We’ve just started playing Call of Duty: Vanguard, but need a little bit more time before we bring you our thoughts. The review embargo has just lifted and so far, impressions of the game are fairly positive. The reviews primarily talk about the campaign, with a few touching on multiplayer.
IGN gave the campaign a 7/10 and said: Call of Duty Vanguard’s highly polished campaign provides a healthy amount of fun, even if its brief length and lack of variety lead it to fall short of the classic pieces of war cinema it’s trying to emulate.
IGN also has a review-in-progress up for the game’s multiplayer, praising the tightened gunplay and Champion Hill mode, estimating that they’ll score the mode a 7/10 as well.
Gameinformer has given it an 8/10 and stated: Call of Duty: Vanguard’s campaign misses the mark, but multiplayer and Zombies do the heavy lifting to get the title to a good place. If you’re most invested in the single-player experience, you can pass on this year’s entry, but if you’re into the other modes, Call of Duty remains an excellent choice for some shooting, looting, and zombie executing.
Gamespot score the game a 7/10, saying: The thing about Call of Duty games is that, with each yearly iteration, you pretty much know what you’re getting–and that’s largely the case here. It’s both a blessing and a curse for Vanguard, however. Elements of Vanguard feel like good additions to the franchise, but its ideas also don’t always mix well with the series’ framework. That framework is still strong, and the solid gunplay, exciting multiplayer, and inventive moments of the campaign are worth seeking out. But forcing those two parts together exposes the seams in Call of Duty: Vanguard at times, weakening both parts of the game rather than pushing either one to the forefront.
Attack of the Fanboy awarded the game an 8/10, stating that it’s a step in the right direction for Sledgehammer Games, but it feels like it’ll take a second entry for the studio to really knock it out of the park.
Eurogamer has reviewed the game and said: Vanguard, I suspect, will do well – Call of Duty does well! Its in-game store will sell silly outfits for its World War 2 operators. Pricey weapon skins will keep the money rolling in. As the Call of Duty menu screen swells, adding a new front to fight on even as we head into what’s sure to be a difficult winter, Vanguard will do its bit for the war effort. But unlike the source material, Vanguard won’t live long in the memory.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is out today on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.
