What a pleasure it is when reality kicks you in the mouth. If a few weeks ago I wrote that Call of duty I needed a break, these last days Call of Duty: Vanguard has managed to surprise me with two great assets: a superb campaign and a timid approach to the design of maps of the first Black ops.
We are still far from the best face of the franchise of Activision, but the truth is that for a game that has been waking up talk about its development for more than a year, the result is more than remarkable, only clouded by a brief duration and some zombies that are far below what is desired.
With space (and win) for a Vanguard 2
After the initial summary, we are going to get to work to discover how a disappointment can turn into a surprise in just a few weeks. As is customary in all these isolated titles, Call of Duty: Vanguard it clings to a closed story that leaves some scraps that could be thrown away for future installments.
I would like nothing more because, despite being a short-term campaign -not even in the highest difficulties it has lasted a little more than an afternoon-, what I have achieved when it comes to presenting its characters and particularities has seemed fantastic to me.
Pulling a manual Maguffin that you tiptoe through, the story of Vanguard serves to unite a memorable group of brains destined to save the world from the umpteenth Nazi threat. Questionable elite soldiers who, once united, give for one of the most fun and original final stages who has lived the saga.
With the excuse of imprisonment, the game will throw us flashbacks of how each of them became an expert on their own, from the revenge-seeking Russian sniper to the demolition fan with little enthusiasm for authoritarianism.
In addition to working for get to know your past better and what led them to this elite group, the excuse is to jump from one scenario and style of play to another with great coherence. While with the sniper we face slower and more strategic phases in which to climb and crawl in search of murders from afar or from behind, with the demolition expert it is all heavy weapons and big explosions.
Good pace and good ideas
Without ghosts that are too late -that WWII train is still the moment when a shark jumped into another shark-, the campaign of Call of Duty: Vanguard manages to throw a frenetic pace in which there is little room for unnecessary badges, either in playable format or in cinematics.
He knows what he wants to tell and teach, so he doesn’t go around too much time looking for some logic to what is happening. It is worth collecting different key points of the Second World War -the day before D-day, the battle of Midway, the defense of Stalingrad… – and create a story around those characters and their abilities.
Because of wanting to get to the point, some seem a little run over and others know how to solve their climaxes better than others, but beyond a knife battle that deserved a more ambitious idea, the truth is that they have all seemed to me the most exciting . There still being love of big shootouts more than anything else.
I have not been able to avoid remembering on more than one occasion that memorable moment of the last Medal of Honor – probably the only really remarkable moment of a game to forget – in which you were trapped on a hill and the enemies did not stop coming. Call of Duty: Vanguard He pulls it on more than a few occasions, and in all of them he manages to create a tension to match.
Too bad that the final section, in which we jump from one character to another to take advantage of their abilities separately, is so short. Just when you’re having the best time and you’re waiting for the big bang that closes everything with a big bang, the game comes to an end and leaves you wanting more. I hope the group of Vanguard return to Call of duty with more ambition and budget in other deliveries.
A multiplayer of hits and misses
With the multi, on the other hand, there are mixed feelings. Those of you who have already read me talking about the saga in recent years know that for me the ideal Call of Duty would be a compilation with the best weapons, streaks and scenarios of the franchise. A simplistic and nostalgic delivery without the slightest intention of reinventing the wheel. It worked in Modern Warfare or Black Ops and it works here. No more.
From there, game after game vice multiplayer It ends up lasting me nothing and less, especially because of how the maps are assembled and how their mouse mazes with holes for camper drivers manage to drive me out of my boxes. If I had to choose, all levels would focus on the idea of three lanes, raised to its finest expression in Black Ops 2.
I am happy to say that in Call of Duty: Vanguard, to my surprise behind the beta maps, there is a little bit of that. Two or three very straight maps come to mind with three very marked lanes in which I have had a great time.
Do you remember those shootings in which there were no problems with the respawn or the campers because in reality it was a constant battle between one side of the map and the other? Well I have come across several of those moments in which there has been almost no exchange of sides in the entire game. Two blocks fighting relentlessly as they try to get strong in one lane or take the next.
What breaks that idea? The obsession with putting buildings in mousetrap format on the vast majority of maps. All plagued by that senseless obsession that is opening and closing doors or bursting walls to open a hole through which to shoot. The more open the maps are, they better play, but they are not the majority.
Some zombies to forget
Beyond how little I like everything related to micropayments, special weapons and other paraphernalia live service, the great problem of this Duty is relegated to the zombies. A fair map with different portals that take you to not much larger areas in which to fulfill different objectives.
Easter eggs are limited to listening to a series of lines of dialogue, exploring the map has no motivation beyond getting perks and, in general, it is more of a horde mode than a zombie mode to use. In a way it reminded me of when in Call of Duty Ghosts they thought it was a good idea to bring in aliens with the sole intention of having you shoot them.
To completely personal tastes is the work of the interface, which puts life bar to zombies taking away much of the fun out of the fear of being thrown at several times, or twisting a story even more that, despite never having made any sense, now invites you to raise your eyebrow beyond the crown of your head.
It could be accommodated as an additional mode as was done in Black Ops Cold War with OutbreakBut if this is what you find out of the blue, I don’t have high hopes for what might come next. I hope it happens to me as with the campaign and the multi -there at least in part- and here I am also wrong.
VidaExtra’s opinion
I took it for granted Call of Duty: Vanguard It would be another installment destined to fall into oblivion and, although the panorama does not seem to paint too well for its continuation, I hope it is lucky to earn a new opportunity to shine.
With a hilarious campaign and a multiplayer with certain good intentions, only lacking more grit and trying to sell us a zombie mode that is not such a thing, they play against it. For the rest, it is the least bad side of a series of installments “second”Who have limited themselves to trying to play their best cards and borrowing the rest from Modern warfare and Black ops. Here, at least, the chosen and borrowed cards are good.
Call of Duty: Vanguard – Amazon Exclusive Edition
Call of Duty: Vanguard
Platforms | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4 and PS5 (analyzed version) |
---|---|
Multiplayer | Yes |
Developer | Sledgehammer Games |
Company | Activision |
Launching | November 5, 2021 |
The best
- Short but very fun campaign
- The layout of some maps of the multi
- Spectacular in the technical
Worst
- Zombies are among the worst in the saga
- Microtransactions and special weapons