EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Call of Duty: Vanguard
First of all the call of duty franchise has been wrestled into the ground since it's first release in 2004, there's been 19 games in the series since.
Because Modern Warfare did so well, every Call of Duty since has been mashed together in one menu instead of a traditional game bootup for quick and easy game changing. Wow.
What the campaign tries to do is make as many points as possible, have an African American character, have a female character, mention Hitler as less as possible, and show the "secrets" (Project Phoenix) of the war.
I think anyone would like to develop a COD game, it's a fantastic, historical franchise that's been a big part of gaming. We've seen what Sledgehammer has been able to do (2017) and they answered the call again for COD.
Vanguard has nine missions across four fronts of WW2 (pacific front, western front, eastern and North Africa) with a focus on individual characters. It's another one of those attempts to show good guys getting captured, inside Nazi headquarters, and building a fight against the final fight for the people.
If you want a healthy, challenging straight forward shooter this is the game, it's not about creative weapons, open world, finding quests.
The characters (Arthur Kingsley, Polina Petrova, Wade Jackson and Lucas Riggs) are all developed characters but lean heavily on being the female gender, or the rebellious Australian, or the African American British man I don't know if this was intentional but its typical woke narrative but bottom line is it's a FPS campaign that leans heavily on gunplay, quality cutscenes, and 6-7 hours of gameplay.
A lot of characters for one campaign.
The multiplayer is about doing just enough to pass the test, being a necessary component of Call of Duty for years it kinda feels like Vanguard's multiplayer was left off the hook, and uninspired. Nothing is shook up, we're talking about leveling up weapons, ranks, getting attachments, completing challenges (get 10 headshots) and playing on map designs that has you locking up flanks, storming alleyways or camping in a room that matters.
Call of Duty Vanguard comes with 16 maps at launch, maps like Sub Pens (reminiscent of the three-lane competitive maps of Call of Duty), Castle (one of the best maps from Call of Duty World at War), and Eagle's Nest (designed for classic 6 v 6, cqc but also other playstyles like sniper, or finding hiding spots)
Eagles Nest
Zombies are back, a staple of the Call of Duty franchise, it forces you in tight positions battling undead soldiers and honestly could be it's own game.
Do I think this is the best Call of Duty game? Honestly it averages 13.6K viewers on Twitch and in the end Call of Duty is a 20 million sales game, massive military shooter that has been torched by fans in the past for using jet packs, things like changing to future warfare, perks not showing up in new games, but what COD does well is present quality mechanics that has you going back to an era of gruesome warfare. I give the game a 8/10, the same score as Black Ops Cold War.