Every year,Call of Dutyis a surefire bet on the biggest game of the holiday season, and the upcoming eighteenth entryCall of Duty: Vanguardis shaping up to follow suit. Despite releasing a new game every year since 2005, the quality of these titles has remained fairly consistent, with a few notable exceptions. Thankfully,Call of Duty: Vanguardseems to be a return to the series World War Two roots, but with some modern quality-of-life enhancements.
There are a number of design choices and additional content that will hopefully setCall of Duty: Vanguardapart from its competitors and 2017’sCall of Duty: WW2. Previously,Call of Dutyfans have struggled to justify its full price tag when entries likeBlack Ops 4didn’t have a campaign mode, or whenModern Warfare2019 launched with PlayStation exclusive modes.Call of Duty: Vanguardwill be launching with a full package: campaign, zombies, and multiplayer and no PlayStation-exclusive modes.
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Call of Duty: Vanguard — Old Settings Made New
Despite being set in World War Two, a backdrop that many fans might be tired of,Call of Duty: Vanguardwill be taking a different approach to its storytelling. The storyline will focus on the creation of various special forces at the end of the war across all four fronts. Typically, games set during this period of time focus either on the Pacific or the European fronts, butCall of Duty: Vanguard’scampaignwill have both of these, in addition to the oft-forgotten African front. This should give a much more cohesive and diverse viewpoint of World War Two, and just how many lives it impacted.
Call of Duty: Vanguardwill also be breaking a little bit from tradition through its four main protagonists. Each of these four come from one of the allied nation’s forces, and will come together to form Task Force One. Furthermore, all of the playable characters are inspired by real-life war-time heroes such asLt. Polina Petrova being based on Russian sniperLyudmila Pavlichenko, also known as “Lady Death.”
Treyarch is Developing the Zombies Mode
Typically,Call of Dutygames follow a similar release and development schedule with Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games taking turns developing the entire entry with assistance from Raven Software. Treyarch is best known for the fan-favorite Zombies mode created all the way back inCall of Duty: World At War, andevery game developed by Treyarchexpanded on this mode.
Given that Treyarch developed the previous entry,Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, many fans were expecting to wait at least another entry before finishing the Dark Aether storyline. In another break from tradition,Call of Duty: Vanguardwould not only have its own full-fledged Zombies mode, but it would also be developed and supported by Treyarch for the next year. At launch, there will only be one map for the Zombies mode called “Der Anfang” or “The Beginning.”
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Call of Duty Vanguard’s Multiplayer
AsCall of Duty: Vanguardwas developed using the2019Modern Warfareengine, many of those gameplay elements will be returning and expanded across all three modes. This includes mounting weapons on the terrain, as well as blind-firing from cover, and more interactive terrain. The latter addition, in particular, should make staying in one spot much more difficult than it was inCall of Duty: Modern Warfare.
However, the pacing of multiplayer still depends largely on the maps, andVanguardwill have twenty at launch, the most in anyCall of Dutygame. Sixteen of these will be the traditional 6v6 mode, and four will be for the brand-new Champion Hill, round-robin deathmatch in which one-to-three teams must be the last team standing to win.
Another entirely new feature toCall of Duty: Vanguard’smultiplayeris the combat pacing option within its matchmaking. With this, players can choose between three pre-defined ways to play the game’s multiplayer maps; tactical, assault, and blitz. Tactical is the traditional six players per team, with each increase in speed doubling the number of players up to 24v24. This allows for even more options to playCall of Dutyhowever the player wants, and if variety is what they seek, then the pacing can be toggled to “all” for a wider experience.
Call of Duty: Vanguard’s Warzone Integration
At launch,Call of Duty: Vanguardwill be fully integrated intoWarzone’spre-existing map, Verdansk, just asBlack Ops: Cold Warwas. This means that the meta will be shaken up quite a lot with the introduction of new World War Two-era weapons, some of which are usable in-game right now. This means that there will be three-games-worth ofweapons within theWarzoneclient, and near-limitless possibilities when creating a loadout. Furthermore, all unlocked operators, skins, and cosmetics will be fully usable inWarzoneand its major Season 1 update.
However, the most excitingintegration forVanguardandWarzone, the mode’s first new map, won’t come until a month after launch on December 2.Warzonewill be rebranded toWarzone Pacific, and Verdansk will be replaced with Caldera. The two are roughly the same size, but that is where similarities end. Caldera is much lusher by comparison, with fewer buildings and all modern vehicles replaced with their World War Two equivalents.
There will also be a new mode called Vanguard Royale, which essentially is the new map with weapons only fromCall of Duty: Vanguard. This will allow for a much more clear meta and make balancing problematic/underperforming weapons a lot easier.
The final major change is something that will make PC players especially happy: As withCall of Duty: Vanguard,Warzonewill be receiving a full-fledgedanti-cheat system called Richochet. This should make finding fair lobbies on the platform much easier, and it’s certainly a welcome addition for PC players and cross platform.
Call of Duty: Vanguardas a whole is shaping up to be one of the biggest and most complete packages that the series has seen in a very long time. Everything from the campaign, to Zombies, to multiplayer andWarzonewill be getting touched up and revamped.
Call of Duty: Vanguardreleases on July 08, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
