Call of Duty: Vanguard Review for PlayStation 5

Call of Duty is such a prolific franchise that has been around long enough to where it makes me do a double take on how old I am. Many players nowadays continue to play them for its extremely popular online gaming. For me, though, I always gravitate to story and when I sit down to play a COD game, that’s what I do. For this review, I will be reviewing the Vanguard campaign only. With a passionate fanbase and my little experience with previous multiplayers in the franchise, I don’t believe my opinion will be as informed as even the casual Call of Duty online gamer. Having said that, I did play a little and I did enjoy what I played. Looking at other reviews on the internet, Call of Duty: Vanguard seems to miss the mark quite a bit. While that could be true in Multiplayer, I found the campaign to be one of the better experiences in the franchise in quite a while. 

With an overall experience that took me roughly seven hours, it was really cool seeing so many homages to classic war films. While the story is obviously fictional, the concept of getting an elite group of specialists to come together and accomplish the deadliest of missions at first reminded me of something like The Expendables meets Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. While both of those films have a bit more fun, here the story is taken much more seriously. What sets this campaign higher than most of its predecessors is the amount of time put into the characters.  

Your core characters are from all over the world; Australia, Britain, Soviet Union, and USA.  Each have their specific role and each play differently. There are flashback missions for all of them, some are more interesting than others, but it’s a good use of character development and teaching you the mechanics of how each one plays. By far the standout character is Petrova, played by a legendary performer in the business, Laura Bailey. Her Stalingrad mission was probably the highlight of the entire game. It was emotional, gripping, intense, and Petrova is by far the most layered character of the bunch. Playing as her was also my favorite. Being the sniper of the group, she’s given controls that really help you move around and climb around the map that you’re unable to do with other characters.  

The gunplay I felt to be top notch. Each gun felt very authentic and smooth. The variety of weapons felt a little limited, but that’s only an issue for the campaign and was probably due to story related choices. That being said, while the selection was smaller, I didn’t mind it. My biggest issue with the game overall was there were multiple missions in the middle that felt a bit meandering and it felt really clear they didn’t spend enough time making each mission as compelling as the last. There’re mostly highs than lows though, Call of Duty: Vanguard started strong and ended explosively strong. I also want to tip my hat to the composer Bear McCreary; he is a phenomenal music composer and I still listen to his God of War score. The one he did here is also fantastic. For more hardcore COD fans, this entry may be a little underwhelming overall, but for someone who just wants to go in for a quick story experience, I think there’s a lot to love here. 

For more information, the latest intel and complete blog coverage check out www.callofduty.com/ and www.youtube.com/callofduty and follow @SHGames, @RavenSoftware, @Treyarch and @CallofDuty on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Nick Navarro

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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87

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