It feels like a stop-gap year for Call of Duty. 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. There’s nothing wrong or bad or off-putting in this return to World War 2, but Vanguard does nothing exceptionally.
Call of Duty: Vanguard reviewDeveloper: Sledgehammer, Treyarch, morePublisher: ActivisionPlatform: Played on PS5Availability: Out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
That return to World War 2 feels like a boring choice of setting. 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). 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.
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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. The campaign begins near the end of World War 2, with the Nazis defeated and in disarray. 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 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. The leader of the unit is a British war hero called Sergeant Arthur Kingsley. He’s on a “crusade”, another character says.