its full price tag when entries like Black Ops 4 didn’t have a campaign mode, or when Modern Warfare 2019 launched with PlayStation exclusive modes. Call of Duty: Vanguard will be launching with a full package: campaign, zombies, and multiplayer and no PlayStation-exclusive modes.
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Call of Duty: Vanguard — Old Settings Made New
Despite being set in World War Two, a backdrop that many fans might be tired of, Call of Duty: Vanguard will be taking a different approach to its storytelling. The storyline will focus on the creation of various special forces at the end of the war across all four fronts. Typically, games set during this period of time focus either on the Pacific or the European fronts, but Call of Duty: Vanguard’s campaign will have both of these, in addition to the oft-forgotten African front. This should give a much more cohesive and diverse viewpoint of World War Two, and just how many lives it impacted.
Call of Duty: Vanguard will also be breaking a little bit from tradition through its four main protagonists. Each of these four come from one of the allied nation’s forces, and will come together to form Task Force One. Furthermore, all of the playable characters are inspired by real-life war-time heroes such as Lt. Polina Petrova being based on Russian sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, also known as “Lady Death.”
Treyarch is Developing the Zombies Mode
Typically, Call of Duty games follow a similar release and development schedule with Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games taking turns developing the entire entry with assistance from Raven Software. Treyarch is best known for the fan-favorite Zombies mode created all the way back in Call of Duty: World At War, and every game developed by Treyarch expanded on this mode.
Given that Treyarch developed the previous entry, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, many fans were expecting to wait at least another entry before finishing the Dark Aether storyline. In another break from tradition, Call of Duty: Vanguard would not only have its own full-fledged Zombies mode, but it would also be developed and supported by Treyarch for the next year. At launch, there will only be one map for the Zombies mode called “Der Anfang” or “The Beginning.”
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Call of Duty Vanguard’s Multiplayer
As Call of Duty: Vanguard was developed using the 2019 Modern Warfare engine, many of those gameplay elements will be returning and expanded across all three modes. This includes mounting weapons on the terrain, as well as blind-firing from cover, and more interactive terrain. The latter addition, in particular, should make staying in one spot much more difficult than it was in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
However, the pacing of multiplayer still depends largely on the maps, and Vanguard will have twenty at launch, the most in any Call of Duty game. Sixteen of these will be the traditional 6v6 mode, and four will be for the brand-new Champion Hill, round-robin deathmatch in which one-to-three teams must be the last team standing to win.
Another entirely new feature to Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer is the combat pacing option within its matchmaking. With this, players can choose between three pre-defined ways to play the game’s multiplayer maps; tactical, assault, and blitz. Tactical is the traditional six players per team, with each increase in speed doubling the number of players up to 24v24. This allows for even more options to play Call of Duty however the player wants, and if variety is what they seek, then the pacing can be toggled to “all” for a wider experience.
Call of Duty: Vanguard’s Warzone Integration
At launch, Call of Duty: Vanguard will be fully integrated into Warzone’s pre-existing map, Verdansk, just as Black Ops: Cold War was. This means that the meta will be shaken up quite a lot with the introduction of new World War Two-era weapons, some of which are usable in-game right now. This means that there will be three-games-worth of weapons within the Warzone client, and near-limitless possibilities when creating a loadout. Furthermore, all unlocked operators, skins, and cosmetics will be fully usable in Warzone and its major Season 1 update.
However, the most exciting integration for Vanguard and Warzone, the mode’s first new map, won’t come until a month after launch on December 2. Warzone will be rebranded to Warzone Pacific, and Verdansk will be replaced with Caldera. The two are roughly the same size, but that is where similarities end. Caldera is much lusher by comparison, with fewer buildings and all modern vehicles replaced with their World War Two equivalents.
There will also be a new mode called Vanguard Royale, which essentially is the new map with weapons only from Call of Duty: Vanguard. This will allow for a much more clear meta and make balancing problematic/underperforming weapons a lot easier.
The final major change is something that will make PC players especially happy: As with Call of Duty: Vanguard, Warzone will be receiving a full-fledged anti-cheat system called Richochet. This should make finding fair lobbies on the platform much easier, and it’s certainly a welcome addition for PC players and cross platform.
Call of Duty: Vanguard as a whole is shaping up to be one of the biggest and most complete packages that the series has seen in a very long time. Everything from the campaign, to Zombies, to multiplayer and Warzone will be getting touched up and revamped.
Call of Duty: Vanguard releases on November 5, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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