Call of Duty: Vanguard was 2021’s Call of Duty game from Sledgehammer Games, hitting shelves to a rather lukewarm reception. Taking us back to World War 2, Vanguard introduced a lot of iconic weapons and battlegrounds.
Vanguard’s campaign told the story of the war through the eyes of Task Force One, a multinational group of soldiers who formed a special forces unit. With a campaign, multiplayer, and a franchise-first Zombies crossover, there was a lot on the table with the eighteenth entry into one of the best FPS games series on PS5 and Xbox.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard release date
The Call of Duty: Vanguard release date was Friday, November 5, 2021, for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
There were three editions available. The standard edition, which retailed at $59.99 / £49.99 and granted early access to the open beta, pre-load, a Frontline Weapon Pack, Night Raid Mastercraft Weapon Blueprint, Operator Arthur Kingsley, and five hours worth of double XP tokens if you had pre-ordered it.
The Ultimate edition, which retailed at $99.99 / £89.99, offered all of the above, plus a Task Force Once pack containing three operator and weapon blueprints with tracer rounds, a battle pass bundle, and more double XP tokens.
There was also the Cross-Gen Edition, available for $79.99 / £69.99, that offered the same cosmetics as the standard edition but allowed players to move between the PS4 and PS5 or Xbox and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game.
PS4 and PS5 players got exclusive content once again for a full year up until Call of Duty 2022’s release – which turned out to be Modern Warfare 2.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard reveal and trailers
The Call of Duty: Vanguard reveal took place inside Call of Duty: Warzone on Thursday, August 19, 2021. Here we got our first glimpse of the game, which you can see via the Vanguard reveal trailer below.
In the trailer, we saw a number of battles taking place all over the world, including Stalingrad. We also saw dogfights happening above and a first-person shot of someone flying a plane.
We also see the Gestapo – complete with the Swastika, not the Iron Cross, holding people up at checkpoints and fighting on the streets.
Raven Software began teasing the game the week before, with a unique animation that resulted in a winning player getting sniped from the ascent to the end zone helicopter. It was a pretty cool way to tease the reveal. You can watch it below:
Call of Duty: Vanguard beta
The Call of Duty: Vanguard alpha took place from August 27-29, 2021, on PS4 and PS5, and a multi-platform Vanguard beta ran from September 10-20, 2021.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard gameplay
Call of Duty: Vanguard gameplay was first shown off during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live showcase. We got a glimpse of the opening mission of the campaign, which you can see in the next section.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard campaign
The Call of Duty: Vanguard campaign spanned four major theatres of World War 2 and told the untold stories of four multinational heroes who formed Task Force One and changed the course of the war.
The Call of Duty: Vanguard characters were as follows:
- Private Lucas Riggs, 20th Battalion, Australian 9th Infantry Division, British Eighth Army
- Sergeant Arthur Kingsley of the 9th Parachute Battalion, British Army
- Lieutenant Wade Jackson, Scouting Squadron Six, United States Navy
- Lieutenant Polina Petrova of the 138th Rifle Division, Red Army
These four characters overcame the chaos of war to become the original special forces operatives and the prototype for modern special forces across the globe.
During their journey, players had the chance to experience influential battles of WW2 from the Eastern and Western Fronts of Europe, the Pacific, and North Africa.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard multiplayer
The Call of Duty: Vanguard multiplayer launched with 20 multiplayer maps at launch, split across several game modes, and jam-packed with new weapons to use.
In terms of how it felt to play, Vanguard was much closer to Modern Warfare (2019) rather than its predecessor, Black Ops Cold War. Movement was fast, maps were tight, and the TTK was blazingly quick. However, many players found it a little too chaotic and fast-paced, with almost every weapon feeling unbalanced and the maps leaving lots to be desired.
Alongside the usual CoD modes, Vanguard also introduced Champion Hill, which was a series of tournament-style head-to-head matches, where players could play solo, duos, or trios, to battle it out to be the last squad standing.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard Zombies
Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies was connected to the story from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Given it was created specifically by Treyarch, having it provide a continuity of the Dark Aether story and lore, giving a sense of familiarity to players, wasn’t all too surprising.
However, it suffered from a severe lack of content, especially at launch. After all the updates had wrapped up, there were a total of four Zombies maps to fight the undead horde on, though it was too little, too late for many.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Warzone
Like previous Call of Duty games, Vanguard became fully integrated into the world of Warzone. This meant we were treated to a new map, a host of new equipment, and perhaps most exciting of all – a massive arsenal of new WW2 weapons.
Of course, there were also plenty of in-game events to keep spicing things up, as well as the usual seasonal content updates.
That covers everything there is to know about Call of Duty: Vanguard, which took one of the best multiplayer games back to WW2 for some more old-school action.