#Call of duty ww2 vanguard full#
#Call of duty ww2 vanguard series#

Developed by Sledgehammer Games, Vanguard is a deeply engaging narrative, featuring a select group of soldiers from different countries and backgrounds who rise together to meet the world’s gravest threat, change the fortunes of the war and set the table for what we know today as special forces combat. The critically-acclaimed Call of Duty franchise returns with Call of Duty: Vanguard, in which players will experience global combat through the eyes of heroes of World War II and the fateful events that brought them together. Now a select few must rise to finish the job and change the landscape of the war for good. Here’s when you can play the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II betaĬall of Duty: Warzone fans want Verdansk back.For years, the world has endured the largest and deadliest war ever seen, but the tides of World War II are finally turning.

#Call of duty ww2 vanguard series#

Against a game like World at War that places its emphasis on the war’s conflicts themselves while delivering players the action they expect, Vanguard‘s weak cast and scant use of the War itself mean it really could have been set at any time.Ĭall of Duty: Vanguard is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC.Ĭall of Duty: Modern Warfare II’s campaign comes early if you pre-order it Vanguard on the other hand has its characters quip off snarky lines at any opportunity as they traipse through history, carving out a story that is entirely self-centered and has no time for outward reflection.Įven as far as Call of Duty stories go, which regularly discount or twist history to fit an America-centric point of view, Vanguard‘s use of World War II is poor. The game is horrific, gruesome, and violent because World War II was. That discounts World at War‘s greatest strength - that its story is, first and foremost, about its settings, and therefore, about World War II. Again, for Vanguard, World War II is nothing more than a backdrop, something for its characters to barrel through as they establish themselves as wartime legends. Its settings, although gorgeous thanks to modern graphics tech aren’t as gripping as what players will shoot their way through in World at War. Vanguard doesn’t have that same sense of presence. The U.S campaign similarly takes players through the Pacific theater, all the way from Peleliu to Okinawa. The Russian campaign starts in Stalingrad and ends with players planting the Soviet flag atop the ruins of the Reichstag. Going through World at War‘s campaign again, it’s a steady progression. The game is able to sink players into the environments they’re battling in by making them the vehicles for storytelling. Those strengths in World at War persist through its entire campaign. Naturally, the stakes are high for Polina, but while I was playing as her, they weren’t. Instead, Polina and her family are the stars of the show, and the story that ends up being told is less gripping.

Polina’s story in Vanguard, however, doesn’t care for its setting. It makes the city feel like something that was alive at some point. World at War‘s mission emphasizes the destruction and death caused by the Nazis, with Reznov even taking the player through an old bar and commenting on how it used to be filled with laughter.

#Call of duty ww2 vanguard full#

In both missions, the strengths and weaknesses of each game’s story are put on full display. Although the idea seems to have come from World at War‘s mission, Vendetta, which has players snipe enemies through the streets of a similarly bombed-out Stalingrad with the help of Sergent Reznov. Vanguard‘s Polina picks up her father’s old rifle after he’s killed by Nazis in the bombing of Stalingrad. Funny enough, the two do share one point in common: A Russian sniper. World at War is based on real events - but naturally adds its own Call of Duty spin - while Vanguard is largely a work of fiction. Vanguard and World at War are opposed in nearly every way. The resulting game is one of Call of Duty’s worst uses of World War II, one that doesn’t hold a candle to its best story using it: World at War. It uses World War II as a backdrop, shining the spotlight on its cast of characters while still trying to tell a Marvel-ized World War II story. The conflict is what usually takes precedent, not the person fighting in it.īut for Vanguard, it’s the opposite. In so many Call of Duty titles, you’re a nameless soldier taking part in one conflict or another. Instead, cutscenes dominate the game, along with its characters. When I reviewed the game, I couldn’t help but notice how its story, set in World War II, wasn’t being told through bombastic action sequences. Fitbit Versa 3Ĭall of Duty: Vanguard changes up the franchise’s usual formula in a lot of ways.