Call of Duty: Vanguard

Concise Review:

Graphics are top notch. Solid Campaign. Not as good as MW but better than CW.
Solid traditional multiplayer gameplay, but it’s lacking a larger game mode and champion hill is a miss.
Warzone Pacific is more of the same and not as good as the original but still fun.
Call it a reskin of MW but it’s an effective reskin.

Journal Style Review:

Starting on campaign. Opening impressions is the graphics look very good. I’m so glad this one looks like MW rather than the style and look of Cold War. 

Hopefully it translates well to multiplayer but I think this game feels great. The guns feel amazing for the campaign. The recoil is great but you can still hit shots. The gun animations look great. Sound is solid too. Strong start. I already am very confident I won’t regret this purchase.

Campaign start was sick. Thought the opening mission was good and cutscene was great.

I’ve had a great time playing multiplayer for day 1. It feels very typical COD but in the polished way MW felt. It looks great. I don’t really have an opinion on the maps yet. The new champion hill game mode is interesting and right now quite fun. I don’t think I will play it as much as the 2v2 gun fight from MW. But I do think it’s a nice addition and will add to the longevity.

The campaign cutscenes look lifelike. The story is fun to start. I’d say it’s on par with MW to start. It has the potential at least. I had a few frustrating multiplayer games but honestly it’s because I’m not very good. And I’m trying to use guns that have no attachments on them. The guns and my aim will get better.

I like the attachments and it’s what makes COD great these days. But I wish there was a playlist where it was only iron sights. Optics were disabled. That would be my favourite.

The campaign is better than CW’s but isn’t as good as MW’s. There are a few stretches without any real gameplay that go on for a bit too long. The missions have been fun but not the back to back unreal missions that MW had.

Played 2 long days of multiplayer. It’s fun. It’s a good normal feeling COD multiplayer. Champion hill is fun for a few rounds but because you pretty much do the same upgrade pattern every game I’m already feeling a bit of fatigue. The multiplayer as a whole is better than Cold War, but I liked the giant bomb game mode more than champion hill. I anticipate that the multiplayer is going to keep being fun for as long as I feel I’m working towards unlocking and upgrading new guns that feel worth it. I’m sure that’s going to hold me off till the new Warzone comes out.

Some of my faves so far. Free for all using the pump action shotgun has been great. Especially once I got incendiary rounds. Patrol has been my favourite team mode. The idea of the moving hill creates a focused but fluid objective which counters static camping but let’s you think about positions. 

I like how they chose to do tactical, assault and blitz game modes. It’s a good idea, but I also wish there were a few bigger maps.

I hated the airplane campaign mission. That one sucked. Really slow and the controls sucked.

I’m a fan of the destructible covers they added in this one. I also like the gore. Call me simple but I think limbs flying off from shotguns and explosives adds to the game.

Airplane mission was an outlier. The next two mission chunks were again quite solid. Not special in the same way I’d say the MW campaign was, but solid.

The “play of the game” videos are laughably bad. So so bad. And the three mvp system also doesn’t work. The short videos are boring and repetitive. It doesn’t pick the three best performances and the way they just cherry pick a random stat is foolish. It should pick the three highest scores, show kills, deaths, objective things, and then choose a random additional good stat.

The shipment map with a ton of people is a fun chaotic way to speed upgrade guns. Throw on double weapon exp, get like 60-100 kills. Crush the upgrades. I like it. 

Too many people are talking about vanguard and BF2042 in the same tone. They shouldn’t be. Vanguard is similar to other CODs and not groundbreaking in anyway but it’s better than CW and the launch and performance has been smooth and the amount of content and the rate that you fly through everything is great. The stupid final kills cam and the mvp voting is really dumb but it’s such a small part of the game. Vanguard is getting unjustified hate. I like it. It’s a good shooter and I don’t think it has any scummy corporate business decisions like BF2042 has been riddled with. If it wasn’t for the absolutely stacked lineup of games that came out at the same time I’d be playing VG way more and still really enjoying it. I plan to play this game long term. I still haven’t even played the zombies mode or beaten the campaign. There’s a lot of content, even if it is the same type of content as previous years. 

I am having a lot of fun levelling up the guns and experimenting with the different attachments. That’s what keeps me entertained for the traditional COD multiplayer and I think VG does an excellent job of it. The unlocks come frequently and can drastically change how guns perform once you have a full 10 attachment set up. The contrast to VG’s attachment system and BF2042’s is night and day. VG wins by a mile. 

The multiplayer (warzone not out yet) is a middle pack A-. It’s solid, it’s feels like a responsive and tight COD game. I’ve had fun with it and I like the variety in the weapons and attachments. The thing holding it back is champion hill is a dud for the new unique mode. MW had big team battle and gun game which were both quite fun. CW even had the dirty bomb game which had its flaws but I still played a ton and really enjoyed. VG has just plain old multiplayer with the addition of letting you choose how many people on a map. I like that addition but it isn’t enough. My opinion may change when warzone pacific comes out next week. Warzone gave MW a huuuge boost. I’m sure it will do the same here, but not likely to the same extent. We will see how much I enjoy the new Warzone.

Aussie campaign mission was fun. Final mission was fun. With a small airplane exception this campaign is a consistent low A- which is perfectly acceptable and adequate. 

I thought that the new Vanguard Warzone was going to have the VG perks and items. I wish that was the case. At least they disabled the MW and CW guns. For a second I thought they didn’t.

First few games were decent. It’s definitely more of the same and my BR itch isn’t nearly what it used to be, but the map at first glance looks like it will be cool and I like the WW2 guns so I’m sure at some point I’ll have a blast with it. 

I’ve played enough Warzone Pacific to get a good grasp of it now. It’s nowhere near hitting as hard as the original Warzone did but it’s still fun and deserving of the A- score. I’ve had the most fun playing resurgence as it’s faster paced and let’s me experiment more with different guns and set ups. It’s too hard playing real Warzone without a communicating squad, and I don’t like solos as the strategic play is to camp and it just isn’t that fun. Resurgence on the rotating map has been fun.

I’ve enjoyed figuring out which new gun set ups are the best. I don’t think I like this map as much as the last, or maybe it’s just Warzone doesn’t have the same effect as it once did but it’s been fun still. 

Final Score: A-