Zombies mode places you on a hub map where you can spend in-game currency, which is earned during missions, to upgrade weapons and skills and acquire stat boosts. If that's true, then Zombies in Vanguard has been stripped down to the bare minimum. While I'm acting as the harbinger of harsh truth, the only part I was more disappointed with than the campaign is the famed Zombies mode, which I haven't played in any other CoD title, but I understand it's usually a good amount of story-driven co-op fun. It's a nice WWII shooting gallery, but it's a far cry from the quality we usually see on display in CoD. Even after finishing the story, you could show me a picture of all of the protagonists, and I'd be surprised to remember half of their names. Many of the cut scenes seem keen to imitate a theme closer to " Inglourious Basterds" than an approach grounded in reality, but it never gets interesting enough. It's difficult enough to build up one character in a five-hour campaign, but it's almost impossible to do the same for five characters, and the entire campaign suffers from that. The campaign has extraordinarily high production values, and it looks and plays great, but it's neither new nor enticing.
As a result, the campaign feels like the equivalent of a Michael Bay movie that's been pushed through an on-rails experience that uses the diverse cast of characters as a plot device to create what I'd cynically call a "Best WWII Moments" mixtape. Throughout their interrogation, flashback missions put us in the shoes of every member of the team throughout iconic moments during WWII, including the attack on Stalingrad and the Battle of Midway. Let's start with the single-player campaign, which is a five-hour-long story that follows a special unit of six soldiers from different countries who are sent on a secret mission behind Nazi lines to discover information about "Project Phoenix." After an impressive train infiltration mission, the soldiers are captured by the Nazis and wind up in captivity. Conversely, Vanguard nails the usual Call of Duty multiplayer formula perfectly, delivering fun and fast multiplayer matches with excellent gunplay at the expense of a short and lackluster campaign.
I very much enjoyed the WWII's campaign as a somewhat realistic and immersive take on a war story, but the multiplayer didn't hook me as much. Coincidentally, the last Call of Duty game I did play was CoD: WWII. Beyond the setting and some minor adjustments, most of what's expected from a Call of Duty game is present. Even with that gap, I didn't encounter any issues jumping back in. Between familiar multiplayer matches, a short and disjointed campaign, and a bare-bones Zombies mode, there isn't much that stands out.įor some context, Vanguard is the first Call of Duty game that I have spent more than a short session with in the past four years. Vanguard is a lot of fun because it reuses the tried-and-true Call of Duty blueprint, but it struggles to contribute anything meaningful of its own. We've spent the last week testing all three modes on the PC. Call of Duty: Vanguard takes us back to World War II for its short single-player campaign, a new version of Zombies, and the usual updates to its multiplayer component. Cheeseburger the bear and Peaches the cougar have slightly longer, more challenging quest lines, but as long as you’re competent in combat, it’ll be no time before they’re by your side in battle.Another year, another Call of Duty.
There are three Fangs for Hire available in Far Cry 5, and you’re free to go and recruit them as soon as you’ve liberated Dutch’s Region and have access to the full open world.īoomer the dog is the easiest to unlock, as you’ll only need to kill a few cultists at Rae-Rae’s Pumpkin Farm in John’s Region before he’s all yours to have fun with.
I recommend finding and bringing them onboard as soon as you can, since it’s great fun to see your giant pet bear reduce cultists to whimpering wrecks. Similar to the Specialists, Fangs for Hires are animal companions you can enlist to accompany and fight with you around Hope County.