Everything we know about Call of Duty: Vanguard

Call of Duty: Vanguard is only days away from release, so it’s time to get hyped for another long-awaited sequel to a classic FPOV shooter. Developed by Sledgehammer Games, Vanguard pulls us back to World War II-era 1940s. Players will face combat on various fronts across the world: advancing through Eastern Europe, fighting sieges in Russia, blitzing enemy forces in North Africa, and scouring the Pacific islands. According to Activision, expect “breath-taking visual fidelity, a photorealistic world, lifelike characters and optimized performance.” You can see it all in the Call of Duty: Vanguard trailer.

Call of Duty: Vanguard Campaign

Dropping the modern era and the black ops Cold War storyline of previous episodes, Call of Duty: Vanguard returns to World War II. The Campaign mode follows four characters across four different countries, but each with a similar goal: to discover details behind the mysterious Project Phoenix. This gives the player the feeling of an expansive theater of war, where they fight on multiple fronts. 

The first preview focused on Sgt. Arthur Kingsley, who was part of an infiltration mission on Normandy right before D-Day, a mission that goes bad from the start. Another character we follow is Russian sniper Polina Petrova, who is based on the real-life war hero Lyudmila Pavlichenko. She goes on a stealth mission and blasts through advancing forces in her home city of Stalingrad. 

 Here’s a first look at the gameplay for CoD Vanguard with a demo of the battle of Stalingrad:

Call of Duty: Vanguard Gameplay

Call of Duty: Vanguard gameplay is essentially the same as previous CoD games. There will be 12 playable characters, known as Operators, and 36 weapons available at launch. Weapons will be accurate to their time period, with lots of customization options.  There are also some new features. 

You can fire blindly. You have the option of reaching your gun from around cover and shooting blindly at a target. This provides you good protection, but it will mean wasting a lot of ammo. 

Call of Duty: Vanguard will have “reactive gameplay environments.” Many objects are fully destructible, meaning that the grenade you’re holding may help create a new pathway for your troops.

Call of Duty: Vanguard will have Combat Pacing. This lets you choose what sort of combat you’ll face in multiplayer. There are three types:

• Blitz - fast-paced matches between 28-48 players, all within the 6v6 maps. With targets this many, expect wall-to-wall combat. 
• Tactical - the regular 6v6 type of combat in CoD.
• Assault - Increases the number of players above 6v6, but not as many as in Blitz. 

Another mode is called Champion Hill, a successor to the Gunfight mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Here you have multiple teams of two or three competing against each other in a series of one-minute rounds, with the last team standing being the winner. 

Regarding multiplayer, there will be seven game modes at launch:

• Free for All
• Team Deathmatch
• Kill Confirmed
• Domination
• Search & Destroy
• Hardpoint
• Patrol

Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific

Activision announced that Call of Duty: Vanguard will also bring an update to CoD’s free battle-royale mode, Call of Duty: Warzone. Dubbed the Pacific update, this add-on will launch on Dec. 2 alongside Season 1 of Vanguard. Since both Vanguard and Warzone Pacific will be on the same engine, Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific moves the action out of Verdansk and into the Pacific. Included is a Caldera map, featuring an enormous island with a dormant volcano, rocky cliffs, dense jungles, gorgeous beaches, and ruins of a lost civilization. Activision guarantees there will be at least 200 points of interest to explore on this map. 

Apart from the usual battle royale, Warzone Pacific will introduce Vanguard Royale, an aerial combat mode where you engage in dogfights using WWII-era planes and take down aircraft with anti-air guns. 

According to Sledgehammer Games: 

“Post launch, Vanguard together with Warzone will offer a massive calendar of free post-launch content featuring new maps, modes, playlists, limited time events and season events, as well as community celebrations and more.”

Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies Mode

The developers have described Call of Duy: Vanguard as “inspired by but not beholden to” real-life events, and that becomes fairly obvious with the Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombie campaign. This zombie experience developed by Treyarch, makers of the original zombie mode for Call of Duty: World at War, is sure to thrill fans who prefer their CoD with a dash of horror. 

During the preview, Treyarch introduced an objectives-driven zombie mode with the map “Der Anfang,” which will function as a prequel to the Dark Aether storyline. Operators must go to Stalingrad and thwart Wolfram Von List, who is calling upon the power of Kortifex the Deathless to raise the undead. To prevail, you must find and use the four Artifacts of Kortifex’s evil rivals, namely, Saraxis the Shadow, Bellekar the Warlock, Inviktor the Destroyer, and Norticus the Conqueror. Check out the trailer below.

Sadly, Treyarch stated that there won’t be a Main Quest attached to the Zombies mode at launch. There is no time window as to when the Quest will happen, only that it’s scheduled for after Season 1. According to Treyarch: “Players will also encounter some other surprise elements later in Season One that will set the stage for our upcoming Main Quest.”

What are the Call of Duty: Vanguard required specs?

Here are the minimum and recommended specs for Call of Duty: Vanguard 

Minimum:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit 
• Processor: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470
• Video Memory: 2 GB
• Storage: 36 GB 
• Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB

Recommended:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Windows 11 64-bit 
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
• Memory: 12 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580
• Video Memory: 4 GB
• Storage: 61 GB 
• Hi-Rez Assets Cache: Up to 32 GB

When is the Call of Duty: Vanguard Release Date?

Call of Duty: Vanguard release date is on November 5, 2021. It will be available on several platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. 

Standard version (PS4, PC, Xbox One):

• Main game
• Mastercraft Blueprint in Black Ops: Cold War and Warzone
• Operator Arthur Kingsley available in Black Ops: Cold War and Warzone
• Frontline Weapons Pack

Cross Gen version (PS4, PC, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series S/X):

• Includes everything in the Standard version
• 5 Hours of Double Weapon XP

Ultimate Edition:

• Everything in the Standard and Cross Gen Editions
• 5 Hours Double XP
• Task Force One Pack
• Vanguard Battle Pass Bundle

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