Jake Jones

Vanguard is a fun game. I played the 2 day f2p trial. In that, i played Multiplayer and Zombies (via the Activities board on my PS5). I cant say for the campaign as it didn't let me even touch it, which is fair. My time with vanguard was a good one, the multiplayer is a solid experience, it feels like a mix of Cold War and Mw2019. I personally only play Treyarch CoD's, the only reason i want Vanguard is for the Zombies, so I've never actually played Mw2019 but i have played Warzone. Multiplayer was fun and the pacing features which define how calm/slow paced or chaotic/fast paced your match are a nice feature. The maps are the CoD tried and true 3 lane linear design, which i hope one day they expand apon, since it does get a little old. Zombies however, is a different beast. Zombies is a mode that i believe should have had more time in the oven to bake. It has less content at launch than Cold War, and it's developed by the same people. Now, i completely understand the time constraints and deadlines were too tight to deliver a finished product, not to mention how during Cold War's life-cycle they also had to develop 2 games at once. Im a forgiving person, i know it couldn't be helped and I don't blame the developers, its hard to keep a yearly cycle of games. OK so the review, Vanguard Zombies is very barebones and simple. Der Anfang is basically Outbreak from CW but on a much smaller and limited scale, with a few minor elements of Onslaught. There are NO round-based maps at launch, however content like it will be coming in future I've heard. Zombies has 3 objectives, Blitz, Harvest, Transmit. Two of these objectives are just things from Cold War (Blitz = Holdout, Transmit = Aether orb in Onslaught) which instantly drops interest. Harvest is just essentially picking up what zombies drop and putting them into a "Sin eater", just a fetch quest if anything. Zombies uses the Outbreak points system, which instantly means getting points is much harder and you rely on completing objectives a lot more just to do bare minimum things like get perks or Pack-a-Punch. Field upgrades also return, now called "Artifacts". These things, i admit, are pretty cool takes on the field upgrades. They are kind of like a tsudo-replacement for a set cast, because there are 4 of them and each house a Dark Aether Demon that speak to you constantly through the match. That might sound annoying but it really isn't, because most of the time its either drowned out by loud bullets or you're not focused on it and don't listen. Der Anfang also doesn't have any Easter Egg quests or even wonder weapons, but through leaked game files and statements from the studios we know they're working on it. Vanguard Zombies isnt all doom and gloom though, playing in public or with friends is a genuinely fun experience and the chaotic thrill of completing objectives in tight spaces truly makes this experience as fun as it is. It feels like a return to the WaW zombies days, with how simple things are. Would i say buy the game JUST for this? No, absolutely not. But i do know that Vanguard Zombies has great potential and we shouldn't be throwing it out the door just yet. Hold back for the moment and wait until more comes out, then I'd make say for you to make your decision. Its fun, just not enough continuous fun to be worth £70. Thank you for reading, im a Zombies guy not really multiplayer sorry.