The upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Vanguard has just completed its first beta weekend exclusively for PlayStation. The community encountered numerous issues here. One of the biggest: enemies are completely distorted when you shoot at them.
What is the problem? On September 13th, the pre-order beta for CoD Vanguard on PlayStation ended. The community already faced completely absurd spawns and found a particularly significant issue related to a new optical feature.
Through the feature in CoD Vanguard, enemies become distorted when you fire a weapon. This is apparently meant to be a “realistic” visual effect. As soon as you shoot, the field of view around the muzzle of your weapon warps.
Where does it come from? In a video, CoD expert TheXclusiveAce explains that it is an optical effect (via YouTube.com). The feature is called “Distortion,” which translates to distortion or deformation.
The effect apparently simulates how the muzzle flash of a weapon distorts a soldier’s field of view. However, for some weapons, this effect is so extreme that enemies are visually completely deformed and look like wobbly wind-sock comrades or as if they are the chosen one of the Matrix:
Distortion makes aiming nearly impossible – players annoyed
What are the consequences? Ace explains that due to the distortion, it becomes difficult to almost impossible to aim at enemies. Since the field of view around the target is completely distorted, one can hardly make out where it moves or how the weapon is pulling.
It therefore becomes harder to compensate – especially with automatic weapons like the MP, which Ace uses in the video. You would have to “guess” where the enemies are located.
Even among players, the feature is not received particularly well. On reddit, the distortion effect is one of the biggest topics of the Vanguard subreddit.
What are the players saying: In the reddit thread on the topic, it says: “There is literally no reason for this. This is not something that should be in the game.” The community acknowledges that a lot of work must have gone into the feature, but it has no place in PvP.
Fans criticize that such effects always come at the expense of gameplay. In this case, realism is not even achieved: “The world does not warp when you fire a weapon. Especially not with a small-caliber pistol.”
The developers had already requested before the beta that Vanguard be tested for issues. However, it remains open whether the feature can be easily disabled. But there is still some time until the release on November 5, 2021, and you have more beta tests for feedback and changes:
CoD Vanguard: Open beta for all runs this weekend – Release, download, dates
