Of all the expressions poured out over the years in written or oral form about killing Nazis, one of which I most appreciate comes from the video game environment. My appreciation has a lot to do with precisely how strong the fascist discourse has hit gaming –and why deny it– and in general the area of development and systems.
Discovering which creators, and the fat, have the priorities where they belong, is always a source of pride. Because one, whether you like it or not, is part. And if you do not act in this or that way (reproach and complaint are a way of acting) you run the risk of complicity and crime. Like Bob Kotick.
In 2017, due to the departure of Wolfenstein II: The New Collossus, a controversy came to light. One of the most unintelligible that I, as a gamer, writer, or person, have had to live. In the most opaque graves of the internet they denounced the new Bethesda shooter as “very political.” I do not want to dwell on this because, after all, my review is from Call of Duty: VanguardHowever, the relationship is interesting. Given the historical argument of the FPS, where KILL NAZIS is almost the whole argument, there was no going back. That was the surprising thing. With Pete Hines at the helm he explained:
“We are not going to hide the fact that our video game is about killing Nazis and liberating the US from their dominance and if we can make current references while we discuss the game, so be it. The Nazis are evil. We are not afraid to remind people. “
Let’s make America Nazi free again.
Argument
Maybe that’s why I was quite surprised Call of Duty: Vanguard. In fact, it’s a rehash of previous COD missions in a bundle of around 5 hours.
Arthur Kingsley (based on the war hero Sidney Cornell) is the leader of the Vanguard squad that infiltrated Berlin at the end of the war to gain information about the Phoenix project carried out by a Nazi high command named Freisinger. The entire beginning of the delivery until the capture of the group is to get adrenaline pumping through the air with a long sequence with trains and the arrival of a submarine.
The squad is reduced by two. Novak, the protagonist of the tutorial, is executed on the spot, and Wade Jackson, a pilot, manages to flee. Polina Petrova (based on Lady Death, Lyudmila Pavlichenko), Lucas Riggs, an Australian detonation specialist, and Richard Webb, Kingsley’s right-hand man, are escorted to a cell where one by one they await the interrogations of Jannick Richter (played by Dominic Monaghan, Merry in the films of “The Lord of the rings”).
In an unoriginal way, we will rotate between each character whose flashbacks are the playable material.
With Polina, a Red Army medic, we will travel to the attempted invasion of Stalingrad and witness her birth as the most lethal sniper. The most memorable will remember that “Stalingrad”Is a level of Call of duty original.
Lucas Riggs will take us to Africa in August 1941 as part of the force “The Tobruk Rats”In a couple of quite entertaining missions with detonation targets and attractive settings thanks to the inclusion of one of the two famous battles of El Alamein.
The intrepid pilot Wade Jackson is a caricature of Tom Cruise’s character in Top gun. An insane man of great capacity who has to understand that he is not a “one man army”. However, it can be argued that their missions are the most entertaining – and perhaps the most complicated – due to the use of the plane.
Finally, through a flashback we learn about the past of Kingsley, a British paratrooper during the Operation Tonga, which is where he meets, after a few stumbles with thousands of deaths, his friend, the trustworthy Webb.
Technical question
Last year, even a year ago, I wrote the review of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War (PS4) and I put that, due to its visual level, it was for me a totally new generation video game.
This third installment developed by Sledgehammer (and the second one focused on World War II) rarely reaches those levels on PS4 and I elaborate.
The cinematics, in strict cinematic 24 FPS, look very “locked”. To also highlight the level of some very specific sequences (the parachute jump, the battle of Midway …).
Already in the game itself, not only is there no improvement with the previous installment that Treyarch developed, but even because of the texture streaming technology, there are moments where we are vitiating a PS1 shooter.
Overall, however, it is by no means a catastrophe. The possibility given by titles with “levels” is more detail-friendly than that offered by open worlds.
Special attention to the recreation of actors. As usual with a saga that has had many stars, among the voice actors there is more than one very recognizable film actor. He is joined by Elya Baskin as Boris, Polina’s father, or Dan Donohue, Herr Freisinger, who curiously also had a role in Monaghan. Wolfenstein 2 (although this time, not as a Nazi).
I also noticed quite a bit clipping when Bear McCreary’s tremendous soundtrack (the one from the last God of war) has to fight in volume with the war sound effects. A shame but not uncommon.
The gameplay is what you would expect from a modern shooter and although I assume that it should be just as accessible with mouse and keyboard (the perfect setup for these titles), with control it is handled in a decent way although it has some half-silly design errors like that the character stops running to load the weapon which causes some missions in particular to have very tedious minutes.
Reviews (2)
This review will come to light just hours after an investigation by the Wall Street Journal unmasks the policy of abuse, rape and harassment that from Activision’s macho bosses, embedded in the horrendous figure of Bob Kotick, was promoted from at least the beginning of the new millennium. The explosion, worthy of one that could be carried out by the devastating Riggs, hopefully begins to remove these garbage from the workplace.
Call of duty is a saga of FPS that during the almost two decades of existence has focused its sights on the different enemies that the United States faced in the 20th and 21st centuries. In many of its installments (and more than anything in the Black ops), these rivals were the Soviets or Cubans. The communists in particular. In others it was the Nazis. In some, both. In a very few moments, themselves. This latest addition to the family, called “Vanguard”, Puts us in charge of a team where its most emblematic soldiers are embodied by two characters in relation to real life, a black soldier and a deadly (Stalinist in the end) Soviet. Even more, one of the most “complicated” missions, leads us to be rescued by the famous 93rd Infantry Division, made up of segregated black soldiers.
I don’t know if there is a specific reason for Activision to endorse another WW2-centered title in the last 4 years, but I choose to believe there is. I decide to think that the outpost of far-right sectors throughout the world gave them the trigger to design a title that, although it does not dare to come to 2021, aims to put a spotlight on a frightening present from a past that society, With his vicissitudes and fears, he decides not to want to see. I also assume that these current complaints are decisive for the tone. From one edgy, adolescent, and frankly, quite peacock, to another totally different. This does not mean that what was written with the hand was erased with the elbow.
A few days ago, a madman with a Confederate flag around his neck (in Luna Park!) Said without blushing: “I prefer that they consider me a Nazi (SIC), than that they consider me a communist”.
It may not be for everyone Call of Duty: Vanguard. At the end of the day it gives us the possibility of doing with the Nazis, almost the only thing to do: exterminate them.