Okay, played this one way after its lifecycle. I don't really have much to say about this one. Definitely one of the worst COD games of all time, but isn't overall a bad game. It's like a 5/10 game, but for COD standards that's like the third worst.
Campaign. It's bad. The plot is super basic and takes a really good concept and screws it up. The game wants you to like this Vanguard team so much but its members either get killed off before we get to know them or are entirely unlikeable and forgettable. The only exception is Wade Jackson, who also gets the best missions in the game. The plot surrounds a plot to revive the Nazis into the Fourth Reich and eventually leads to ideas of Germans betraying Germans and an inner conspiracy. The problem is this idea is executed for like, one cutscene, and then it moves on to the final escape where the Vanguard save the day. This game also has this plot device called Project Phoenix and we're supposed to find out what it is. It's mentioned a couple of times but other than flashbacks, this game doesn't focus on it, despite it being the main goal of this entire story. It is finally revealed to us at the end, where it's revealed that Project Phoenix was a project to greenlight other projects like insert OG COD game reference here and insert OG COD game reference there. The end. I'm serious. The whole point of this game was to serve as a fan service moment and nothing more. The entire story was completely pointless and it doesn't build towards anything. And for that reason alone, it's the worst COD campaign of all time. And before I move on, I want to point out that the writers for this game did a horrible job with the representation. Instead of making it subtle and normal, every cutscene with Polina has to do with being a woman. There are a couple forced scenes about Arthur being black as well. What makes matters worse is while Polina is making comments about "men and their egos", HER ENTIRE ARC IS ABOUT AVENGING HER FATHER AND BROTHER. I really wanted to just emphasize that.
Multiplayer. It's good. Like I'm actually impressed with it. They basically took MW19's movement, made the maps better, and it literally fixed most of the issues I had with the core gameplay in COD multiplayers. SBMM is still present but not as bad as Cold War. The combat pacing helps keep things fresh whenever regular 6v6 isn't cutting it. They did introduce bloom, which was stupid, but adding attachments reduces it, so there's a way to counter that. There's also operator levels that unlock certain voicelines and skins and encourage you to use specific weapons to speed up the progression. Not all of the rewards are great, but it's a cool way to give players something else to do. Overall, I was really happy with it. It still has a few bad maps and existing modern COD issues here and there. I don't think their Fireteam-equivalent mode is very good either. All but one of the mastery camos are trash. But I was very happy with my experience with it nonetheless. Out of all of the modern-SBMM COD multiplayers, this one is my favorite. Hot take, but I did enjoy it.
Zombies. Okay, the first two roguelite maps? Garbage. Der Anfaang was fun for like, an hour. Once you play through one of the loops once, you've seen everything. There is nothing else to play for. The second map is exactly the same in a different location. Hands down the worst map in the game. But the Shinonuma remake and The Archon were awesome. The dig site was a great addition in my opinion. The Archon was also a decent round-based map with some added verticality to it. Those two maps overall were great. The issue with this mode is that that was it. Two good round-based maps, two awful maps, and nothing more. The final easter egg in The Archon didn't even have a cutscene, and just like the campaign, everything in Vanguard Zombies felt inconsequential. Barely anything happened, and even on its own, it wasn't very good. Definitely one of the weakest third modes in COD.
Finally, the Warzone. I did not like Caldera. It wasn't an awful map, but the visibility in it was shit. The game was also too reliant on Resurgence to save it at that point, and when that's the only thing in the game, it starts to feel dry. Not only that, but the events in both multiplayer and Warzone were really random. Futuristic weapons and Godzilla vs Kong???? Just like out of nowhere? That movie is already a year old, what were they thinking? Like it was enjoyable but there's little to no hype around it. The final update added Menendez, Rorke, Al Asad, Seraph, and one of the laser guns from Advanced Warfare for reasons? It doesn't tease their return or anything, it's just cameos for the sake of fan service to milk the shit out of the COD brand. And honestly, that was Vanguard's biggest problem. They focused too much on fan service through shit like bringing Captain Butcher from WWII and make references to Nova 6 and all rather than take advantage of their own concept. This is Call of Duty if it was made by Disney. The multiplayer/Warzone storyline was supposed to pick up where Cold War's left off and did absolutely nothing with it. It introduced Nebula 5 and told us the Germans were working on experimental weaponry, and that's about it. Nothing else happened, the storyline never got a conclusion. I guess we'll never know what Butcher knew about the bombs under Verdansk. And while we're on the topic of Warzone, Fortune's Keep was an awesome resurgence map. Better than the knockoff Alcatraz map from Cold War that they promoted as a new map. Cold War's Warzone will forever put a shit taste in my mouth for just reskinning Alcatraz and calling it Rebirth Island when it looks nothing like Rebirth Island, which is a problem because Black Ops 1 is still canon and all this does is confuse people on whether Cold War retconned the real Rebirth Island or not. Fortune's Keep is a brand new map made from scratch and is just as good if not better. Sledgehammer or Raven, whoever worked on it, deserves credit for that.
So yeah, Vanguard isn't very good. Unless it's for multiplayer, I can't really recommend it. You aren't really missing out on this one, but if you ever wanted to check it out, it's there I guess. It's pretty much the Eternals of Call of Duty.
Campaign. It's bad. The plot is super basic and takes a really good concept and screws it up. The game wants you to like this Vanguard team so much but its members either get killed off before we get to know them or are entirely unlikeable and forgettable. The only exception is Wade Jackson, who also gets the best missions in the game. The plot surrounds a plot to revive the Nazis into the Fourth Reich and eventually leads to ideas of Germans betraying Germans and an inner conspiracy. The problem is this idea is executed for like, one cutscene, and then it moves on to the final escape where the Vanguard save the day. This game also has this plot device called Project Phoenix and we're supposed to find out what it is. It's mentioned a couple of times but other than flashbacks, this game doesn't focus on it, despite it being the main goal of this entire story. It is finally revealed to us at the end, where it's revealed that Project Phoenix was a project to greenlight other projects like insert OG COD game reference here and insert OG COD game reference there. The end. I'm serious. The whole point of this game was to serve as a fan service moment and nothing more. The entire story was completely pointless and it doesn't build towards anything. And for that reason alone, it's the worst COD campaign of all time. And before I move on, I want to point out that the writers for this game did a horrible job with the representation. Instead of making it subtle and normal, every cutscene with Polina has to do with being a woman. There are a couple forced scenes about Arthur being black as well. What makes matters worse is while Polina is making comments about "men and their egos", HER ENTIRE ARC IS ABOUT AVENGING HER FATHER AND BROTHER. I really wanted to just emphasize that.
Multiplayer. It's good. Like I'm actually impressed with it. They basically took MW19's movement, made the maps better, and it literally fixed most of the issues I had with the core gameplay in COD multiplayers. SBMM is still present but not as bad as Cold War. The combat pacing helps keep things fresh whenever regular 6v6 isn't cutting it. They did introduce bloom, which was stupid, but adding attachments reduces it, so there's a way to counter that. There's also operator levels that unlock certain voicelines and skins and encourage you to use specific weapons to speed up the progression. Not all of the rewards are great, but it's a cool way to give players something else to do. Overall, I was really happy with it. It still has a few bad maps and existing modern COD issues here and there. I don't think their Fireteam-equivalent mode is very good either. All but one of the mastery camos are trash. But I was very happy with my experience with it nonetheless. Out of all of the modern-SBMM COD multiplayers, this one is my favorite. Hot take, but I did enjoy it.
Zombies. Okay, the first two roguelite maps? Garbage. Der Anfaang was fun for like, an hour. Once you play through one of the loops once, you've seen everything. There is nothing else to play for. The second map is exactly the same in a different location. Hands down the worst map in the game. But the Shinonuma remake and The Archon were awesome. The dig site was a great addition in my opinion. The Archon was also a decent round-based map with some added verticality to it. Those two maps overall were great. The issue with this mode is that that was it. Two good round-based maps, two awful maps, and nothing more. The final easter egg in The Archon didn't even have a cutscene, and just like the campaign, everything in Vanguard Zombies felt inconsequential. Barely anything happened, and even on its own, it wasn't very good. Definitely one of the weakest third modes in COD.
Finally, the Warzone. I did not like Caldera. It wasn't an awful map, but the visibility in it was shit. The game was also too reliant on Resurgence to save it at that point, and when that's the only thing in the game, it starts to feel dry. Not only that, but the events in both multiplayer and Warzone were really random. Futuristic weapons and Godzilla vs Kong???? Just like out of nowhere? That movie is already a year old, what were they thinking? Like it was enjoyable but there's little to no hype around it. The final update added Menendez, Rorke, Al Asad, Seraph, and one of the laser guns from Advanced Warfare for reasons? It doesn't tease their return or anything, it's just cameos for the sake of fan service to milk the shit out of the COD brand. And honestly, that was Vanguard's biggest problem. They focused too much on fan service through shit like bringing Captain Butcher from WWII and make references to Nova 6 and all rather than take advantage of their own concept. This is Call of Duty if it was made by Disney. The multiplayer/Warzone storyline was supposed to pick up where Cold War's left off and did absolutely nothing with it. It introduced Nebula 5 and told us the Germans were working on experimental weaponry, and that's about it. Nothing else happened, the storyline never got a conclusion. I guess we'll never know what Butcher knew about the bombs under Verdansk. And while we're on the topic of Warzone, Fortune's Keep was an awesome resurgence map. Better than the knockoff Alcatraz map from Cold War that they promoted as a new map. Cold War's Warzone will forever put a shit taste in my mouth for just reskinning Alcatraz and calling it Rebirth Island when it looks nothing like Rebirth Island, which is a problem because Black Ops 1 is still canon and all this does is confuse people on whether Cold War retconned the real Rebirth Island or not. Fortune's Keep is a brand new map made from scratch and is just as good if not better. Sledgehammer or Raven, whoever worked on it, deserves credit for that.
So yeah, Vanguard isn't very good. Unless it's for multiplayer, I can't really recommend it. You aren't really missing out on this one, but if you ever wanted to check it out, it's there I guess. It's pretty much the Eternals of Call of Duty.
what is with activision now and giving games 5 seasons?
The perfect ending to a multiplayer game. Every aspect from each game was combined and it worked.