7/25/2023 0 Comments Call of duty 2021There's nothing here that comes close to the nerve-shredding Clean House mission from Infinity Ward's 2019 Modern Warfare. In truth, there's nothing in the Vanguard campaign we haven't seen in Call of Duty before. The play space is surprisingly small - you need to turn back if you hit an edge - and there's not much more to the dogfighting than moving a bit and shooting. Piloting a WW2 plane, shooting down enemies and bombing warships sounds like a blast, but the mission is too restrictive, too on-rails to give the player the freedom needed to express themselves in the sky. I was excited to play the Battle of Midway mission but it's a letdown. That's about as sophisticated as stealth gets in Vanguard. This super power lets him see enemies through the Bougainville jungle, making for easier silent takedowns. Each character has a unique ability, but they're medicore. There are stealth sections that offer a change of pace, but these are rudimentary. Another tasks you with using explosives to blow stuff up. One set piece involves a frustrating sniper battle that descends into a pantomime boss fight. Occasionally - and it's only occasionally - you can task your squadmates with directing their fire at a particular target. There is little to think about beyond pointing and shooting. But the gameplay is too by-the-numbers for it to make an impression. Vanguard's campaign levels look the part.Įach campaign mission is gorgeous, with incredibly detailed environments, impressive visual effects and the roar of a World War bursting through the speakers. We also get to visit the Numa Numa Trail, Tobruk and even the Battle of El Alamein. The flashback mission for American ace Wade Jackson is the Battle of Midway. Polina Petrova, the Russian sniper inspired by real-life Soviet sniper Lyudmila "Lady Death" Pavlichenko, has a flashback to the Battle of Stalingrad. Kingsley's is Operation Tonga, which saw paratroopers land in France ahead of the D-Day invasion. These flashbacks are missions set during prior World War 2 conflicts, and act as origin stories. The meat of the campaign is told through flashbacks - each character in this special unit gets their turn. He's on a "crusade", another character says. The leader of the unit is a British war hero called Sergeant Arthur Kingsley. The characters here - all inspired by real-life World War 2 heroes - are supported by decent dialogue and vociferous voice acting - but there's no subtlety or deftness to proceedings. There is a secret plot to see the Third Reich live on, and Task Force One is sent in to infiltrate Germany on the quiet in order to put a stop to it. The campaign begins near the end of World War 2, with the Nazis defeated and in disarray. The story, this time around, revolves around a handful of World War 2 heroes plucked from various allied nations that combine to form Task Force One - a fledgling spec ops team that acts as a precursor of the special forces we know today. But I struggle to get excited for another Call of Duty set in World War 2 - despite Sledgehammer's best effort to put a spin on storytelling. Sledgehammer's excellent Call of Duty: WW2 opened the door to the long-running shooter series for me, and after walking through I've spent thousands of hours in this new Call of Duty metaverse (sorry). That return to World War 2 feels like a boring choice of setting. Availability: Out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.Developer: Sledgehammer, Treyarch, more.There's nothing wrong or bad or off-putting in this return to World War 2, but Vanguard does nothing exceptionally. Developer Sledgehammer Games finds itself sandwiched in-between the mega sub-brands that are Modern Warfare and Black Ops, and has produced fun filler for fans to be getting on with. It feels like a stop-gap year for Call of Duty. Vanguard won't join the pantheon of Call of Duty games, but it's a decent stop-gap for those waiting for Modern Warfare's return.
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