The upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard is currently playable in the beta, and MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn finally got a chance to check it out. But how did it go for him and why does he think the supposedly stupidest innovation is actually good? Find out here on MeinMMO.
Who played? Jürgen Horn has been a big fan of shooters since the days of the first Wolfenstein, even though he was never really good at them. He just enjoys a good shootout. Therefore, he took advantage of the moment and played the beta of CoD Vanguard with colleagues Benedict Grothaus and Maik Schneider.
Why is he playing only now? Since I play on PC and don’t own any consoles, I could only join the beta for PC and Xbox on Thursday, September 16, at the start of the multiplayer.
Wild shooting with lots of action in the mountain hut
How did the first rounds go? In my first round, I was still solo and gathered initial experiences. The entry is pleasantly easy, you just click “play” and a round starts. There I initially get beaten up pretty good, as enemies constantly rush at me from various angles and take me down.
But I also occasionally catch someone, and since I’m supposed to prevent a bomb from being planted in the round, we actually win despite my rather suboptimal performance. An Austrian teammate still berates me throughout the game via voice chat: “Why are you going to the roof, are you stupid?” The rest of the lobby meanwhile insults me in Russian. So “Typical CoD,” as colleague Maik later tells me.
That’s why Combat Pacing rocks: But then Maik and Benedict are already there, and I finally get some support. Then the best feature in CoD Vanguard, in my opinion, reveals itself to me: Combat Pacing.
It basically means that many more players roam the maps than originally planned.
This is especially noticeable on small maps, like in the surprisingly detailed replica of “Eagle’s Nest” (located at Obersalzberg) mapped. This is a small map that is actually only intended for 6vs6 players. However, with the Combat Pacing “Blitz”, it allows for up to 24 trigger-happy players to shoot each other in the tight corridors of the mountain hut.
Since I’m not a big tactician anyway and prefer fast action, this mode suits me just fine. This is even more apparent because in my solo game with the unfriendly teammates, a 6v6 match took place on a rather large map, and there we sometimes wandered around forever without enemy contact.
However, here at Obersalzberg, the cabin shakes when far too many players meet in a tight space, and it’s always a blast when half a dozen enemies squeeze through the side corridor of the hut, and I greet them with the MG42 at the ready. Yes, bring on the bullets; I have plenty more!
This way, even an enthusiastic noob like me gets a few kills. Colleague Maik, who is a much better player, also views Combat Pacing very positively.
Motivation, euphoria, and moments of frustration
The gunsmith is the ideal motivation spiral: After the carnage in Hitler’s mountain hut, I finally have the required level to use the gunsmith. There, my kills have unlocked various weapons, including the highly effective MG42.
Even at early levels, there’s quite a bit to set up, and the hunt for new weapon attachments is incredibly motivating. A few more levels, and I get a better magazine that suits my play style. So I’ll jump into another round; maybe it will work.
What were the highlights? It was similarly intense later in the map Hotel Royal. In this map, a luxury hotel in Paris turns into a devastated wreck when 20 players take each other out.
Where initially a well-stocked bar and doors made of fine wood stand out, by the end, the map actually resembles a battlefield where countless people are engaged in a fierce firefight.
By the way, my favorite mode is Kill Confirmed because you can snatch and capture kills in such a nasty way and not just pure shooting counts.
What is less fun? As fun as CoD Vanguard is in Blitz mode, it seems boring in Standard mode. There, too little happens, and I’m constantly afraid that someone will stab me in the back.
I almost never get that feeling in Blitz, as there’s always shooting happening somewhere, and you’re constantly in action.
Additionally, I find it very confusing that the same operator models are used repeatedly and the enemy team contains the exact same faces as my team. So the sniper Polina Petrova and the other characters from the campaign are fighting against each other in multiple copies, which does not improve the atmosphere in any way and also makes it difficult to distinguish friend from foe.
Hit potential – The ideal game for the end of the day
On the evening when I first played Vanguard, I was actually dead tired and just wanted to sleep. But after one round of Vanguard, the tiredness quickly disappeared thanks to the hot action and was replaced by an adrenaline rush.
Vanguard is simply a solid shooter that you can play a few rounds after work and perfectly unwind from a stressful workday.
At least, if you play it in the crazy Blitz mode; everything else has become too boring and sluggish for me. I can hardly wait until the release version of Vanguard is finally here so I can experience everything in full glory and with all features.
Until then, I at least have the beta, which I will still play extensively. Hopefully, it will be Fire Evening soon!
Jürgen Horn
Editor at MeinMMO
Not everyone has found CoD Vanguard good so far. While I am clearly on the fan side, some players find the new CoD “a disgrace.”
